DEL MAR, Calif. – It took trainer Bill Mott 13 tries to win a Breeders’ Cup Mile. Saturday, he has a chance for two in a row.

A year after Tourist upset the BC Mile at Santa Anita, Ballagh Rocks will try to do the same thing at Del Mar. He won’t be one of the favorites, but then neither was Tourist, who got home at 12-1. Ballagh Rocks will probably be longer than that, but he’s run competitive races when stepped up to Grade 1 grass competition, and as a 4-year-old should still have a bit of upside to him.

“He’s run good every time,” Mott said. “He just shows up.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – As much as possible, the 2-year-old filly Retro is in normal training at Del Mar this week.

Monday, Retro galloped on the main track, and was schooled in the starting gate and the paddock. The routine is designed to have her ready for Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf – if she can gain a spot in the gate.

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2017: Entries, odds, comments, and more

Del Mar
Weather: Cloudy
Temp.: 62
Main Track: Fast
Turf: Firm

DEL MAR, Calif. – You pretty much know exactly what you’re going to get from a Steve Asmussen trainee working five days before a big race. But few, if any, horses can make a 49.62 half-mile maintenance breeze look any more impressive than Gun Runner did shortly after dawn Monday morning at Del Mar.

DEL MAR, California – Two trainers, barring the unfortunate before Friday and Saturday, will have 13 runners in Breeders’ Cup races, the most of any horsemen this year. One of them, Chad Brown, is based in New York. The other goes about his business in Ireland.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Happy Alter is back on the big stage, although it can be argued he never left. Alter is a roving sideshow of flamboyance and laughter, an oversized personality who walks into a room in midsentence and never lets his audience catch a deep breath.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Some fathers and sons bond over playing catch in the backyard. For Ron Winchell, his earliest and fondest memories of his late father are of going to the track.

“Some of my earliest memories are coming to Santa Anita,” said Winchell, who grew up just west of the track in San Marino. “It’s something my dad and I did together.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Mikhail Yanakov listed the Juvenile Turf as his first preference over the Juvenile for Golden Dragon when he pre-entered him for both races on Oct. 23. On Monday, Golden Dragon seemed to show a preference for the dirt as he blazed five furlongs in 58.91 seconds over Del Mar’s main track in preparation for his dirt debut in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

DEL MAR, California – David O’Meara, who was born in Ireland, started riding jump races as an amateur jockey. He took up training 13 years ago in England, and there his star has risen quickly.

But it’s in America where O’Meara has found his most concentrated top-class success.

After eight starts on this side of the Atlantic, O’Meara has three wins, a second, two fourths, and a fifth, all in Grade 1 races. The recently retired Mondialiste is responsible for seven of O’Meara’s starts here, but with Mondialiste now out of the picture, Suedois has stepped into it.

Mark Casse is willing to concede a slight advantage to the California-based contingent that will oppose his trio of 2-year-old fillies Saturday in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

“They don’t have to ship as far, and they’ve also gotten experience around two turns,” he said.

Nonetheless, Casse likes his position with Heavenly Love, Gio Game, and Wonder Gadot, all big winners at 1 1/16 miles in their last races.

“All of ours have been around two turns also, which can’t be said for the New York fillies,” said Casse.

DEL MAR, Calif. – It’ll be four (for trainer Bob Baffert) against one (for Steve Asmussen) in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Del Mar, with Baffert sending out Arrogate, Collected, Mubtaahij, and West Coast against Asmussen-trained Gun Runner.

“He’s the only thing between me and a big, fat check,” Baffert said of Gun Runner.

Baffert’s quartet marks the first time any trainer has had more than three runners in the Classic.