ARCADIA, Calif. – The stakes for California’s 3-year-old turf division are no longer intramural affairs.

So far this year, the leading races have included mostly locally based runners, but there is a distinctly national feel to Saturday’s Grade 2 Twilight Derby at Santa Anita. The $200,000 Twilight Derby is run at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

The expected participation of Channel Maker (trained by Bill Mott), Cowboy Culture (Brad Cox), Just Howard (Graham Motion), and Profiteer (Shug McGaughey) gives the race greater depth than the earlier races for 3-year-old turf runners.

Texas Chrome, who in July became just the second Texas-bred millionaire – joining 1987 champion sprinter Groovy – has been retired at age 4, owner Danny Keene said Wednesday. The horse had been working sharply at his Remington Park base for the Fayette Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland.

Keene said precautionary X-rays revealed a “little” hairline fracture in a knee, leading to the decision to retire the horse to stud. Keene is determining whether Texas Chrome will stand privately or commercially and whether he will stand in Arkansas or Texas.

DEL MAR
Weather: Clear
Temp.: 62
Track: Fast

DEL MAR, Calif. – After spending training hours Wednesday morning at Del Mar, I find it hard to imagine that in less than one week more than 150 of the world’s best horses will have converged on this track to compete in the Breeders’ Cup.

DEL MAR, Calif. – As expected, the field for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint will be a small but select one once again in 2017, a group that includes defending champion Drefong.

Only 11 horses were pre-entered for the six-furlong Sprint, seven of them Breeders’ Cup Challenge race winners. Two of the 11, Practical Joke and B Squared, have given first preference to the Dirt Mile and Turf Sprint, respectively, and are not expected to start in the Sprint.

Will he or won’t he?

The key question regarding pre-entries for the Breeders’ Cup Mile is whether Ribchester ships from England to run.

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2017: Pre-entries, odds, comments, and more

Ribchester is the 5-2 morning-line Mile favorite on Daily Racing Form national handicapper Mike Watchmaker’s early line, but Ribchester’s status for the race remained up in the air as of Wednesday.

As dominant as Bolt d’Oro has been in his first three starts, he won’t lack for challengers in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 4 at Del Mar.

Twelve horses – including three maidens – were pre-entered against Bolt d’Oro for the Juvenile, including two from the powerful barn of Ireland-based trainer Aidan O’Brien, though one of his is likely to run in the Juvenile Turf instead.

Accelerate, Mor Spirit, and Sharp Azteca were among 16 horses pre-entered Monday in the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile – with seven of those runners also pre-entered in either the Classic, Mile on turf, or Sprint.

The Dirt Mile will be limited to a field of 14 starters when it is run Nov. 3 at Del Mar. The two-turn race also can carry two also-eligibles. Final entries are Monday.

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2017: Pre-entries, odds, comments, and more

The leading 3-year-old grass runner in the United States may be the horse to catch in the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 4 at Del Mar.

Oscar Performance, who won consecutive Grade 1 races for 3-year-olds in the Belmont Derby in July and the Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park in August, may set the pace in the BC Turf, the nation’s richest grass race.

Trained by Brian Lynch for John and Jerry Amerman, Oscar Performance has won from the front and as a stalker. Lynch said Wednesday that jockey Jose Ortiz is likely to use those tactics in the BC Turf at 1 1/2 miles.

Best Performance caught trainer Christophe Clement’s eye in the first months of the year, well before the Fasig-Tipton March sale of 2-year-olds in training.

The filly was being prepared for the sale at Payson Park in Florida, where Clement’s stable spends the winter. At the sale, West Point Thoroughbreds bought Best Performance for $300,000 and sent her to Clement.

Seven months later, Clement is preparing Best Performance for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar for owners West Point Thoroughbreds, Tango Uniform Racing, and Robert Masiello.

ARCADIA, Calif. – There were no major surprises when pre-entries for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint were released Wednesday. Unique Bella, the once-beaten filly whose sharp return in the L.A. Woman earlier this month cemented her status as a solid favorite, heads a full field of 14 pre-entered for the seven-furlong race Nov. 4 at Del Mar.