No Breeders’ Cup race has produced more multiple winners than the Mile, and Tepin, despite having lost her most recent start, figures to be favored to become the sixth horse to win more than one edition of the Mile.
Tepin, who won the 2015 Mile at Keeneland by more than two lengths, was among 23 horses pre-entered in the Mile, which will have 14 runners at most, leaving nine horses on the outside looking in toward the main body of the field.
Golden Mischief has learned a new trick over the past several months and used it to win the $100,000 My Trusty Cat last Friday night at Delta Downs in Vinton, La. Now, she has earned a chance at the meet’s biggest prize for 2-year-old fillies. Trainer Steve Asmussen said Golden Mischief is being pointed to the Grade 3, $400,000 Delta Downs Princess.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Traditionally, the winning formula for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint has required not only a very fast horse but a lot of racing luck to successfully negotiate a short distance, six furlongs, through a large field. But that formula will change slightly this year since traffic may not be as big an issue, with only nine horses pre-entered for the Sprint on Monday.
After a one-year hiatus, trainer Todd Pletcher is back in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, albeit in a slightly different position.
The last four times Pletcher has participated in the Juvenile, he has sent out the favorite. Uncle Mo (2010) and Shanghai Bobby (2012) delivered victories, while Carpe Diem (2014) and Havana (2013) finished second.
Miss Southern Miss changed the way owner and breeder Pete Cantrell approaches horse racing.
In recent years, Cantrell sold the fillies produced by his broodmare Miss Atlantic City at auction. When trainer Keith Desormeaux saw Miss Southern Miss as a weanling at a Kentucky farm in 2014, he advised a different approach.
“He convinced me not to sell her,” Cantrell recalled on Tuesday. “He said, ‘This is the one we want to run.’ He’s been high on her since he saw her in the pasture.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – When Ectot won the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic on yielding turf at Belmont Park on Oct. 1, the condition of the rain-soaked course was widely credited as a leading factor in his five-length win.
There was more to the victory than favorable conditions, insists Harry Herbert, racing adviser for co-owner Al Shaqab Racing. A 5-year-old trained by Todd Pletcher, Ectot has shown signs of physical development in recent months, Herbert said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Probably the most important prerace variable toward the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint concerns the status of Curalina, who most likely would be favored in the Nov. 5 race if her connections take a pass on the Nov. 4 BC Distaff.
About the only thing missing from the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at this stage is a partridge in the pear tree.
Grade 1-winning fillies Celestine and Catch a Glimpse, both of whom would be cutting back in distance, were recent intriguing additions to an overflow cast of pre-entries for the Turf Sprint, a mixed bag that also includes defending winner Mongolian Saturday, stalwart Lady Shipman, several California-based downhill turf specialists, and a handful of European invaders.
A group of 11 Grade 1 or Group 1 winners, led by Flower Bowl winner Lady Eli and Irish raider Seventh Heaven, were among 16 pre-entries announced Wednesday for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.
