Despite being the final Win and You’re In test for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, Saturday’s Santa Anita Sprint Championship has a surprisingly short field led by division leader Lord Nelson, with the speedy Grade 1 winner Masochistic among the most notable defections from the race.
Trainer Ron Ellis opted to bypass the Sprint Championship and train Masochistic up to the Breeders’ Cup, where he’ll make his first start in 11 weeks since cruising to victory in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien at Del Mar.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Remember when the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Distaff was shaping up as essentially a two-horse race between the undefeated Songbird and three-time champion Beholder?
Scratch that.
Stellar Wind’s highly rated win in the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes last Saturday was her second over Beholder and triggered a revision in the Daily Racing Form preliminary Distaff odds. Songbird remains 5-2; Beholder and Stellar Wind are co-second choices at 7-2.
It’s not uncommon for the top New York jockeys to ride all or most of the Keeneland spring meet in April since many are in transition from a winter at Gulfstream Park prior to the start of Belmont Park. But with Belmont open in October, most of them tend to stick closer to home while Keeneland runs its fall meet, save for occasional stakes engagements.
ELMONT, N.Y. – A well-bred horse with five graded stakes wins and more than $3 million in the bank would figure to be headed to the breeding shed at the conclusion of his 5-year-old season. But if Russell Cohen stays true to his word, his family-owned Effinex will return to the races in 2017 as a 6-year-old.
“He’s sound as a dollar bill, the purses are huge, and he’s really talented,” Cohen said Wednesday at Belmont. “From an owner-breeder point of view, you certainly couldn’t pay to have any more run than we’re having. Why should I retire him?”
Oscar Performance ran a field of maidens off their feet on firm Saratoga turf Aug. 20, and in his first start since then, he did the same thing Saturday to seven rivals racing over yielding ground in the Grade 3 Pilgrim Stakes at Belmont.
That performance makes him one of the leading contenders for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, but it’s important to realize that three of the top East Coast-based 2-year-old grass horses – Good Samaritan, Made You Look, and Ticonderoga – weren’t even in the Pilgrim.
Chad Brown has spent the better part of the last year shedding his reputation as simply a turf trainer.
Last October, he won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with Wavell Avenue. This year, he won the Grade 2 Gotham and Grade 2 Gazelle, had two runners in the Kentucky Derby, and one in the Oaks. In the summer, he won the Grade 1 Hopeful and two weeks ago the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby.
The opening of the Gulfstream Park West meet, scheduled for Wednesday, was pushed back to Saturday with Hurricane Matthew forecast to hit the area Thursday and into Friday. The 40-day session is scheduled to run through Nov. 27.
Training has been canceled at Gulfstream Park West in Miami and Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla. No mandatory evacuation of horses has been ordered at either track, although trainers stabled in the lower-lying areas of Gulfstream Park – which is more prone to flooding – were given the option of moving their horses to Palm Meadows.
California Chrome’s superior performances in dirt routes from Dubai to Santa Anita this year could lead the connections of some of the division’s other top horses to seek the shelter of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile rather than hook a prohibitive favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
However, the decision to do so might not be that simple.
Two contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf emerged last weekend, thousands of miles away and an ocean apart.
First, Avenge punched her ticket by taking last Saturday’s Grade 1 Rodeo Drive, run under the same conditions as the Filly and Mare Turf: 1 1/4 miles on Santa Anita’s lightning-quick turf course. Then, a day later in France, the connections of So Mi Dar expressed interest in running her in the Breeders’ Cup after a close third in the Prix de l’Opera after a somewhat troubled run in which she was boxed in during the early portion of a slow-paced race.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – It’ll be impossible to top what happened when the Breeders’ Cup was held here last fall for the first time, but there sure won’t be any shortage of excitement when Keeneland opens a 17-day fall meet Friday amid perfect weather.
The three-day FallStars Weekend will serve as a springboard for the 33rd Breeders’ Cup with the usual barrage of major stakes, including seven Win and You’re In events toward the Nov. 4-5 championships at Santa Anita.
