LEXINGTON, Ky. – The rain was gone, but the remnants of nearly three days of precipitation remained at Keeneland on Thursday, with the main track sloppy and sealed when the course opened at 6:15 a.m. and only slightly better after being harrowed during the renovation break.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – From the time Beholder arrived here at Keeneland more than a week ago with a temperature one degree above normal, trainer Richard Mandella kept checking and rechecking her health, drawing blood, scoping her lungs after her work and gallops. He was looking for something, anything, but hoping not to find anything.
Through Wednesday, all was fine. Her most-recent blood work had come back perfect, and she was training great.
And then came Thursday.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – While his connections clearly wish no rain had fallen at Keeneland this week, Golden Horn won’t be taken out of Saturday’s $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf, provided there’s no further significant precipitation before the race, trainer John Gosden said Thursday.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – American Pharoah’s racing career began in California, his preps toward the Kentucky Derby began in Arkansas, and he has raced at eight tracks in six states in three time zones, but now, the circle finally is complete. He has returned to Kentucky, the state of his birth, to close out his racing career Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland before starting a new life as a stallion.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – When Tale of S’avall missed a workout Sunday at Belmont Park due to sore feet, trainer Barclay Tagg held out some hope that he still could make Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile if things turned around quickly during the week in Kentucky.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Every elite athlete should do this poorly on their way down. Folks can say what they want about Edgar Prado in the twilight of his career, but the fact is that the 48-year-old jockey can still ride with the best.
“All I need is the horse,” said Prado.
In combating the perception that age is getting the best of him, Prado won four stakes at Keeneland this fall – the most of any jockey – including three for longtime client Graham Motion.
The stakes winners Bal a Bali, Big Cazanova, Ganesh, and Texas Ryano start in an optional claimer at a mile on turf Friday at Del Mar that could lead to appearances in graded stakes next month.
Bal a Bali, who won the Grade 3 American Handicap in his U.S. debut in May, will start from the rail in his first race since finishing a troubled fifth in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile in August.
“I think he’s better than that now,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “He’s sharp as a tack. I think he’s ready to give a good showing.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The big guns come out on the Saturday card, but there are plenty of European horses of note in the two Friday Breeders’ Cup races to be contested on turf, the Juvenile Turf and the Juvenile Fillies Turf. And with course conditions likely to be good at best and soft at worst, the horses from overseas – more accustomed to running on that type of going than Americans – merit even closer scrutiny.
Juvenile Turf
There was no place on the Breeders’ Cup travel team for Found Money, the 2-year-old stakes winner trained by Doug O’Neill.
With the stable represented by juveniles such as Land Over Sea and Nyquist at Keeneland on Saturday, Found Money was left behind in Southern California for Friday’s $200,000 Golden State Juvenile for California-breds at Del Mar.
