ARCADIA, Calif. – The losses are starting to mount for Kobe’s Back in recent months, giving added urgency to his appearance in Saturday’s $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship.
The Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship will be the final start for Kobe’s Back before a potential trip to Keeneland for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Oct. 31. The objectives are clear.
“I need to see a big race, a first or a second,” trainer Peter Eurton said. “Otherwise, who are we fooling?”
This year’s Breeders’ Cup is four weeks away, but trainer Keith Desormeaux still can’t stop thinking about last year’s Breeders’ Cup, where his Texas Red rallied from last to win the $2 million Juvenile by 6 1/2 lengths at Santa Anita.
Trainer Doug O’Neill is considering the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf for both Jakaby Jade and Gomo.
Jakaby Jade took advantage when the rail opened up to win the $101,000 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf in her first start in North America. The horse who vacated the rail, which might have cost her a win in the one-mile race, was Gomo, who finished third.
“It was a good race for both of them,” said O’Neill.
He plans on running Jakaby Jade in the $100,000 Surfer Girl at Santa Anita on Oct. 10.
The big question for anyone pointing toward the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Oct. 31 is what the connections of division leader Private Zone ultimately decide to do over the next several weeks.
Trainer Jorge Navarro and stable manager Rene Douglas remained undecided Wednesday as to whether to run the four-time Grade 1 winner in the Sprint, as was their original intention, or stretch him out for the Dirt Mile. One thing is for certain, according to Navarro: Private Zone couldn’t be doing any better at present.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – If not for the Oct. 30-31 Breeders’ Cup, the Saturday card on opening weekend would be easily the richest this month at Keeneland.
As it is, it’s still pretty good.
The Shadwell Turf Mile, the traditional fall-meet signature event, anchors a 10-race card that features five straight graded races. All but one, the First Lady, are Win and You’re In events toward the Breeders’ Cup. NBC has live coverage from 5-6 p.m. Eastern.
In reverse order, snapshots of the Saturday races:
It has been more than 25 years since the celebrated battles between Sunday Silence and Easy Goer, but the memories of what happened in the fall of 1989 are playing into the management of Honor Code as he prepares for his major year-end goal, the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
Few American horsemen will watch Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris as attentively as owner Ken Ramsey and trainer Chad Brown. They will be scouting the potential competition for their Big Blue Kitten ahead of the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
Big Blue Kitten was a gritty winner of the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at 1 1/2 miles on turf at Belmont Park last Saturday, a victory that makes him the leading domestic contender for the BC Turf, the richest turf race in North America.
Laurel Park will begin offering rolling super high fives on Friday.
Up until now, the super high five has only been offered on the last race each day at Laurel. Beginning Friday, the super high fives will begin on the first race and will have a rolling carryover that will continue race to race until somebody picks the first five finishers in exact order.
If the super high five is not hit by the last race, there will be a carryover to the next day.
The super high five is a 50-cent bet with a 15 percent takeout.
The Breeders’ Cup Distaff historically attracts moderate numbers. The 9.1 average field size is the smallest of the BC races. That will change this fall at Keeneland, where a 14-runner maximum is taking shape pending the final Distaff prep race this weekend.
The Grade 1 Spinster Stakes on Sunday at Keeneland is expected to include four Distaff candidates – Untapable, the 2014 Distaff winner; Lovely Maria, the 2015 Kentucky Oaks winner; Frivolous, a Grade 2 winner; and Got Lucky, a Grade 3 winner.
The 8-year-old Two Notch Road stayed perfect at Laurel Park by scoring a repeat victory in the $60,000 Punch Line Stakes last Saturday.
Two Notch Road won the 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint for Virginia-breds by a length as the 7-10 favorite. The victory was his first of the year from five starts and the second of the year for trainer Glenn Thompson.
As usual, Two Notch Road will winter with Thompson in Aiken, S.C. Two Notch Road, whom Thompson bought for $2,500 as a yearling in 2008, has earned $345,000. The plan is to race him again next season.
