LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The field for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Churchill Downs was reduced from 13 to 12 on Tuesday morning when the longshot Prayer for Relief came out of the race because of a fever, trainer Bob Baffert said Tuesday.
Tuesday was not a good day for Baffert. In addition to having Prayer for Relief come out, Baffert was delayed in transit in Chicago at O’Hare International Airport owing to a minor explosion in a terminal there.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Uncle Mo did not go to the track to train Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs, a decision that trainer Todd Pletcher said was close to the norm but was in stark contrast to the way he has handled Stay Thirsty, his other runner in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Along with the 15 Breeders' Cup events, six other stakes will be run at Churchill Downs on Thursday through Sunday. That schedule begins Thursday with the Grade 3, $100,000 Commonwealth Turf, which drew an oversubscribed field of 13 3-year-olds as the featured 11th of 12 races.
Pluck, winner of the BC Juvenile Turf here last fall, makes his return from a six-month layoff as part of a competitive field in the Commonwealth. Julien Leparoux has the mount from post 2. Only as many as 10 can start in the 1 1/16-mile race.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The last of the major final workouts for the 2011 Breeders' Cup from locally based horses took place Monday at Churchill Downs where such notable contenders as Havre de Grace (Classic), defending Sprint winner Big Drama and Juvenile Fillies favorite My Miss Aurelia breezed under moderating skies over a fast main track.
The gang's not all here. Not yet, at least. As of Monday, 18 of the 27 scheduled European Breeders' Cup starters had arrived at Churchill Downs, but only two had been released from quarantine and been permitted to train with the general horse population. The horses who trained Monday, Questing and Meeznah, were the first to ship into the United States, bedding down at Churchill on Saturday afternoon. A larger equine shipment, 25 strong, came in later Saturday night, and that group did not clear the 42-hour quarantine soon enough to make Monday training.
Five years ago, trainer Michael Matz was the guy everybody wanted to talk to around Churchill Downs, both prior to and of course following Barbaro’s victory in the 2006 Kentucky Derby. Now, he’s back on the scene again, hoping he’ll be one of the guys everybody wants to talk to again after this year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies Turf.
Matz returns to Churchill Downs with a pair of top Breeders’ Cup contenders, likely favorite Union Rags in the Juvenile and his stablemate Somali Lemonade, who may vie for favoritism with Elusive Kate, in the Juvenile Fillies Turf.
A. U. Miner, the fourth-place finisher in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Marathon, will break from the outside post under jockey Calvin Borel in a field of 11 as the 3-1 favorite in this year’s edition of the $500,000 race.
A. U. Miner was beaten 5 1/2 lengths in last year’s 1 3/4-mile Marathon. Like last year, A. U. Miner is coming into the race after earlier finishing first in the 1 1/2-mile Greenwood Cup, but unlike last year, A. U. Miner was disqualified from first after testing positive for a corticosteroid. His trainer, Clark Hanna, has appealed the finding.
When the Breeders’ Cup gets under way Friday with inaugural running of the $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint, it seems probable that the race will have the shortest-priced favorite of the 15 Breeders’ Cup races in Secret Circle.
Installed as the 6-5 morning-line favorite by Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia – the co-shortest morning-line price of any Breeders’ Cup favorite along with Filly and Mare Sprint favorite Turbulent Descent – he enters the Juvenile Sprint with easily the strongest form of any horse in the race.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – What a difference half a year has made for Uncle Mo, who on the first Saturday in May was sidelined from a Kentucky Derby many previously had expected him to win, owing to an illness that was not diagnosed until weeks later.
My Miss Aurelia, one of four unbeaten fillies in the full field of 14, drew post 9 and was installed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite by track linemaker Mike Battaglia for Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
My Miss Aurelia, trained by Steve Asmussen, is 3 for 3 with victories in the Grade 2 Adirondack at Saratoga and the Grade 1 Frizette at Belmont Park, a race she won by 5 1/2 lengths. On Monday, My Miss Aurelia worked four furlongs in 49.68 seconds over Churchill’s main track.
