LOUISVILLE, Ky. – One year before a partial ban on raceday medication is set to go into effect for the 2012 Breeders’ Cup, all but eight of the 180 horses entered for the Breeders’ Cup’s 15 races on Nov. 4-5 will receive a raceday injection of furosemide, the anti-bleeding medication that is legal to administer to horses on raceday in all North American racing jurisdictions.
Twitter updates from DRF's Mike Welsch and David Grening in Kentucky for morning Breeders' Cup workouts on Tuesday, Nov. 1. Check back later today for Mike Welsch's full Clocker Report and video analysis of today's training and works at Churchill Downs. Welsch has been watching works in Lexington and Louisville for more than a week, check here for the rest of his Breeders' Cup clocker reports and a list of Breeders' Cup workouts by key contenders:
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.
