DEL MAR, Calif. – The international quarantine area on the east side of the Del Mar backstretch has buzzed like a beehive since Sunday morning.
More than 50 overseas runners, a record, have traveled for the 2021 Breeders’ Cup, a massive contingent to accommodate.
For racing officials, the challenges are logistical – safely and efficiently providing a temporary training base for a horde of animals used to walking around wooded trails half the day.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With many fans on hand to enjoy the Breeders’ Cup simulcasts, a live 10-race card highlighted by a $134,000 allowance will be held well into the evening Friday at Churchill, with the last four or five races run under the lights. First post is 2 p.m. Eastern, with the last race going at 7:23. All races are scheduled to avoid overlaps with the Breeders’ Cup card from Del Mar.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – You can stop phoning Carlo Vaccarezza now – not about his Italian cuisine, but about buying his horse.
“The phone is ringing off the hook, but I’m not selling this filly,” owner-trainer Vaccarezza said early this week in regard to inquiries about Sweet Dani Girl, his homebred 2-year-old who stayed unbeaten in two starts by winning the Myrtlewood Stakes last Friday at Keeneland.
DEL MAR, Calif. – In order to get somewhere, you’ve got to go everywhere.
That’s sort of the mantra agent Ron Anderson and jockey Joel Rosario have lived by this fall as the former attempts to make the latter the leading rider in the country in the most important category – purse money won.
“If you want to lead the country on the second page of the Form,” said Anderson, referring to the page in Daily Racing Form that lists the statistical leaders, “you have to travel.
“Good horses, big purses, and if you got to go to different places you got to go.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – He’s always on the go, to the track to watch his horses train, to the airport to head off and see another of his strings, the phone ever present to check in with his team of assistants. Often, there’s not much time for reflection for Steve Asmussen. There’s another track to get to, another race to win.
But this past year has afforded him many opportunities to savor where he’s come from – most notably, the people who made him who he is – and how much he’s accomplished.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Danny Vella said unbeaten Coronation Futurity winner The Minkster could make one more start before getting the winter off with next year’s Queen’s Plate in mind.
The Minkster went from his authoritative first-out score in a maiden special weight sprint on the grass Oct. 30 to Saturday’s $252,400 Coronation Futurity, which he won by 2 1/4 lengths after tracking a slow pace.
Vella said the Grade 3 Grey here Nov. 28 could be next for The Minkster, who earned a 66 Beyer Speed Figure in the Coronation.
At the beginning of September, when shipping agents were starting the process of planning flights from the East Coast to California for the Breeders’ Cup, trainer Chad Brown told them to save him six or eight spots on the flight.
“It’ll probably be more like six,” Brown recalled saying.
Between Sept. 25 and Oct. 17, Brown won 23 races, 11 of which were stakes – nine graded – and sent out a couple of impressive maiden winners.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Jack Christopher, the 9-5 morning-line favorite, drew the inside, and Corniche, the 5-2 second choice, drew the outside in a field of 12 drawn Monday for Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar.
Friday, billed as Future Stars Friday, comprises five of the 14 Breeders’ Cup races run over two days.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Knicks Go has been in the center of discussion for Horse of the Year all year long, and he’ll start in the center of the field for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Del Mar after drawing post 5 in a field of nine Monday afternoon.
Knicks Go was established as the 5-2 favorite by Del Mar linemaker Jon White. His Brad Cox-trained stablemate, Essential Quality, is next at 3-1, with Essential Quality’s fellow 3-year-olds, Hot Rod Charlie and Medina Spirit, right behind at 4-1.
DEL MAR, Calif. – George Leonard III already had a stable star.
Leonard, a trainer, and an owner named Dave Hearn claimed a 5-year-old gelding named Zanesville for $5,000 in August 2020. The new connections moved Zanesville into starter-allowance competition – the gelding has not raced for a claiming price in the 18 starts since Leonard dropped the claim – and Zanesville won four times through the end of last year, banking about $65,000 in purses.
