DEL MAR, Calif. – For the second consecutive year, the veteran gelding Gold Phoenix was the best-placed American-based runner in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar.
For the second consecutive year, such a distinction was not enough for a top-three finish in the nation’s richest grass race.
Gold Phoenix was fourth last year, 3 1/2 lengths behind Rebel’s Romance. On Saturday, Gold Phoenix was fifth, beaten four lengths by the surprise Irish-based winner Ethical Diamond.
For the second straight day, weather has prompted the cancellation of live racing at the Belmont at the Big A meet.
Friday’s nine-race card was canceled due to forecasted high winds in the New York City area. The National Weather Service has placed a wind advisory from noon until midnight. Winds between 28 and 33 miles per hour with gusts up to 45 miles per hour are forecast.
Thursday’s eight-race card was canceled due to high winds and heavy rain.
DEL MAR, Calif. – While this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic conjures memories of last year’s, considering the top three finishers are back in the race, there’s another race that is still very much on the mind of Japanese jockey Ryusei Sakai.
It was the 2024 Kentucky Derby where Forever Young, ridden by Sakai, battled through the Churchill Downs stretch inside of Sierra Leone. Forever Young came up two noses short of Mystik Dan in the Derby. One could argue that a late bump from Sierra Leone might have cost Forever Young a shot at second or perhaps the win.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Race No. 30 in Rebel’s Romance’s already acclaimed career could be historic.
A 7-year-old gelding, Rebel’s Romance has 20 wins at 14 tracks in six countries. On Saturday at Del Mar, he will attempt to become the first three-time winner of the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar. Rebel’s Romance won the 2022 BC Turf at Keeneland and the same race last year at Del Mar.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Let’s set the over-under for international wins on this Breeders’ Cup Saturday at 2.5, and it’s not a huge stretch to imagine horses who shipped to Del Mar from distant lands winning five. That would encompass the four turf races and the Classic.
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The eight-race Thursday program for Belmont at the Big A has been canceled due to a forecast that called for high winds and rain, the New York Racing Association announced Thursday morning.
According to the National Weather Service, the winds were forecast between 16 and 22 miles per hour with gusts as high as 41 miles per hour. Also, between three-quarters to an inch of rain is forecast.
Handle on races run at Santa Anita declined 9.1 percent at the track’s autumn meeting that ended Sunday, according to figures compiled by Daily Racing Form.
Two factors contributed to the decline.
This year’s meeting had a different promotional format than the 2024 season.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Sovereignty, the dual-classic winner and morning-line favorite for Saturday’s $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, will be scratched from that race after the 3-year-old developed another fever, trainer Bill Mott said Wednesday morning.
“We’re going to scratch,” Mott said. “He developed a fever yesterday afternoon, his temp shot up again, we retreated him. That basically made our decision.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – You might have forgotten a filly named Hard to Justify. After all, her last start came in May 2024. Why bring her up? Hard to Justify’s victory in the 2023 Juvenile Fillies Turf marks the only North American-based 2-year-old turf win at the last two Breeders’ Cups.
European horses landed the other five Friday turf races, and they almost certainly will win more this Friday.
Juvenile Turf
September was a month of revival for 59-year-old jockey Mike Smith.
Smith won his first Grade 1 stakes of the year aboard Bottle of Rouge in the Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 6 and another Grade 1 aboard Nevada Beach in the Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 27. This weekend, those runners – as well as Kopion, who starts in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint; Tamara, a contender in the $1 million BC Filly and Mare Sprint; and Will Take It, an outsider in the $1 million BC Dirt Mile – can make Smith the oldest rider to ever win a Breeders’ Cup race.
