Octane, who captured the final two legs of the open division of the Florida Sire Series including the 1 1/16-mile In Reality by 1 3/4 lengths while earning a 93 Beyer Speed Figure in the process, will bypass the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and await his 3-year-old campaign, according to Brian Cohen, stable manager for owner-breeder Arindel.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Owner-trainer Brandon Greer said Wednesday his Woodbine Mile winner Town Cruise won’t be going to Del Mar for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile after all. He has decided to run him in the Grade 2 Nearctic at Woodbine on Sunday instead.
“We made the decision [Tuesday] night,” Greer said. “We’re a small barn, and it’s a bit too much of an undertaking for us. We’re just not ready for that sort of thing. It has nothing to do with the horse. He’s quite happy these days. He’s been just excellent.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Kevin Attard said Special Forces is being pointed toward the $175,000 Autumn Stakes here Nov. 14 following his 6-1 score in the Grade 3 Durham Cup.
Special Forces captured the Grade 2 Autumn with a career-high 99 Beyer Speed Figure in 2019, after which he missed all of 2020 with a setback. Last Sunday’s Durham Cup was his third start on the comeback trail, for which he got a 97 Beyer after beating a small but select field that included 2019 Belmont Stakes winner Sir Winston and reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Mighty Heart.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Coolmore has done it before. Ten years after an Irish-bred filly named Together wheeled back on six days’ rest to win the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, the worldwide powerhouse stable will give it a go again Saturday.
The 3-year-old filly Empress Josephine, who was beaten just a length for all the money when third Saturday in the Grade 1 First Lady at Keeneland behind the older Chad Brown tandem of Blowout and Regal Glory, will run back a week later as one of the principals in the 38th running of the Grade 1, $500,000 QE II.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Preceding the Grade 2 Jessamine on an eight-race Wednesday card at Keeneland is an $88,000 allowance (race 7) in which Swiftsure will make his first start since finishing far back as the favorite six months ago in the Lexington Stakes.
“He caught a really nasty track in the Lexington and was really jammed up off it, so we gave him some time off afterward,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “He’s a horse that showed a lot of potential his first two starts.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Alex Achard toiled away in anonymity, hoping that his day would come.
Finally, it did.
Achard was still aglow with joy Sunday, less than 24 hours after reaching a milestone he couldn’t be blamed for thinking might never occur. Achard registered the first Grade 1 win of his nascent riding career Saturday, giving a perfect ride to a 5-year-old Brazilian-bred gelding named In Love in a 12-1 upset of the richest race of the Keeneland fall meet, the $750,000 Keeneland Turf Mile.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Over the last three weekends, trainer Chad Brown has won seven graded stakes, run first and second in four of them, and has seen his potential roster for the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 5-6 at Del Mar increase significantly.
C Z Rocket, one of California’s top sprinters for more than a year, will be pre-entered for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile to be run Nov. 6 at Del Mar, trainer Peter Miller said Sunday.
C Z Rocket was second in the 2020 BC Sprint at Keeneland, and that race will be a first preference next month, Miller said.
“We’re going to consider the Dirt Mile, but it will probably be the Sprint,” Miller said.
The leading races of the upcoming weekend at Santa Anita are $100,000 stakes for statebreds at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course, which is being used sparingly this month for the first time since spring 2019.
There were three sprint races on the hillside turf course from Oct. 1-3 after track management announced in September that sprints would be run on the course at the current autumn meeting, which continues through Oct. 31.
