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.
ON SALE NOW: DRF Breeders' Cup Packages! Get everything you need to win and save big.
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.
DEL MAR, Calif. – There were two posts remaining – stalls 1 and 6 – and the names of Sovereignty and Fierceness had yet to be called as the post position draw for Saturdays $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic came to an end Monday in the Del Mar paddock.
Sovereignty, winner of the Kentucky Derby and four other stakes this year, drew post 6 for Saturday’s $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, his first start against older horses.
Sovereignty, trained by Bill Mott for Godolphin Racing, faces a tremendous field in the BC Classic at 1 1/4 miles, the richest race in North America. Linemaker David Aragona made Sovereignty a 6-5 favorite.
Sierra Leone, Fierceness, and Forever Young – the first three finishers in the 2024 BC Classic at Del Mar – drew posts 7, 1, and 5.
Del Mar
Monday, Oct. 27
Weather: Cloudy
Temp.: 60°
Track: Fast
Turf: Firm
DEL MAR, Calif. – Anyone who came out expecting to see Sovereignty lay down a bullet work in final preparation for the Classic may have been sorely disappointed, but his connections certainly were not after the number one attraction for this year’s Breeders’ Cup breezed an easy, maintenance-like half-mile shortly after dawn Monday at Del Mar.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Gimme a Nother, a six-time graded or group stakes winner in California and South Africa, and Way to Be Marie, a minor stakes winner at Fair Grounds in March, will miss Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar.
Gimme a Nother was not shipped from trainer Graham Motion’s base in Maryland because of a minor splint bone injury, Motion said Monday. Motion said the 5-year-old will remain in training in 2026. Her absence from the Breeders’ Cup was first reported by Paulick Report.
