LEXINGTON, Ky. – With Florent Geroux still recovering from the sternum injury he suffered in an Oct. 13 training spill at Keeneland, trainer Brad Cox has confirmed Javier Castellano as the jockey for Owendale in the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita.
Geroux said Wednesday that his recovery is going well and that he is scheduled for another visit with his doctor next week.
The 15 horses who were pre-entered Monday in the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita are based on three different continents, and have made their last starts over nine different racetracks. The dynamic mix is led by Omaha Beach, a winner of his last four starts and the 6-5 favorite on the early line set by Daily Racing Form handicapper Brad Free.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Shane Wilson is wading in deeper waters and likes it. Wilson is back in Kentucky from his Louisiana homeland, seeking another graded stakes triumph with Mocito Rojo, easily his best horse in more than two decades of training.
Mocito Rojo, a winner in 17 of 25 starts, is one of the favorites Saturday in the closing-day feature of the Keeneland fall meet, the Grade 2, $200,000 Fayette Stakes. A field of 10 older horses is entered in the 1 1/8-mile race.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A dozen fillies and mares were pre-entered in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff, but only one was pre-entered with a perfect record in 2019.
Midnight Bisou, 7 for 7 this season, figures as one of the most heavily fancied Breeders’ Cup favorites on Saturday, Nov. 2. One reason is she never loses. The other is that her main challenger Elate was cross-entered in the Distaff and the Classic, and is expected to run in the Classic.
There are several familiar faces in the oversubscribed group of pre-entries for the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Two-time defending race winner Stormy Liberal is looking to turn his fortunes of this season around, while Om and Pure Sensation, who have both placed in this race in past years, come in for another try in solid form.
The $1 Juvenile Turf Sprint drew 26 pre-entries – most among the 14 Breeders’ Cup races, set for Nov. 1-2 – but even 100 more couldn’t obscure the notion that Wesley Ward brings a strong hand to the five-furlong race.
Ward trains Four Wheel Drive and Kimari, who could be the two favorites, as well as Cambria, who also made the 12-horse cutoff. Ward also has Karak among the 14 alternates.
The $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint could have one of the shortest fields for the two-day Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita, as only nine pre-entered horses have the seven-furlong race listed as their first preference.
In all, 12 were pre-entered in the Filly and Mare Sprint, but three have the Distaff as first preference – Mo See Cal, Secret Spice, and Serengeti Empress.
Several horses with designs on Horse of the Year – including Bricks and Mortar, Code of Honor, Midnight Bisou, and Mitole – were among the 188 individual horses announced Wednesday as pre-entries in the 14 races that will comprise the 36th Breeders’ Cup, to be held at Santa Anita for the 10th time on Nov. 1 and 2.
Santa Anita Tuesday, October 22
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 68
Track: Fast
ARCADIA, Calif. - The conventional notion that the Santa Anita main track has been on the slow side during the current meeting may have been tempered just a bit Tuesday morning when Mitole worked five furlongs from the gate under jockey Mike Smith in 58.29 while preparing for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
Mountaineer Park complied with its policies and local laws regarding disposal of an animal carcass in a case revolving around the recent distribution of photographs of a horse carcass lying in the open air at a West Virginia landfill near the track, according to a law-enforcement official investigating the case.
