DEL MAR, Calif. – Two trends have emerged in the decade-long history of the Breeders’ Cup turf races for 2-year-olds: Dismiss the European fillies; fear the colts.

In the nine runnings of the one-mile BC Juvenile Fillies Turf, European-based runners have won only twice. In the Juvenile Turf, six of the 10 runnings have gone to runners from England or Ireland.

Last year at Santa Anita, the New York-based runners New Money Honey and Oscar Performance won the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Juvenile Turf. U.S.-based 2-year-olds could sweep this year’s races again Friday.

DEL MAR, Calif. – A single race supposedly promotes greater fitness than a handful of morning workouts, but there are plenty of trainers who will be looking to buck that conventional wisdom when they send out horses off substantial layoffs in the Breeders’ Cup.

Del Mar
Weather: Showery
Temp.: 63
Main track: Fast
Turf: Firm

DEL MAR, Calif . – It was easy to tell the 2017 Breeders’ Cup was only three days away after spending the early morning hours Tuesday at Del Mar, with Breeders’ Cup  contenders just about everywhere one looked from the moment the main track opened at 5:30 a.m. until Bullards Alley walked off the turf course four hours later.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Arrogate, the defending race winner in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, will leave from post 1 in this year’s race at Del Mar on Saturday after drawing the inside in a field of 11 on Monday, a situation his jockey, Mike Smith, said will cause him to be aggressive leaving the gate.

“Like in the Travers,” he said, referring to the 2016 Travers Stakes, the race that announced Arrogate to the world. “I’ll go get a position leaving there.”

The New York Racing Association has received approval from the New York State Gaming Commission to offer a mandatory payout on a pick six carryover of $70,977 on opening day of the Aqueduct meet Friday.

The two-day carryover would have been up for grabs at Belmont Park on Sunday – which was scheduled to be closing day of the fall meet – but that program was canceled due to inclement weather.

Sam Houston has posted its stakes calendar for 2018, and the Grade 3, $400,000 Houston Ladies Classic is scheduled to anchor a card of six stakes worth a total of $825,000 on Jan. 28. The 1 1/16-mile race is for fillies and mares.

The card also will include the Grade 3, $200,000 Connally Turf. The race for 4-year-olds and up will be run over 1 1/2 miles on the grass. First post for the card is noon Central.

Other major stakes include the $100,000 Maxxam Gold Cup for 4-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles. It will anchor a card of four stakes Feb. 24.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Unbeaten 2-year-old filly Grace and Dignity will make her next start in the $100,000 Glorious Song Stakes over seven furlongs on Tapeta on Nov. 19, trainer Catherine Day Phillips said.

Grace and Dignity debuted with a 5 1/2-length victory over six furlongs on Tapeta on Sept. 16, and followed with a 5 1/4-length victory in an allowance at the same distance on Oct. 18. In the allowance win, Grace and Dignity covered six furlongs in 1:08.77, earning an 83 Beyer Speed Figure.

DEL MAR, Calif. – When the trainer Jonathan Thomas sends Catholic Boy out in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Friday he’ll follow along the trail well worn by his old boss, trainer Todd Pletcher.

Pletcher is walking quite a way up that path. He’s had 128 Breeders’ Cup runners. Catholic Boy will be Thomas’s first.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Catherine Day Phillips, who has enjoyed recent local stakes success, will be at Del Mar this weekend with Dixie Moon in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Day Phillips matched her career-high with her fifth stakes win of the meet Oct. 21 with Mr Havercamp, who romped to a 7 1/2-length victory in the Bunty Lawless Stakes. Mr Havercamp has recorded four wins from five starts this year, and is now in the conversation for Canadian champion 3-year-old male.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Josie Carroll had a successful weekend at Woodbine, picking up a graded stakes victory with Moonlit Promise in the Grade 3 Ontario Fashion Stakes on Saturday. She also notched two runner-up finishes in stakes on Sunday with Jacks Escarpment in the Overskate Stakes and Avie’s Mineshaft in the Princess Elizabeth Stakes.

Carroll is hoping for even more stakes success next weekend, when Ami’s Mesa will run in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint at Del Mar on Saturday.