Fiesolana, cross-entered in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf and the Breeders’ Cup Mile, will run in the Filly and Mare Turf, according to Alan Cooper, racing manager for her owner, the Niarchos family.
The Niarchos family, which also races under the nom de course Flaxman Holdings Corp., still has a starter for the Mile in the French shipper Karakontie, as well as one of the favorites for the Turf, the U.S.-based Main Sequence.
ARCADIA, Calif. – When Twilight Eclipse starts in the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita next Saturday, he will be part of a unique sporting week for Terry Finley, the president of the West Point Thoroughbreds, which owns the gelding.
Sunday afternoon, Finley will be at the StubHub Center stadium in Southern California to watch his 23-year-old son Ryan play forward for Chivas USA versus the San Jose Earthquakes in the regular-season finale of Major League Soccer.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Ignore Home Run Kitten at your own risk in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 1.
Consider the record of his trainer, David Hofmans, in the Breeders’ Cup over the last two decades. Hofmans has won 3 of 15 career starts in the Breeders’ Cup, and the winners all have been longshots.
Hofmans won the 1996 Classic with Alphabet Soup (who paid $41.70), the 2003 Distaff with Adoration ($83.40), and the 2008 Turf Sprint here with Desert Code ($75). Home Run Kitten figures to be about 15-1 or 20-1 in a crowded BC Turf Sprint field.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The Breeders’ Cup incurred another major defection on Friday when Bob Baffert said that Midnight Lucky will be retired.
A 4-year-old filly who would have been one of the favorites in the $1 million BC Filly and Mare Sprint, Midnight Lucky worked six furlongs Friday morning at Santa Anita. Baffert caught her in 1:12, but said he was not satisfied with the work.
“She really had to show me something this morning if I was going to run her,” said Baffert. “But I really didn’t like it at all. She did go in 1:12, but that was on the buckle.”
Eric Guillot is practicing the voodoo that he knows so well. His attempt to ward off evil spirits worked at Saratoga when he won the Whitney with Moreno, so as part of his preparation for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 1, the Louisiana-born trainer has fashioned another voodoo wall on his barn at Santa Anita.
Moreno, who had his final pre-Classic workout Friday at Santa Anita, is the only horse from last year’s Classic back for another go-round. He was 10th of 11 last year.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Untapable was up early Friday, strutting her stuff before dawn at Santa Anita with a smug attitude, appropriate for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff favorite.
It was 5:30 a.m. when Untapable and exercise rider Carlos Rosas left the Barn 58 of trainer Steve Asmussen for a one-mile gallop. Untapable was alert and confident. The winner of the Kentucky Oaks and two other Grade 1 races, Untapable is good. And she knows it.
“She’s a little cocky right now,” assistant trainer Scott Blasi said.
Average daily handle at the Delaware Park meeting, which concluded Wednesday, was down 9.6 percent from 2013.
An average of $1,285,428 per day was wagered on the Delaware Park races during this year’s 80-day season. Last year, an average of $1,421,626 was bet per day during an 81-day meet. This year’s session was scheduled for 81 days but one card was lost due to inclement weather.
The connections of Better Lucky were hoping to run their Grade 1-winning filly against males in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile. But when relegated to seven-deep in the Mile, a race that drew 29 pre-entrants, Better Lucky will be rerouted to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, for which she was also pre-entered.
The Filly and Mare Sprint drew only 11 pre-entrants, so Better Lucky is assured a spot in that seven-furlong race.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Patience certainly served trainer Christophe Clement well as it pertained to Tonalist, a multiple Grade 1 winner who is one of the main contenders for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Clement hopes that patience pays off down the road with Miss Chatelaine, who makes the second start of her career in Sunday’s $100,000 Chelsey Flower Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Belmont Park. Fourteen horses – three for the main track only – were entered for the Chelsey Flower, scheduled for a mile on the Widener turf.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Effinex, the winner of the Empire Classic Handicap for New York-breds last Saturday, could be headed to a graded stakes for his next start, according to Russell Cohen, who manages her mother’s Tri-Bone Stable.
Cohen mentioned the Grade 1, $500,000 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs on Nov. 28 or the Grade 2, $250,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup the following day as potential targets.
Cohen said trainer Jimmy Jerkens will have the final say on where Effinex would run next, but he added, “The goal is to try and make him a stallion.”
