ARCADIA, Calif. – The visually impressive workout by Untapable on Sunday morning at Santa Anita was so fast trainer Steve Asmussen declined to reveal the time on his stopwatch.
“I’ll let them say that,” Asmussen said, referring to track clockers.
The official time was 58.60 seconds, co-fastest five furlongs of the day and a move that further confirms Untapable as a top contender for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Oct. 31. BC Sprint contender Big Macher also worked five furlongs in 58.60.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Tapiture had been under consideration for both the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Dirt Mile, but after he worked five furlongs in 59.60 seconds on Sunday morning here at Santa Anita, owner Ron Winchell said it was most likely that Tapiture would go in the Dirt Mile, and wouldn’t even be cross-entered in the Classic at the pre-entry stage on Monday.
“The Dirt Mile is more his spot at this point in his career,” said Winchell, who watched the work with trainer Steve Asmussen. “The Classic looks tough. I guess we have to decide by noon tomorrow.”
ELMONT, N.Y. - Sweet Reason, who came out of her second-place finish in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx on Sept. 20 with an eye injury, returned to the work tab Sunday morning, drilling three furlongs in a quick 34.63 seconds over Belmont Park’s main track, a move that convinced her connections to move on to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Trainer Art Sherman stood in the stands at Los Alamitos on Saturday morning, a few minutes before California Chrome was to come on the track and work in preparation for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita. This was to be the longest and most important of the four works he will have prior to the race, and Sherman was anxious that it would go as planned.
He turned to a visitor and said he had told jockey Victor Espinoza to go six furlongs in about “1:12 and 2,” and then gallop out seven-eighths.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Beholder will have one more work before the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, but her workout Saturday at Santa Anita was the final major drill, and trainer Richard Mandella turned it into a mini-race.
Beholder worked seven furlongs under jockey Mike Smith at 8 a.m. She broke off behind two workmates, tracked those two until the lane, ran past at the eighth pole, and galloped out a mile in 1:38.
Mandella said he works horses in company “when it’s time for a serious work. She needed a real work.”
Belmont Park
Main track: Fast
Training track: Fast
Weather: Cloudy, 66 degrees
Elmont, N.Y. – There are upward of 40 potential Breeders’ Cup starters currently stabled at Belmont or Aqueduct, the overwhelming majority of whom will get in all major preparation for their races prior to shipping to Santa Anita over the next 10 days.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Empire Showcase Day didn’t just pertain to Saturday afternoon at Belmont Park. On Saturday morning, two of the possible 10 New York-breds who could be pre-entered Monday for the Breeders’ Cup, to be held in two weeks at Santa Anita, put in workouts for their respective races.
Trainer David Fawkes said Friday that Bahamian Squall will return to Santa Anita to compete in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint for a second straight year. Bahamian Squall finished sixth, beaten less than three lengths by Secret Circle despite a troubled trip, in the 2013 Sprint.
Fawkes has secured the services of jockey Rafael Bejarano to ride Bahamian Squall in the Sprint. Bahamian Squall convinced Fawkes that he deserved another chance in the Breeders’ Cup after working six furlongs in 1:12.54 and galloping out seven-eighths in 1:25.47 at Gulfstream Park on Friday.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Lord Rosberg may have lost to Blue Dancer in the $75,000 Ascot Graduation for 2-year-olds last Monday, but he proved that he is not just a one-trick pony and will be a force to be reckoned with in the local 3-year-old stakes division at Hastings next year.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Alexandra Jara, a five-pound apprentice who recently moved her tack to New York, was a classmate of Juan Saez at the Laffit Pincay Jockey School in Panama.
Saez died Tuesday from injuries suffered in a spill at Indiana Grand.
“He was always happy, he was always joking,” Jara said Friday morning at Belmont Park. “Sometimes I called him a clown. Last conversation I had with him I said, ‘Stop it, clown.’ ”
Jara said Saez was scheduled to ride in New York during Aqueduct’s winter meet.
