Eight Entered for Gold Cup

A field of eight hard-knocking runners are set to line up in Saturday's GI Gold Cup at Santa Anita, which offers a $500,000 purse and an automatic berth into the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. Leading the way is the more than $2.8-million earner Hoppertunity (Any Given Saturday), who hasn't been seen since finishing a solid third in the G1 Dubai World Cup at Meydan in March. The Bob Baffert pupil was beaten a nose in this even last year by Hard Aces (Hard Spun). The latter finished runner-up to to Second Summer (Summer Bird) and ahead of Lieutenant Colonel (Colonel John) in the GII Californian S. May 22. Melatonin (Kodiak Kowboy) was a runaway, upset winner of the GI Santa Anita H. over this same track and trip Mar. 12, and was second in the GII Oaklawn H. Apr. 16.