BC Winners Square Off in SA Sprint Championship

The winners of last year’s GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint and GI Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile–both tabbed as “TDN Rising Stars”  off dominating debut scores–lock horns in today’s GI Santa Anita Sprint Championship S., a “Win and You’re In” for the former. 

The lightly raced Secret Circle (Eddington), no worse than second in 10 career starts, has raced only once since delivering a well-timed neck tally in the Sprint. He got the money there with only one race under his belt on the season, a mid-October optional claiming tally at Santa Anita. The 2011 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint winner was last seen placing a game second after dueling throughout in Santa Anita’s GII Palos Verdes S. Feb. 2. He was forced to scratch after being given a sedative en route to Oaklawn’s GIII Count Fleet Sprint H. Apr. 10. 

“We learned about it a few hours before his race and had to scratch him,” Hall of Famer Bob Baffert said. “I brought him back here and there really was nowhere to run, so I decided to back off on him and prepare him for the fall.” 

Baffert continued, “I had him ready at Del Mar for the [Sept. 3] Pirate’s Bounty, but I passed. A lot of horses were coming up with issues at the end of that meet, and he had had an issue when I ran him as a 2-year-old, so I played it safe. He’s doing really well now, although I don’t like his post, but he should get a lot out of the race. This will set him up for the Breeders’ Cup. There are no easy spots.” 

Goldencents (Into Mischief) followed a close second-place finish behind the ill-fated Points Offthebench (Benchmark) in this race last year with a strong wire-to-wire win in the big one on Championships day. The handsome bay closed out his sophomore season with a disappointing seventh in the GI Cigar Mile H. at Aqueduct Nov. 30, but has made up for it since. A huge second to Palace Malice (Curlin) in the GI Metropolitan H. June 7, Goldencents repeated that position while coming from off the pace as the 3-5 chalk in Del Mar’s GI Bing Crosby S. July 27. He returned to his front-running ways with a dominating win in the GII Pat O’Brien S. Aug. 24. The runner-up that day Fed Biz (Giant’s Causeway) came within a neck of upsetting unbeaten Shared Belief (Candy Ride {Arg}) in last Saturday’s GI Awesome Again S. 

Hong Kong invader Rich Tapestry (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}), a strong second in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen over the Meydan all-weather Mar. 29, makes the long trip after finishing eighth in the G2 Sprint Cup at Sha Tin Apr. 27. Although he’s clearly shown an affinity for grass/synthetic, he is perfect in a pair of dirt efforts, albeit over wet surfaces in 2012 handicaps at Sha Tin.