Record Pre-Entries for Breeders’ Cup

A record 201 horses, including five returning 2013 winners, have been pre-entered for this year’s Breeders’ Cup championship weekend. The championships, featuring 13 Grade I events worth $26 million, will be held at Santa Anita for the third straight year Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The weekend’s crowning event, the 
$5-million GI Breeders’ Cup Classic, was oversubscribed with 15 pre-entries. While the Classic has been won by older horses in 10 of the past 12 years, this year’s renewal has attracted a powerful sophomore contingent, led by 
GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness S. winner California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit), last year’s unbeaten juvenile champion Shared Belief (Candy Ride {Arg}), GI Belmont S. winner Tonalist (Tapit) and 
GI Haskell Invitiational winner Bayern (Offlee Wild). The last sophomores to win the Classic were Curlin (Smart Strike) in 2007 and Raven’s Pass (Elusive Quality) in 2008. Big Cazanova (Giant’s Causeway) was not selected into the Classic field and will need a defection to draw into the race. 

The European invaders are led by a pair of defending in champions. Coolmore’s Magician (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was pre-entered in defense of his title in last year’s GI Breeders’ Cup Turf, while Dank (GB) (Dansili {GB}) will be looking for a second straight victory in the GI Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. From the California-based home team, Goldencents (Into Mischief) will be looking to add a second win in the GI Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and Secret Circle (Eddington) will be trying for another win in the GI Xpressbet Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Ria Antonia (Rockport Harbor), who won the 2013 GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies via disqualification, will be seeking her first victory since in the GI Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff. 

The Distaff is the jewel of Friday’s card and will feature a generational match-up between divisional leaders Close Hatches (First Defence) and Untapable (Tapit). The $2-million race will be without defending champion Beholder (Henny Hughes), who was withdrawn from consideration after spiking a temperature Sunday. 

A total of 28 horses have been cross-entered in multiple races. 

SHERMAN LOOKS FOR CHROME REBOUND 
California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit), who swept unchallenged through the opening two legs of the Triple Crown this spring, will be looking to regain some of his mystique when he goes postward in the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic. The chestnut got a much-deserved freshening after running fourth in the 
June 7 GI Belmont S., but could manage only sixth behind Bayern (Offlee Wild) as the 4-5 favorite in his return in the Sept. 20 GII Pennsylvania Derby. 

“The race at Parx was a little disappointing to me,” admitted trainer Art Sherman. “I thought we would have got a little stronger race out of that. Any time your horse throws a little bit of a clunker, you get concerned.” 

Despite the disappointing effort in Pennsylvania, Sherman is happy with what he has seen from his charge since. 

“I’m just so happy with the way he’s been training the last three weeks,” the veteran conditioner said. “I have one more blowout this Saturday [at Los Alamitos] and that will be the last. Then we’ll take him to Santa Anita and school him over there, which he likes, so we’ll have a week of galloping over at Santa Anita.” 
Sherman added, “You haven’t seen the Chrome that I know yet. I’m just hoping it happens in the Classic. I think it’s the greatest race we’re going to have on the program. It’s like a half-dozen horses that can easily win it and it should be a great betting race.” 

SAY WHAT? 
“It was an easy decision to run because the owners are excited about coming to the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Before we ran him this year, before he ran the first time, they were interested if there was a way to get him to the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Right now, it’s worked out. We’re there, they’re anxious to run and, frankly, I’m anxious to give him a chance. I think he’s done enough for me to give him a chance.” 
Trainer Bill Mott on Cigar Street 
 
“He settles in very rapidly wherever I take him and he handles every surface that we put him on. I like him on the synthetic at Golden Gate, he trains really well on it, and it seems like an advantage for him to train here and then run on another surface.” 
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer on Shared Belief  

PHAROAH LIVING UP TO EXPECTATIONS 
American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) has only made three trips to the post so far in his young racing career and already owns two Grade I titles. The bay will be looking to make it three Grade I wins in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Trainer Bob Baffert said the juvenile was only living up to expectations. 
“He’s a horse who came in with high expectations from the barn,” Baffert said. 
American Pharoah did have a rocky first go, however, finishing fifth at Del Mar on debut Aug. 9. 
“His first race, he was all over the place,” Baffert said. “He was misbehaving in the paddock, I think the blinkers had a lot to do with that. After that race, we schooled him vigorously. Now he’s a quiet horse. He behaves himself, he’s very professional and he has that raw talent we saw in the [Sept. 3 GI] Del Mar Futurity.” Of American Pharoah’s 4 3/4-length maiden-breaking score in the Futurity, Baffert said, “I knew he was going to run well, but I didn’t think he was going to do something like that.” The Zayat runner added a win in the Sept. 27 GI FrontRunner S. last time out and has been doing well since. 
“He came back and just maintained his healthiness,” Baffert said. “He’s sharp, he’s a very exciting kind of horse. It’s really fun when you have a horse like this, and hard to come by. But Todd Pletcher has some really good ones in there too, so it’s going to be tough.” 

MOTT LOOKS FORWARD WITH CLOSE HATCHES 
Juddmonte’s Close Hatches (First Defence) appeared to be firmly entrenched at the top of the older filly division after beginning the year with four straight graded triumphs, but the consistent miss goes postward in the GI Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff off a lackluster fourth-place effort in the Oct. 5 GI Spinster S. 
“It was a little bit of a head scratcher,” Mott said of the Spinster. “You always hate to see these fillies run a little bit of a stinker because you never know when they’ve had enough racing. Sometimes they appear to look good and train well and they’ve just decided that they’ve had enough. I don’t know if that’s the case with her. We just didn’t know what to make of it. We weren’t sure that she handled the racetrack and we thought that could have had something to do with it. I certainly thought she went into the Spinster in good shape, apart from having a little bit of a fast work the week before. It was a little bit of a head scratcher, but I’m hoping she’ll come back in California and put her best foot forward.”