Breeders’ Cup selections for the opening day on November 4 at Santa Anita will include four of the events and the Juvenile Turf is the first that will be staged. The race, as usual, is an absolute scramble and there are a number of different ways intelligent players can go.
Aidan O’Brien has had good success in this race but he may not have brought over this best for this race. Lancaster Bomber was entered as the pacesetter for his last race and he did his job. He set the table for his stablemate Churchill and the Bomber draws the fence on Friday. His only win came but a nose so O’Brien’s other runner Intelligence Cross could be the way to go.
This youngster is a Group 3 winner but has never been beyond 6 furlongs. Both of these runners must be given a long look but maybe the action for them would be in the minor spots.
Let’s opt for the nice guy in the field, Good Samaritan. He leads the Breeders’ Cup selections in this race because he is unbeaten. He figures to be able to adapt to the Santa Anita turf course because he won at Saratoga and also at Woodbine. Trained by Bill Mott, Good Samaritan will be ridden again by Joel Rosario, who rode at Santa Anita for years and knows the intricacies of the local grass course.
Breeders’ Cup selections move on with nine in the $1 million Dirt Mile. There is an obvious class play in this race and his name is Dortmund. The colt has danced all the dances in his career and he has challenged the best of his generation. He was third to American Pharoah in the Kentucky Derby last year and he had to chase California Chrome in his last 3 races. California Chrome is tabbed at even money in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday. Dortmund was second in his last race in the Awesome Again Stakes and know that only two of the nine Dirt Mile winners won their most-recent prep race. Players could do much worse than using Gun Runner on the bottom end of an exotic play.
Breeders’ Cup selections for the Juvenile Fillies Turf offer a gamut for bettors. A full field is in prospect with runners from England, Canada, Ireland, Italy and around the country primed for action.
Contenders abound and start with Hydrangea. She has been a tough beat second a couple of times but she likes to keep her head and be forwardly placed. The course was playing for speed types when she lost the heartbreaker on 9/11. She was far from disgraced last time when six clear of the nearest foe and toss her debut against 20 rivals and the form brightens. Her future is intriguing as her sibling Fire Lily took multiple Group 3s and banked over $400,000 and sibling The United States won a Group 2, took 4 of 7, earned nearly $250,000.
Intricately has been as consistent as the day is long. Bred by the trainer’s father and ridden by trainer’s brother, trainer Joseph was the youngest to win a Breeders’ Cup race when he won the BC Turf aloft St. Nicholas Abbey in 2011. He will be trying to be the youngest trainer to do so.
La Coronel is game and going great guns but she has to break from the fourteen post.
Spain Burg has only lost once and she gets the call. This win machine punched her ticket to this race with the ‘win and you’re in’ Rockfel Stakes. She was just purchased at the Arqana Arc Sale for over $1. 6 million. Her trainer Kathy Ritvo is as tough as they come and has recovered from a heart transplant. Lastly she will be ridden by Frankie Dettori, who has won 11 BC races.
The opening day of the Breeders’ Cup selections concludes with what should a monumental race. The Distaff brings together the unbeaten sophomore Songbird, the champion Beholder and Stellar Wind, who has beaten Beholder in her last two races. Sophomores have done well in this race. Three-year-olds have been in the Distaff exacta in six straight years and it should continue here. Songbird will be trying to win her twelfth in a row. Jerry Hollendorfer never sends out a short horse and if Songbird has the lead at the top of the lane Friday, she will be very hard to collar. Four of her seven wins this year have come in Grade 1s including the Cotillion last time back East. She must be caught.
Friday will be a good day to try to pad the bankroll but the real action is Saturday. Try to save a few betting eggs for what should be a super Santa Anita finale to the Breeders’ Cup.
