The week ahead looks full to bursting with potential significance for the Santa Anita spectacular on November 3-4 – plus the dilemma over Pennsylvania Derby winner Saudi Crown
The calm before the storm. That’s maybe one way to describe matters pertinent to the Breeders’ Cup.
After a relatively quiet period on the prep front, anybody with even half an eye on matters pertaining to the two-day jamboree knows what is around the corner this coming weekend, when there are a dozen ‘Win and You’re In’ qualifiers spread across three countries and both US coasts.
But that’s not all. While only one of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge races is at Santa Anita, which will host the championships for a record 11th on November 3-4, they’ve still got a blockbuster weekend lined up with nine stakes races altogether.
Throw in two or three more WAYI races at the current ‘Belmont at the Big A’ meet – including the Vosburgh with Cody’s Wish – plus the Ack Ack on the Lukas Classic card in Kentucky, and we won’t be able to move for races with Breeders’ Cup implications between Friday and Sunday.
Oh, then there’s the small matter of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe card on Sunday with five Breeders’ Cup Challenge races at Paris Longchamp plus a couple more at Newmarket this week.
There’s even major interest in Japan on Wednesday [Sept 27], where Dubai World Cup winner Ushba Tesoro is due to have his Classic prep in a race at Funabashi on the NAR (National Association of Racing) second-tier circuit.
Dubai World Cup runner-up Algiers (Dirt Mile), trained by Simon & Ed Crisford, is expected to run in the Woodward at Aqueduct on Saturday [Sept 30]. “It is a fact-finding mission,” said Ed Crisford. “We want to see if he can handle the American dirt because it is different from Meydan.”
In other Japanese news, UAE Derby winner Derma Sotogake has reportedly shrugged off the minor ailment that meant he misses his intended prep run but is back on track for the Classic with five-time JRA champ Christophe Lemaire booked.
Cristian Demuro has been signed up for Japanese compatriot Shahryar in the BC Turf. This son of the great Deep Impact won the Japanese Derby as a three-year-old in 2021 before beating Breeders’ Cup hero Yibir in the Dubai Sheema Classic. Reports suggest he has recovered well after surgery on a trapped epiglottis that must have affected him when he flopped last time out.
So it seems the Japanese are coming fully tooled up for the big fight, now back in California, where they recorded that historic double two years ago. Ignore them at your peril.
On home ground, it will be hard to know where to look as the week progresses. Santa Anita’s highlight is the Awesome Again, the major west-coast G1 prep for the BC Classic and still referred to as the Goodwood by old-fashioned types. Perhaps because Awesome Again, a BC Classic winner for racetrack magnate Frank Stronach, never actually ran at Santa Anita, though he did appear in a couple of maiden races at now defunct Hollywood Park.
Given modern trends towards longer breaks before races, the Awesome Again will take place minus the two principal California contenders for the BC Classic, as both Haskell winner Geaux Rocket Ride and Bob Baffert-trained Arabian Knight will go straight to the big show. As is Classic favourite Arcangelo, who is due to arrive at Santa Anita on Wednesday [Sept 27]; already there, with a published work, is Whitney winner White Abarrio.
The four-year-old, now trained by Rick Dutrow, is being housed with Doug O’Neill, who struck in $1m company at Parx in Philadelphia last Saturday [Sept 23] when saddling Ceiling Crusher for a front-running success in the G1 Cotillion.
Although the filly thwarted Kentucky Oaks winner Pretty Mischievous to claim the G1 event at a sloppy Parx, she needs to be supplemented to the Breeders’ Cup, and that $100,000 gamble appears unlikely.
“I doubt that will happen,” said O’Neill. “Being optimistic we can have a really nice four-year-old campaign.”
Brad Cox is also on the fence when it comes to Saudi Crown, who continued his vaulting progress through the ranks of the Classic generation when holding off the late charge of Dreamlike to win the $1m Penn Derby.
It was a tricky performance to evaluate – like Ceiling Crusher, Saudi Crown made all on a wet track favouring front-runners. Then again, the son of Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming has been beaten only two noses in five career starts, and his Beyers (106, 105, 105) have a solid feel and in a muddling year.
While there are potential stamina concerns stretching out another furlong, he looks a hugely promising sort and would surely merit serious consideration in the Classic, for which British bookmakers are offering 10-1.
But the thing is, his owners are Saudis – hence the name, presumably – and they are setting out their stall for the world’s richest race, the $20m Saudi Cup in Riyadh in February. Of course, there’s no earthly reason why he can’t run in both races (nor the Pegasus, for that matter), and Cox is mulling over options with the BC Dirt Mile also figuring in the mix.
On the plus side, the trainer is comparing Saudi Crown to Knicks Go, who won the Dirt Mile at Keeneland in 2020 before Classic success at Del Mar 12 months later. “He’s every bit as capable of getting a mile and a quarter as Knicks Go was,” Cox told the Daily Racing Form (under a headline which summed it up, saying:‘Cox’s dilemma – whether to run Saudi Crown in Breeders’ Cup race or not’)
“We’ll do our homework, see who’s going where and if it makes sense for the horse.”
The other big news at Parx was the shock defeat of star sprinter Gunite as Steve Asmussen tried him over a mile in Listed company. Sent off 3-10, Gunite was having a sighter for the Dirt Mile before getting outfinished by Nimitz Class.
Probably back to sprinting at Santa Anita, methinks, though Asmussen will have to juggle as he’s been talking about running superstar filly Echo Zulu against the boys in the BC Sprint.
Meanwhile the unbeaten Tamara, likely favourite for the BC Juvenile Fillies, is now set to go to the race without another outing after Richard Mandella ruled out the Chandelier on October 7.
“It was such a big effort the other day. I don’t want to run her another time and then come up empty at Breeders’ Cup time,” he said. “She looks good, but they can turn on you.”
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