With the Breeders’ Cup World Championships just less than a month and a half away, the stakes competition is getting hot and heavy, with horses trying to get in that one last prep before they run what could be the biggest race of their lives. For the second year in a row, the Breeders’ Cup will be held at Santa Anita Park in California, meaning special attention must be paid to those contenders who excel on synthetic and grass surfaces. Euro shippers with little more than grass experience dominated the championships last year, upsetting our American dirt horses on the artificial surfaces. So what will this year bring? A couple prep races from this and last weekend may give us a clue.
Last weekend, the Grade II $750,000 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs served as the comeback race for Godolphin’s Regal Ransom. The colt dominated a field of six to win his last Breeders’ Cup Classic prep by 1 ¼ lengths; he would’ve won by considerably more had he not been geared-down at the wire. The 1 1/8-mile test proved the colt was back in dominating form after fading to 8th place in the Kentucky Derby last time out. A fast-closing Blame was second, but couldn’t even pass Regal Ransom after the gallop-out, when the Godolphin colt rebroke and had to be caught by an outrider. Though Regal Ransom has only been worse than second place two times in his life, both of them 8th place finishes, it’s interesting to note those two races: the Kentucky Derby and the Norfolk Stakes. Granted, the Norfolk was only the horse’s second start, but the race was held on Santa Anita’s main track, and the horse didn’t appear to have much of an excuse for his performance. Hmm…
If you can make anything out of the Grade I $750,000 Northern Dancer Turf at Woodbine last Sunday, kudos from me. The top three finishers were rearranged thanks to a disqualification, when the horse that crossed the wire first, Marsh Side, drifted into Quijano, who checked the furious charge of Champs Elysees and Garrett Gomez on the rail. Just As Well, the only horse not to be involved in the incident, finished a clean second; after Marsh Side was DQ’d to fourth, Just As Well was promoted to the winner’s circle. The argument was that Champs Elysees appeared he was about to blow past the other horses had he not had to check and swing around the horses that had moved into his lane. For Just As Well, the runner-up in the Arlington Million, the Breeders’ Cup Turf is now doubtlessly his sights, though he has another option; the Northern Dancer Turf is the same distance as the BC Marathon at 1 ½ miles.
This Saturday, the lightly-raced Hold Me Back is trying his last chance to get into the Breeders’ Cup Classic field. The winner of the Lane’s End Stakes will be trying to duplicate his success at Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky, in the Grade II Kentucky Cup Classic. Most recently, Hold Me Back shocked horseplayers when he finished second to Summer Bird in the Grade I Travers, putting away the favorite, Quality Road, for third over a sloppy track. Never a dominating colt, Hold Me Back has 3 wins from 8 starts, all of those victories coming over Polytrack. The Kentucky Cup Classic serves as an ideal spot for this colt’s springboard to the big show; even the competition is a little threadbare. Perhaps his biggest rivals are Wicked Style, Furthest Land, and Dubious Miss; while Wicked Style seems to have the best advantage out of these, the fact leading rider Garrett Gomez is flying in from California to ride Furthest Land waves a flag in my mind. Calvin Borel has the mount on Dubious Miss, and therefore I refuse to overlook this horse. But if you consider the horses Hold Me Back has been consistently competing against this season, and the fact Julien Leparoux will have the mount, he has no excuse if he loses at Turfway this Saturday.
Also on Saturday is the Grade I Gallant Bloom Handicap at Belmont Park. Champion filly Indian Blessing will be using the race as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, in which she finished second to Ventura last year. (Ventura, by the way, won the Grade I Woodbine Mile against males last Saturday and is likely targeted toward a repeat performance in the BC FM Sprint this year). Indian Blessing won the Gallant Bloom last year by 6 ¼ lengths, and is in need of a win. Lightly raced this year thanks to a grueling trip to Dubai, in which she finished second in her first attempt against males, the Dubai Golden Shaheen, Indian Blessing hasn’t shown the same form as last year; however, her trainer, Bob Baffert, says she has been prepared for the Gallant Bloom better than she was her last time out, when she placed second over a sloppy track to Music Note in the Grade I Ballerina. The Gallant Bloom is slated to be Indian Blessing’s second-to-last race, where she will take her career bow at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, the very place she exploded onto the scene in winning the Juvenile Fillies in 2007.
Though this year’s Breeders’ Cup will be a little less exciting without America’s most electrifying horse (that’s right, Rachel has no plans to grace California), there’s still plenty of intrigue with the number of horses that are packing their bags. And I have yet to mention Sea the Stars.
But that’s another article.
The Grade II Kentucky Cup Classic will be broadcast live on TVG from Turfway Park. Post time is scheduled for approximately 6:21pm ET.
The Grade I Gallant Bloom Handicap will be broadcast live on TVG and HRTV from Belmont Park. Post time is TBD.