Trainer Dale Romans has confirmed that Grade 1 Pacific Classic winner
Dullahan and Grade 1 Arlington Million winner Little Mike will both start in the
Turf. Dullahan had been pre-entered for the Classic, while Little Mike had been
considered for the Mile.
“With Dullahan, it was just a surface decision,” Romans said. “He seemed to
work a little better on the turf. His gallop out was stronger on the turf.
“With (Little) Mike it came down to the pace scenario. The Mile looks like
the toughest race on the card and there is plenty of speed in there already. We
felt like the downhill slope of this course would help him stretch out in the
Turf.”
Michael and Amy Feuerborn’s Class Included, a winner in six of seven starts
this year, will contest the Ladies’ Classic instead of the Filly & Mare
Sprint, where the daughter of Include was also pre-entered.
“She won three straight stakes at a mile and an eighth and has five wins and
a second that was very impressive at the distance,” said Kate Cooper, trainer
Jim Penney’s daughter and assistant. “The Ladies’ Classic is a very tough race,
but we came to here to run.”
Nonios, a three-year-old son of 2003 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Pleasantly
Perfect, will follow his sire by running in Saturday’s Classic.
The colt will get a final tune-up for the race with a half-mile workout
Tuesday morning over Santa Anita’s main track. Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said
the colt would work after the first track renovation break at about 7:30 a.m.
(PDT).
“For the opportunity of running in the premier race and because the distance
fit him better than the mile,” Hollendorfer said when asked why the trainer
chose the 1 1/4-mile Classic over the Dirt Mile for the double pre-entered colt.
A sharp five-furlong workout in :59 2/5 over the Santa Anita turf course on
Saturday sealed the deal for trainer Peter Miller, who will run Reneesgotzip in
the Turf Sprint instead of the Filly & Mare Sprint, in which she was also
pre-entered.
“She worked really great on the turf and she’s bred top and bottom for turf,
so that went together to help me make the decision,” Miller said Monday.
Trainer Todd Pletcher’s chief assistant Mike McCarthy reported Monday morning
that the six horses already on the Santa Anita grounds are all doing well and
have completed their works for the Breeders’ Cup.
“They’ll all just gallop the rest of the week,” McCarthy said. “I’m just
worried about everybody back there (New York), not just the horses.”
Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes winner Love and Pride, a contender in the Ladies’
Classic, has been here since the week of her September 29 victory over the Santa
Anita dirt.
“She’s doing well, and she’s had a couple nice works here since the race,”
McCarthy said. “She seems to get over the race track well.”
Also at Santa Anita is Turbo Compressor, who ran second in the Grade 2 John
Henry on September 30 and has been entered in the Turf.
Other Pletcher runners already on the grounds at Barn 89 are In Lingerie, who
will run in the Filly & Mare Turf rather than the Ladies’ Classic; Mile
contender Doubles Partner, who was fourth in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile;
Juvenile Fillies Turf candidate Tara from the Cape; and Bridgetown, who will be
asked to stretch out to about 6 1/2 furlongs in the Turf Sprint.
The first European trainer on the grounds at Santa Anita was Jeremy Noseda,
who will saddle Fantastic Moon (Juvenile Turf) and The Gold Cheongsam (Juvenile
Fillies Turf).
“I think this race will suit Fantastic Moon,” Noseda said. “He was impeded in
his last run in the (Group 2) Royal Lodge at Newmarket, but I liked the way he
put his head down and ran on at the finish. The Gold Cheongsam is a tough filly,
who has plenty of experience.”
Also at the quarantine barn was Godolphin trainer Mahmood al Zarooni, who
saddles Artigiano in the Juvenile Turf.
“He seems to have traveled well,” al Zarooni said. “He has some good form
with the top two-year-olds in England and I am hopeful he will run well on
Saturday. Frankie Dettori, who rides him, knows the horse well and knows the
track.”
Artigiano, and the John Gosden-trained Snow King, were the first European
runners out on to the Santa Anita track.
Snow King did a circuit of the main dirt track at a walk and a gentle trot
while Artigiano jogged two circuits of the training track before going on to the
main track for a light canter.
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