Having cleared quarantine Wednesday evening, Aidan O’Brien’s powerful
Breeders’ Cup team took to the Santa Anita track for the first time to stretch
their legs Thursday morning.
Leading the group was St Nicholas Abbey, who will be bidding to win the
Breeders’ Cup Turf for the second time in succession. His regular rider Joseph
O’Brien was in the saddle, and having loosened up with a gentle walk and a trot,
he put in a nice steady canter around the main track.
Excelebration (Mile) and Treasure Beach (Turf) were the next to follow, and
just like St Nicholas Abbey they went for a steady canter on the dirt.
The remainder of the Ballydoyle team of Starspangledbanner (Turf Sprint),
Fame and Glory (Marathon), Up (Filly & Mare Turf), George Vancouver (Juvenile
Turf) and Lines of Battle (Juvenile Turf) all followed a similar pattern, as did
Infanta Branca, with Ryan Moore on board, who is on the also-eligible list for
the Juvenile Fillies Turf.
As he rode back on his pony to the quarantine barn, O’Brien confirmed all his
string to be in good shape, and that their first visit to the track had gone
well. One or two had appeared to have gotten a little warm, but the trainer
wasn’t concerned.
“There was nothing out of the ordinary there,” he said. “I’d be more
concerned if they hadn’t.”
Back at the barn, Aidan O’Brien again spoke with journalists present,
reiterating many of the points he made Wednesday regarding his leading hopes
Excelebration and St Nicholas Abbey. He also explained his decision to run
Starspangledbanner at Dundalk last Friday, where he finished fourth in a listed
race over five furlongs.
“We wanted to get him (Starspangledbanner) back into the sprinting habit and
felt a race would be better for him than a series of workouts. Five furlongs is
on the short side for him now, and from a bad draw I thought he ran well. I am
not sure his draw here (14) is ideal, but a strongly run race over 6 1/2
furlongs on this ground should suit him.”
The first of the Europeans to appear on the track at around 6:40 a.m. (PDT)
Thursday was the Ralph Beckett-trained Waterway Run (Juvenile Fillies Turf)
under race rider Frankie Dettori, who had a nice stretch on the dirt before
returning home.
Sense of Purpose (Marathon) was also out on the dirt this morning, and her
preparation was closely watched by her trainer Dermot Weld.
“I think she’s in great shape, but it’s all about how she takes to the
surface,” regular rider Pat Smullen said after his exercise stint aboard Sense
of Purpose. “It’s an unknown and it’s different, and there’s nothing you can
really do back at home to prepare them for it.”
The turf track also saw some action with the Jeremy Noseda-trained pair of
The Gold Cheongsam (Juvenile Fillies Turf) and Fantastic Moon (Juvenile Turf)
going for nice steady canters.
“I am very happy with both of them, they are picking up and looking better
and better each day out here,” Noseda said.
The Noseda duo was closely followed by the John Gosden-trained The Fugue,
with William Buick on board, and in similar fashion to those in front of her she
completed a circuit of the turf at a steady canter.
Richard Hannon’s Sky Lantern (Juvenile Fillies Turf), in the hands of British
champion jockey elect Richard Hughes, also put in some gentle work on the turf.
She walked a circuit before cantering one lap of the track.
“All went well this morning,” said Richard Hannon Jr, who is representing his
father. “Sky Lantern took to the grass well and came round the turn nicely.
She’s very well, and right now it’s so far, so good.”
Trainer Roger Charlton, who arrived in Los Angeles Wednesday night, saw his
charge Dundonnell (Juvenile Turf) walk a circuit of the track with his pony
before doing a lap on his own in the hands of James Doyle at a nice steady pace.
“He seems very well and has adapted to the track,” Doyle noted. “He seems to
like his pony and this ground should suit him. It’s good to be here, and to be
on a horse with a live chance in a race like this is massive.”
“When you come to these big international meetings,” Charlton observed, “you
see so many trainers doing so many different things, walking, jogging, working
their horses, giving them easy lead-ups to the races, there are a lot of
different approaches. He’s fit and well, and I think Dundonnell will be fine on
the firm turf, but if it turns out to be too firm, it’s too firm. We’ll find out
on the day.”
Roger Varian’s Nahrain (Filly & Mare Turf) had a very gentle canter around
half a circuit of the track Thursday.
“We just took her to the track today for a jog and a canter,” Varian said.
“She’s fit and well and in good form, and that’s the main thing. Time will tell
if she’s good enough.
“We are putting a pair of blinkers on her at the suggestion of her jockey in
the Flower Bowl (John Velazquez), who said that even though she’d won, she’d run
a little lazily that day. Maybe the blinkers will give her a little extra edge.
This is a tougher race, and you can’t give anything away.”
Frankie Dettori has the mount on Friday.
Another Filly & Mare Turf contender, I’m a Dreamer, stepped up on her work
from Wednesday and having cantered a circuit of the track picked up the pace and
did a very nice breeze in the hands of Laura Pike
Once again the French came out to the track together but soon split up into
different parties. Moonlight Cloud (Mile) had a nice stretch of her legs before
returning to the barn.
“I am very happy with her,” trainer Freddie Head said. “She has had a really
good preparation for this race over the past month and a half. She’s been
training around a bend back home in Lamorlaye (France), and I have no concerns
about the ground. She’s had the perfect build up, and while I have a big respect
for Wise Dan and Excelebration, it’s possible she can turn that (Deauville) form
around.”
Mikel Delzangles, who flew in from Australia Wednesday, saw his pair of
Flotilla (Juvenile Fillies Turf) and Ridasiyna (Filly & Mare Turf) put in a
couple of nice steady canters on the main track. As soon as his two runners have
run, Delzangles will be heading back to Australia to supervise Dunaden’s
participation in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup.
“She’s quite a mature filly for a two-year-old,” Delzangles said of Flotilla,
“and has taken to things well out here. She seems to have taken her run in the
(Group 1) Marcel Boussac (finished fourth) well and I was pleased with that run
given the soft ground that day. She should handle the ground here OK, and I will
be hoping for a race run at a decent even pace.
“(Ridasiyna) impressed me last time in the (Group 1) Prix de l’Opera,”
Delzangles added, “as I was worried about the soft ground beforehand, but she
won well in spite of it. This will be faster ground than she has raced on, and
she had her only bad run at Deauville on firm ground, but before that she won on
quick ground at Chantilly, so I think it will be OK for her.”
In similar fashion to Wednesday, Alain de Royer-Dupre’s Shareta (Turf) was
put through her paces with another solid canter of the track. The daughter of
Sinndar, with two Group 1 wins this season in the Prix Vermeille and the
Yorkshire Oaks, will be hoping to put the disappointment of her ninth-place in
last month’s soft ground Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe behind her.
Mahmood al Zarooni’s Artigiano (Juvenile Turf), who will be ridden by Dettori
on Saturday, had a stretch on the training track before heading out on to the
dirt.
“He’s well, and we’re ready,” al Zarooni said. “All we can do now is pray for
a little racing luck.”
Ceiling Kitty (Juvenile Sprint) was the last of the Europeans to go to the
main track Thursday. Trainer Tom Dascombe’s daughter of Red Clubs looked a lot
more settled than she did Wednesday, and went three-quarters of a circuit at a
trot with her pony before returning back down the stretch at a gentle canter.
“To be honest I am not sure how she’ll go,” Dascombe offered. “Five furlongs
may be her best trip, the dirt surface is an imponderable, so I am not sure
quite what to expect. If she breaks well, if she handles the dirt and if she
gets the trip, then she’ll go close.”
The Japanese runner in the Turf, Trailblazer, arrived at the quarantine barn
at Santa Anita at around 3.15 a.m. on Wednesday after a short ride from
Hollywood Park and was hand-walked on arrival for about an hour before being
allowed the rest of the day off.
On Thursday, Trailblazer walked for a while in the barn area close to the
receiving barn before going to the track and galloping a circuit. Speaking on
behalf of Team Japan, interpreter Mikki Tsuge reported all to be well with the
horse, and that his connections were pleased with the way the horse was coming
into the race.
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