Things to know today
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The Grade 2 Sycamore runs at Keeneland tonight, 400,000 dollars over a mile and a half of turf in its 32nd running, with twelve declared and four also-eligible. Just a Touch, a five-year-old son of Justify, carries 122 pounds for Brad Cox and Irad Ortiz Jr. and is owned by Qatar Racing, Fergus Galvin, Adrian Regan and Marc Detampel. He has won three of his four starts on grass, the last of them the mile-and-a-half Colonial Cup at Colonial Downs on 7 September, where Carcano was a head away and now stands as an also-eligible here (The Pressbox, America’s Best Racing) |
| 2 |
Belmont Park puts up two turf stakes for three-year-olds on Saturday, the Grade 3 Hill Prince at 200,000 dollars over a mile and three sixteenths of the inner turf with nine declared, and the first running of the Bricks and Mortar at 175,000 dollars over seven furlongs with nine more, on an eleven-race card that starts at 12.05 Eastern. Caroline St. Beat, who took the Grade 2 Nashville Derby at Kentucky Downs on 5 September by a length and a half on short rest, heads the Hill Prince for Madaket Stables, Steven Bouchey and Miguel Clement, who said all the credit goes to the owners for being bold enough to do it. The War Front colt Two Out Hero, second in the Grade 2 Franklin-Simpson on that same Kentucky Downs card, has the inside in the Bricks and Mortar for Gold Square and Kevin Attard (New York Racing Association) |
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Keeneland’s Fall Meet carries 22 stakes worth 10.7 million dollars across 17 days from 2 to 24 October, twelve of them on turf and ten on dirt, six at Grade 1 and eight of them Breeders’ Cup Challenge races. The track opened on 15 October 1936 with nine days of racing, so this is its ninetieth year, and it hosts the Breeders’ Cup World Championships for a fourth time after 2015, 2020 and 2022. Gatewood Bell, the vice president of racing, said this is a special year for Keeneland and that fans can expect to see some of the best racing anywhere in the sport (Keeneland) |
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Breeders’ Cup pre-entries close at noon Eastern on Monday 19 October, and the pre-entered fields for the fourteen races will be revealed on Wednesday 21 October on FanDuel TV, hosted by Scott Hazelton and Joaquin Jaime, with the fields also posted on the Breeders’ Cup website. Every runner has to be Breeders’ Cup nominated. Entries are taken and post positions drawn on Monday 26 October (Paulick Report via Yahoo Sports) |
| 5 |
Rhetorical made all to win the Coolmore Turf Mile at Keeneland on 3 October for the second year running, a mile on firm turf in 1:36.35, beating Lake Forest two and a quarter lengths with Title Role third. Irad Ortiz Jr. rode the New York-bred gelding by Not This Time for Will Walden, and the win carries a fees paid place in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Walden said hats off to Irad, and plans to train at Churchill Downs before shipping in for the meeting (America’s Best Racing) |
| 6 |
Team Valor will bypass the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with U.S.S. Valor despite his winning the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont Park on 3 October by six and a half lengths, a mile in 1:34.84 under Manny Franco for a fourth Champagne for Shug McGaughey. The Team Valor homebred by War of Will came out of the race unscathed, and the owners said the focus is now next year’s Kentucky Derby, so a fees paid Juvenile place and ten Derby points go unused. Barry Irwin and McGaughey took the decision together (Horse Racing Nation, Paulick Report via Yahoo Sports) |
| 7 |
Hughes stayed unbeaten in the Grade 1 American Pharoah at Santa Anita on 3 October, a mile and a sixteenth in 1:43.22 and six lengths clear of Net Par, with Imperial Honor a long way back third. Juan Hernandez rode the Into Mischief colt for Bob Baffert and a partnership led by Front Row Club, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables and Stonestreet Stables. He is four from four and holds a fees paid place in the two million dollar Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Baffert said he fits well in the Breeders’ Cup now, so hopefully they can get him there healthy (Horse Racing Nation) |
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Forever Young tops the final power rankings before the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic, taking 25 of the first-place votes in a poll of media, horseplayers and Breeders’ Cup officials who each rank a top ten, with points scored from ten down to one. Sovereignty took 12 after his Whitney win, Knightsbridge is third off the Pacific Classic, Magnitude fourth and Golden Tempo fifth. Forever Young is owned by Susumu Fujita and trained by Yoshito Yahagi, with Ryusei Sakai riding, and won the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on 18 September (America’s Best Racing) |
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Flavien Prat is reported to take over on Magnitude for the Classic, with Jose Ortiz staying on Golden Tempo, the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner he has ridden in every start of his career. Ortiz had also ridden Magnitude in each of his runs this year, among them Grade 1 wins in the Dubai World Cup and the Stephen Foster. Steve Asmussen, who trains Magnitude, said he was surprised. The agent Steve Rushing said his rider has won major races on both horses and that he does not think there is a right or wrong decision to be made, Golden Tempo staying in training next year while Magnitude is expected to go to stud at Coolmore America. Prat has won the race twice, with Flightline in 2022 and Sierra Leone in 2024, and the report came from the Daily Racing Form (Horse Racing Nation, Paulick Report via Yahoo Sports) |
| 10 |
Baeza has been retired sound and will stand at Spendthrift Farm from 2027 at 25,000 dollars, the announcement made on Tuesday, hours after he had been ranked tenth in that poll. The McKinzie colt out of Puca raced 13 times for Lee and Susan Searing’s C R K Stable, finishing in the first three on ten occasions for more than 2.3 million dollars, with six Grade 1 placings and a win in the Pennsylvania Derby, and he was third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup on his final start. Robert Clay’s Grandview Equine bred him and he cost 1.2 million dollars as a Keeneland September yearling. Searing said his Kentucky Derby run was something they will never forget (Horse Racing Nation) |
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