DEL MAR, Calif. – Four days before the main event begins and all was relatively, and somewhat surprisingly, quiet during training hours Monday morning at Del Mar, despite the fact all the participants have now arrived on-site for the 2024 Breeders’ Cup.
Only three potential Breeders’ Cup contenders turned in recorded works, two on a fast main track and a third over the firm turf, each of those of the maintenance variety. Otherwise, routine jogs and gallops were the order of the day. The action that did occur took place under overcast skies with temperatures moderating a tad from previous mornings, holding steady in the low 60s during the four-hour session that began at 5:30 a.m.
After blowing out three of his five Breeders’ Cup hopefuls on Sunday, trainer Steve Asmussen came back again early Monday to complete the job, sending out Turf Sprint favorite Cogburn and Sprint hopeful Gun Pilot to go an easy three furlongs under the cover of darkness. Cogburn warmed up in the chute and came out to breeze literally seconds after the track opened for business. Gun Pilot followed suit about 30 minutes later. Both were well within themselves throughout, Cogburn galloping out the strongest of the pair, and Gun Pilot easing up a bit quickly after completing the distance in 36.80 seconds.
Satono Carnaval, who’ll come into the Juvenile Turf perfect in two starts for trainer Noriyuki Hori, was the only horse to train on the turf Monday morning. He eased off at a leisurely pace before picking up the tempo the farther he went, two-minute-licking down the backstretch and into the turn before dropping his head and breezing from the quarter pole to the wire in 25.50 after which he continued out strongly another 1 1/2 furlongs into the clubhouse turn. It is much the same training style seen here from a majority of the Japanese entrants in this year’s Breeders’ Cup.
Monday did mark the first local sightings of horses from the powerhouse stables of trainers Todd Pletcher, Chad Brown, and Bob Baffert. All either simply jogged or turned in easy, routine gallops while just a couple of days removed from their final serious Breeders’ Cup preps at their home bases in New York or up the road at Santa Anita. Among the most notable runners from those barns were Classic contenders Fierceness (Pletcher) and Sierra Leone (Brown), who were on the track simultaneously shortly after the renovation break along with Forever Young, one of three Japanese runners in the Classic, who is expected to have his final work here Tuesday.
There were a few anxious moments on the track near the tail end of the early-morning training session when Ushba Tesoro wheeled suddenly and lost his rider after appearing to spook from something that had caught his eye. At one point, he got tangled up in his reins after seizing hold of one of the stirrup irons with his mouth. Fortunately, all’s well that ended well, his rider ultimately remounting and getting Ushba Tesoro back on task to complete his scheduled training regimen.
Among the more eye-catching gallops of the morning was turned in by East Avenue, who is likely to vie for favoritism in the Juvenile with Brown’s Chancer McPatrick. The striking Godolphin homebred East Avenue came by the wire a couple of times, looking as imposing as the unblemished form he brings into this year’s Breeders’ Cup for trainer Brendan Walsh.
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