DEL MAR, Calif. – On day 2 of the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, two trainers will attempt to do something they’ve never done while two trainers will attempt to continue to do what they’ve always done.
Aidan O’Brien, the champion Irish trainer, has won 18 Breeders’ Cup races but is winless with 17 starters in 14 runnings of the Classic, which this year carries a record $7 million purse. Saturday, in the Classic, he’ll send out City of Troy, an immensely talented 3-year-old son of Justify who has won 6 of 7 starts – all on turf in Europe – and has never raced on dirt. Among his chief rivals in a full 14-horse field is Forever Young, a Japan-based 3-year-old trained by Yoshito Yahagi, who has never lost a race at Del Mar. At the 2021 Breeders’ Cup, the last one held at this seaside oval, Yahagi won the Distaff with Marche Lorraine and the Filly and Mare Turf with Loves Only You.
Forever Young suffered his only career defeat when beaten two noses in the Kentucky Derby.
Charlie Appleby, who has amassed an amazing 10-for-20 record in the Breeders’ Cup, will attempt to win an unprecedented fourth straight Breeders’ Cup Mile when he sends out Notable Speech, arguably the best of the trainer’s five runners on Saturday.
“It’d be nice. You try not to think about those things,” Appleby said Thursday morning. “You’re never really happy until you’re in the gates. But even then, I’ve been here before in the gates and I still haven’t had a great result. I don’t count my chickens until they’ve gone past that line.”
Appleby was referring to the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, held here, when his 2-year-old Albahr reared up in the gate and was scratched. In what ultimately became a chaotic event, Appleby’s other horse in the race, Modern Games, also was announced as a scratch, before ultimately being allowed to run, but for purse money only. As fate would have it, Modern Games won, but the bettors lost.
Unless of course, they bet on Tiz the Bomb, who, for parimutuel purposes, was declared the winner. Ironically, Tiz the Bomb was trained by Kenny McPeek who, officially, is 0 for 37 in the Breeders’ Cup.
McPeek has never started one as talented or who figures to be as short a price as Thorpedo Anna, the four-time Grade 1-winning 3-year-old filly who looms an odds-on favorite in Saturday’s $2 million Distaff.
“There’s a lot of positive energy right now. I like that,” McPeek said Thursday morning after watching Thorpedo Anna gallop.
The Distaff, which had 12 pre-entrants and went with only 10 at entry time, was down to eight as of Thursday. Longshots Batucada and Miss New York were scratched Wednesday on the advice of the Breeders’ Cup/state veterinarians. Those were two of seven horses scratched – not all by the vets – following the close of Monday’s entries. Four of those scratches impacted Friday’s card. Ylang Ylang was scratched from Saturday’s Filly and Mare Turf.
McPeek needs a scratch out of the Classic in order for his Rattle N Roll to draw in from the also-eligible list.
The rumor mill centered on Senor Buscador as a horse that could potentially scratch from the Classic. He underwent a positron emission tomography (PET) scan earlier in the week, and the results, according to trainer Todd Fincher, were satisfactory.
“We did it for us,” Fincher, who did say the 5-year-old horse had puffy ankles, said of the PET scan. “If there was a problem, we’re not going to run. Everything’s really good. There’s nothing of concern.”
There are nine Breeders’ Cup races on Saturday as part of a 12-race card that begins at 10:05 a.m. The first Breeders’ Cup race is the Filly and Mare Sprint (noon Pacific) and the Classic goes as race 8 (2:41 p.m.).
NBC will provide live coverage of the event from 12:30-3 p.m. Pacific, with its streaming service Peacock, USA, and FanDuel TV providing coverage of the rest of the card.
The forecast calls for temperatures in the mid to upper 60s, with partly cloudy skies and the chance of a late-day shower.
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