An update on horses with Oaklawn connections expected to compete during the Breeders’ Cup World Championships:
CLASSIC
BAYERN The third-place finisher in the Arkansas Derby galloped 1½ miles on the training track Wednesday morning. A victory in the $5 million Classic would be a nice ending to a Breeders’ Cup week that hasn’t started well for the Bob Baffert stable with its contingent having dropped from eight to six, most recently with the withdrawal of Juvenile favorite American Pharaoh on Tuesday because of a foot bruise.
Baffert said if Bayern can get to the lead, he doesn’t expect him to be left alone there. Bayern made it to the front in the Travers, but he didn’t do much once he made it up front and finished 10th, beaten by 20 lengths. That wasn’t the case in the Pennsylvania Derby, where Bayern went wire to wire for the victory.
“We’re going to let him run his race,” Baffert said. “He can get the mile and a quarter but at a certain pace. Not going :22 to the quarter, and they might be doing that.”
PRAYER FOR RELIEF Trainer Dale Romans has only had Prayer for Relief in his barn since April, but he said the fourthplace finisher in the Oaklawn Handicap is doing better than ever.
Romans said he has seen a resurgence in form from the 6-year-old. Prayer For Relief finished second in the Pimlico Special in May and in his most recent race finished third at the Woodward.
“I couldn’t ask for him to be doing any better,” Romans said.
Romans said he expect to see the horse’s best race in the Classic.
“Whether that’s good enough to win, I don’t know,” he said. “But I do know he’ll run his best and maybe some of the others won’t.”
DISTAFF
CLOSE HATCHES Juddmonte Farms’ seven-time Graded stakes winner galloped 1¼ miles Wednesday morning at the end of the training period.
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said the 4-year-old filly, winner of the Azeri Stakes and the Apple Blossom Handicap, was doing well.
Close Hatches, out of Rising Tornado, comes from one Juddmonte Farms’ top families. Her sire, First Defence, is a Grade I-winning homebred. His dam is Honest Lady, who finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in 2000. Honest Lady also has two well-known brothers: Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker and Arlington Million winner Chester House.
DON’T TELL SOPHIA Trainer Phil Sims had Don’t Tell Sophia gallop Wednesday morning under regular exercise rider Kerrin Meyer to get a feel for the track. Meyer said she backtracked the winner of the Pippin and Bayakoa Stakes to the eighth pole and then picked it up at the three-eighths pole so she could see where it is on the track.
“She has matured a lot and really gotten better with age and has grown into her body,” said Meyer, who has been Don’t Tell Sophia’s regular morning partner for the past 3½ years. “She is a cool horse to be around and is very expressive. She’s very special.”
“I try not to get overconfident or under-confident,” Sims said. “I just like to have the horse do the talking.”
STANWYCK Stanwyck jogged three-quarters of a mile and galloped a mile Wednesday morning. Trainer John Shirreffs said it was an easier day following a strong gallop Tuesday.
DIRT MILE
TAPITURE The winner of the Southwest Stakes has been training well heading into the Dirt Mile, and trainer Steve Asmussen expects a big race from the 3-year-old as long as the track doesn’t play to his disadvantage.
“My only concern with him is that the track will have a bias [toward speed],” Asmussen said. “He’ll need them to slow down a little and come back to him if he’s going to have a chance.”
SPRINT
WORK ALL WEEK The Hot Springs Stakes winner arrived Tuesday evening after a delayed flight from Kentucky, and got his first taste of Santa Anita’s main track with an easy 1½ mile gallop Wednesday morning.
“He was a little stiff from the trip, but other than that it went great,” trainer Roger Brueggemann said.