The British are coming to Del Mar. As well as the French, the Japanese, the South Africans and more.
A total of 212 horses have been pre-entered for next week’s Breeders’ Cup races at Del Mar, with a record number of international horses (80) coming from a record number of continents (five).
The overseas contingent for the 14-race event on Nov. 1 and 2 includes a record 19 horses from Japan, with three (Derma Sotogake, Ushba Tesoro and Forever Young) trying to make history by winning the $7 million Classic. The same is true for Epsom Derby winner City of Troy, who will try to give legendary Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien his first Classic victory after 13 previous starters could not.
Unfortunately for fans much closer to home, two horses were not included in Wednesday’s announcement of pre-entries, and only one by choice.
The Chosen Vron, the popular Cal-bred gelding who won Del Mar’s most prestigious sprint race the last two summers, the Bing Crosby Stakes, was barred from entering the $2 million Sprint after a Breeders’ Cup veterinarian ruled Monday he was unsound.
The 6-year-old gelding, who was the second favorite in the most recent Daily Racing Form rankings for the race, has won 19 of 25 career starts with earnings of more than $1.7 million.
Trainer Eric Kruljac disagreed with the decision, telling Bloodhorse.com on Tuesday that the gelding “is the soundest horse I’ve ever trained.”
Asked via text Wednesday for a comment, Kruljac said, “I can’t respond to you other than The Chosen Vron is doing great, perfectly sound and that’s that.”
Another horse with prior Del Mar success, Sweet Azteca, who was thought for months to be perhaps Southern California’s best hope for winning a Breeders’ Cup race, was left out of the Filly & Mare Sprint by trainer Michael McCarthy after a poor effort earlier this month at Santa Anita. Sweet Azteca won three consecutive stakes races this year, including the Rancho Bernardo Handicap at Del Mar.
As usual, five Breeders’ Cup races will be held Friday, Nov. 1 – all for 2-year-olds – and nine the following day. A total of $30 million in purses will be awarded.
Saturday’s card includes the richest race in North America, the $7 million Classic, though it no longer serves as the climax to the event. Owing to NBC’s prime-time coverage of college football, the Classic will be run in the middle of the day, as the fifth Cup race at 2:41 p.m. Four races will follow, with the Dirt Mile – which features the last two Preakness winners, National Treasure and Seize the Grey – ending the day at 5:25 p.m.
Morning-line odds won’t be assigned until Monday, when the fields are set and post positions are drawn. The favorite in the 1¼-mile Classic likely will be the 3-year-old City of Troy, a son of 2018 Triple Crown champion Justify who has won three straight Grade I races this year in England but has never raced on dirt.
Second choice likely will be Travers winner Fierceness, one of four former Breeders’ Cup champions pre-entered, along with defending Distaff champion Idiomatic, who will face Kentucky Oaks winner and Travers runner-up Anna Thorpedo in one of the weekend’s most anticipated showdowns, Big Evs, who won the Juvenile Turf Sprint last year and will try the Turf Sprint this year, and 2022 Turf winner Rebel’s Romance.
All the races are limited to 14 starters except for the two turf sprints, which allow 12. Every race drew at least 11 pre-entries, but nine of the 14 races were oversubscribed, meaning not every horse will be able to run.
Among trainers, O’Brien – who has won 18 Cup races, tied for second all-time behind D. Wayne Lukas (20) – has pre-entered a personal-high 19 horses. Chad Brown and Bob Baffert, the other trainers with 18 Cup victories, each pre-entered 10 horses. Lukas has only Seize the Grey.
Brown, who has won four Eclipse Awards as North America’s top trainer, was disappointed not to have more than 10. He said he would have entered at least three in the Filly & Mare Turf had it been run at 1⅛ miles, as it was when the Breeders’ Cup was at Del Mar in 2017, instead of 1⅜ miles, as it was in 2021 and will be again this year.
“I wasn’t even asked about (the distance),” Brown said. “I feel like I’d be a good person to ask about it; I mean, I’ve won it several (four) times … at (various) distances.”
Brown’s primary argument against the 11-furlong distance at Del Mar is there are no other Grade I turf races in the U.S. for fillies and mares that go around three turns, so why should a championship race do that.
“It just doesn’t make any sense to me. I would keep it at two turns. The distance doesn’t really matter to me,” Brown said.
The configuration of Del Mar’s turf course does not allow for a two-turn race of between 1⅛ and 1⅜ miles.
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BREEDERS’ CUP AT DEL MAR
Friday, Nov. 1
First post: 11:35 a.m. (10 races)
Weather.com forecast: 66 degrees, partly cloudy
Cup races: Juvenile Turf Sprint (2:45 p.m.), Juvenile Fillies (3:25), Juvenile Fillies Turf (4:05), Juvenile (4:45), Juvenile Turf (5:25)
On the air: 1-5 p.m., USA Network; all races on FanDuel TV and breederscup.com; all Cup races streamed on Peacock
Saturday, Nov. 2
First post: 10:05 a.m. (12 races)
Weather.com forecast: 67 degrees, mostly sunny
Cup races: Filly & Mare Sprint (noon), Turf Sprint (12:41), Distaff (1:21), Turf (2:01), Classic (2:41), Filly and Mare Turf (3:25), Sprint (4:05), Mile (4:45), Dirt Mile (5:25)
On the air: 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., USA Network; 12:30-3 p.m., NBC; 3-5 p.m., USA; all races except Classic on FanDuel TV and breederscup.com; all Cup races streamed on Peacock