As usual, the post-position draws for the 14 Breeders’ Cup races were conducted in the order the races will be run this weekend at Del Mar, meaning the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic was 14th and last.
If anyone wanted drama Monday, however, they were in the wrong place.
Knicks Go, the 5-2 favorite in the race that likely will decide Horse of the Year, was assigned No. 5, right in the middle of the field of nine. The horses expected to be his toughest competitors, 3-year-olds Essential Quality (No. 4, 3-1), Hot Rod Charlie (No. 3, 4-1) and Medina Spirit (No. 8, 4-1) also wound up with starting spots that likely did not cause their connections to find the nearest bar.
Full fields were entered in five of the six grass races, all but the Filly & Mare Turf, which wound up with 12. A total of 169 horses were entered in the 14 races, with the five events scheduled for 2-year-olds on Friday and the other nine on Saturday.
Knicks Go and Essential Quality, both trained by Brad Cox, are two of the seven 2020 Breeders’ Cup winners back this year. (Knicks Go won the Dirt Mile and Essential Quality the Juvenile.) Four of the five will try to defend their titles — Audarya (Filly & Mare Turf), Tarnawa (Turf), Glass Slippers (Turf Sprint) and Gamine (Filly & Mare Sprint) — while the fifth, Golden Pal, is favored at 7-2 in the Turf Sprint after winning the juvenile version of the race last year. Tarnawa also is favored at 9-5, while Gamine is the heaviest morning-line favorite of the weekend at 3-5.
Gamine is trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, who had to accept unprecedented screening, observation and testing in order to participate. Baffert has faced five medication violations in the past year, with two cases dismissed and one — involving Medina Spirit in the Kentucky Derby — yet to result in a charge.
Baffert also entered three horses in the Juvenile — second choice Corniche (9-5), Del Mar Futurity winner Pinehurst (8-1) and Barossa (10-1). Corniche drew the far outside post in the 12-horse field while the early 9-5 favorite, Jack Christopher, will start from the rail for trainer Chad Brown. The colt is one of 14 horses entered by Brown; if all start, it would be a personal high for Brown, who started 13 when the Breeders’ Cup was here in 2017 and again in 2020.
Baffert’s other entries this weekend will run Saturday — Private Mission (8-1) and As Time Goes By (15-1) in the Distaff and Eight Rings (10-1) in the Dirt Mile.
The Dirt Mile favorite at 4-5 will look familiar to Baffert; he used to train Life is Good, who is now in Todd Pletcher’s care. Two other morning-line favorites are also odds-on, both at 4-5: Echo Zulu in the Juvenile Fillies and Lestruska in the Distaff.
The other favorites Friday: Averly Jane at 5-2 in the Juvenile Turf Sprint; Pizza Bianca (owned by celebrity chef Bobby Flay) at 5-1 in the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Dubawi Legend at 4-1 in the Juvenile Turf.
On Saturday, the other morning-line choices are Space Blues at 3-1 in the Mile, War Like Goddess at 7-2 in the Filly & Mare Turf and Jackie’s Warrior at 6-5 in the Sprint.
Among the late withdrawals before entry time Monday were Ain’t Easy from the Juvenile Fillies (with jockey Joel Rosario immediately being snapped up by Echo Zulu’s trainer, Steve Asmussen), Mind Control from the Dirt Mile and Quick Suzy from the Juvenile Turf Sprint.
