Baffert Runners Tune Up for Cup Dates – Thoroughbred Daily News

Trainer Bob Baffert sent out a trio of Breeders’ Cup contenders to work at Santa Anita Sunday. Leading the way was GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile contender Eight Rings (Empire Maker). Working in company with unraced 2-year-old Azul Coast (Super Saver), the GI American Pharoah S. winner went four furlongs in :47.20 (2/62).

“I wanted to give him a target,” Baffert explained.

Evin Roman was aboard for the 7:45 a.m. drill.

“He’s healthy and he looks good,” Baffert added of Eight Rings. “The track’s pretty deep today. It’s different, a lot deeper, than it was yesterday…overall, it was a very good work. Now we just wait, buy our tickets, enter and hope we get a good draw.”

GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies hopeful Bast (Uncle Mo), winner of the GI Chandelier S. and GI Del Mar Debutante, worked five furlongs in 1:01.60 (14/42) in company with 5-year-old gelding Hot Sean (Flatter).

Improbable (City Zip), aiming for the GI Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, earned the five-furlong bullet Sunday, covering the distance in :59.20 (1/42).

Baffert’s GI Breeders’ Classic hopeful McKinzie (Street Sense) is expected to have his final major work ahead of the $6-million race Monday.

● Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider’s Elate (Medaglia d’Oro), coming off runner-up efforts in the GI Personal Ensign S. and GI Juddmonte Spinster S., tuned up for Saturday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Classic with a three-furlong drill in :36.80 (5/12).

On Saturday, Elate will be trying to join Zenyatta as the only females to win the 1 1/4-mile Classic.

“The fact that she is three-for-three at 1 1/4 miles is the reason why we chose the Classic,” explained trainer Bill Mott. “She’s a top-class mare and she’s run very well at the distance, and we want to give her the best opportunity we can at that trip. It just seems–for whatever reason–that she cruises along very well and still has run in her going a mile and a quarter. Some horses, they’ll tend to flatten out a little bit at that distance. But she seems to be always coming on strong.”

Elate won Saratoga’s GI Alabama S. at 10 furlongs as a 3-year-old and has taken the GII Delaware H. at that same distance the past two years, all three victories coming by open lengths.

“We’re throwing her in deep water,” Mott acknowledged. “We very seldom run the fillies against the colts unless we think we have a top-class horse and one that would fit the race. I think she fits the conditions of the race very well. She’s proven it. It’s not like it’s a guessing game at a mile and a quarter. Of course we’re running against good competition, so she still has to run her very best race to compete.”

Also working for the Classic, GI Awesome Again S. winner Mongolian Groom (Hightail) went five furlongs in 1:02 flat (17/42).

●  GI Zenyatta S. winner Paradise Woods (Union Rags), aiming for the GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff, went five furlongs in 1:00 flat (2/42) under Abel Cedillo for trainer John Shirreffs. GI Breeders’ Cup F/M Turf contender Mirth (Colonel John) went five furlongs over the training track in 1:01.80 (1/7) for trainer Phil D’Amato. The Little Red Feather Racing colorbearer is coming off a win in the Sept. 28 GI Rodeo Drive S.

●  The Rood & Riddle Breeders’ Cup Post-Position Draw for the 2019 Breeders’ Cup World Championships will be shown live Monday from the Trackside Breakfast Marquee at Santa Anita Park starting at 3:30 p.m. PT, with the first race drawn at 4 p.m.. All 14 Breeders’ Cup races will be drawn and announced on TVG, along with the Breeders’ Cup website, Official Mobile App and YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook pages.

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