Gun Runner favorite

Gun Runner, the top older horse on the East Coast and winner of the 2017 Razor Handicap at Oaklawn Park, is the slight 9/5 favorite for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Del Mar. He breaks from the No. 5 post while defending champion Arrogate starts from the rail as the 2-1 second choice. Del Mar is hosting the $28 million, 13race Breeders’ Cup for the first time. The season-ending championships open with four races on Friday followed by nine, including the Classic, on Saturday. Gun Runner arrives on a three-race winning streak, all Grade 1 stakes, for trainer Steve

Asmussen. The 4-year-old posted dominant victories in the Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs and the Whitney and Woodward Stakes at Saratoga. His last defeat was to Arrogate in Dubai. Arrogate, the world’s all-time leading money earner with $17.3 million, is one of four Classic runners trained by Bob Baffert.

He also sends out Collected (6-1), Mubtaahij (12-1) and Travers winner West Coast (6-1) in the richest race of the weekend. The field will not include any of this year’s Triple Crown winners: Always Dreaming (Kentucky Derby), Cloud Computing (Preakness) and Tapwrit (Belmont Stakes). Churchill (15-1),

Gunnevera (30-1), Pavel (20-1) and a trio of 30-1 shots — War Decree,

War Story and Win the Space — complete the Classic field.