Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Blackjackcat in waiting game for berth in Breeders’ Cup Mile
ARCADIA, Calif. – The waiting game is underway for the people behind Blackjackcat, the winner of four consecutive races in Southern California and a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar Nov. 4.
Blackjackcat won his final prep Saturday in the $79,685 Obviously Mile at Santa Anita.
Owners Al and Sandee Kirkwood and trainer Mark Glatt are hopeful Blackjackcat’s winning streak, led by a victory in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on Aug. 20, will be sufficient for the 4-year-old gelding to secure a berth in a race that is annually oversubscribed.
In many cases, a committee determines the final field, which this year will be announced on Oct. 25.
Glatt hopes that three consecutive stakes wins by Blackjackcat will catch the attention of the selection jury.
“This gives me a better chance to get into the Breeders’ Cup,” he said in the winner’s circle.
The Kirkwoods and Glatt considered sending Blackjackcat to Keeneland for Saturday’s Grade 1 Shadwell Mile, but opted for the Obviously Mile, even though the race is not graded and offered minor prize money.
“It would have been a gamble to go to Keeneland,” Glatt said. “It was a gamble that he’d run good there and ship for the first time. It’s a gamble to stay home and not accumulate any [qualifying] points.”
The Breeders’ Cup awards qualifying points for top three finishes in graded stakes. The Mile will have 14 runners, but there are closer to 16 to 18 candidates as of this week.
The Obviously Mile was run in place of the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile because of purse constraints. Santa Anita officials have indicated the $200,000 City of Hope Mile will be scheduled for the 2018 autumn meeting.
Vale Dori to get freshening
Although she emerged as one of the country’s leading older females this season, the 2017 Breeders’ Cup is off the table for Vale Dori.
Trainer Bob Baffert confirmed Sunday that Vale Dori will be freshened for the winter meet at Santa Anita. She will not run this year in the BC Distaff or Filly and Mare Sprint.
“She needs a break. She’s not showing any energy,” Baffert said. “She ran hard all year, and I think she’s sort of tailing on me.”
Vale Dori won five consecutive graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Santa Margarita in March at Santa Anita. But after finishing second by a neck in two hard-fought battles with Stellar Wind in June and July, Vale Dori was slow to come back around.
Vale Dori posted four intermittent workouts following her most recent start July 30 in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar. This week, Baffert opted to pull the plug on her campaign.
“We’re going to freshen her up and just wait for the big meet here,” Baffert said Sunday at Santa Anita. Baffert shipped Vale Dori to Los Alamitos this week. “She’s just chilling. We’ll let her chill and give her a couple months off,” he said.
Vale Dori, a 5-year-old bred in Argentina and owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al-Maktoum, has won nine races and $1,134,943 from 16 starts while campaigning internationally.
Baffert still has two candidates for the BC Distaff – Kentucky Oaks winner Abel Tasman and Grade 1-placed Faithfully.
Stellar Wind, the current Distaff favorite, worked six furlongs in thick fog Sunday morning at 6:30. According to exercise rider Jose Contreras and trainer John Sadler, Stellar Wind went in 1:14 over a track that produced slow workout times.
Roy H gets elusive BC berth
Bad luck in the summer may be the only thing keeping Roy H from an impressive winning streak this year.
Roy H won his first Grade 1 race Saturday in the $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship at six furlongs, earning a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 4. From trainer Peter Miller’s perspective, the free berth to the BC Sprint should have been achieved in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar on July 29.
In that race at six furlongs, Roy H was carried wide on the turn by a riderless horse – 2016 sprint champion Drefong, no less – and finished 1 1/2 lengths behind Ransom the Moon.
In the Santa Anita Sprint Championship, Roy H had a trouble-free stalking trip and won by a length as the 9-10 favorite.
“This business is a rollercoaster,” Miller said.
Owned by Gary Hartunian and David Bernsen, Roy H has won four of his last five starts, a span that started in April when he returned from an eight-month layoff. In his four wins, Roy H stalked the pace and took the lead with a furlong remaining. Miller envisions the same style being effective in the BC Sprint.
“When he sits fourth or fifth and makes that big run, it’s exciting,” he said.
Mr. Hinx, second in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship at 41-1, is a candidate for the $100,000 Cary Grant Stakes for California-breds at seven furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 19, trainer Steve Miyadi said.
Ransom the Moon, who finished fourth in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship by 5 1/2 lengths, will proceed to the BC Sprint, trainer Phil D’Amato said.