Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Several major titles at stake
DEL MAR, Calif. – This year’s Breeders’ Cup definitely has saved the best for last.
The top older horse in the country, Knicks Go, faces three top members of an outstanding crop of 3-year-olds – Essential Quality, Hot Rod Charlie, and Medina Spirit – in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Del Mar, bringing down the curtain on the 38th Breeders’ Cup.
Knicks Go won last year’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Essential Quality won last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. No horse has ever won either of those races and the Classic. But these are two exceptional runners who certainly seem capable of ending those streaks.
Both have carried their form for months, and they are not alone among this group. Essential Quality and Hot Rod Charlie were one-two in last year’s Juvenile, and Essential Quality, Hot Rod Charlie, and Medina Spirit were three of the first four finishers in this year’s Kentucky Derby.
Those four are among a field of nine that will go 1 1/4 miles on the main track just before twilight, at 5:40 Pacific. The supporting characters include such accomplished older runners as Grade 1 winners Art Collector and Max Player. Express Train and Tripoli were stakes winners this summer at Del Mar, and the longshot Stilleto Boy has run the two best races of his life in his last two starts.
It’s a compelling race, with much on the line. In addition to the financial rewards, Eclipse
Awards for Horse of the Year, champion older male, and champion 3-year-old male all could be decided in this race.
“It’s a great, competitive race,” said Bob Baffert, who trains Medina Spirit.
Knicks Go is favored at 5-2 on the lines of both Daily Racing Form’s Brad Free, who set the prices for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup races, and Jon White, who makes the official morning line at Del Mar. Knicks Go heads into the Classic having won his last three starts, highlighted by the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga. He is 7 for 7 going two turns since moving to the barn of Brad Cox, with Beyer Speed Figures of at least 100 in each. The only setbacks in that stretch were the Saudi Cup
and Met Mile.
He has a high-cruising speed and is the one to catch, always, including here, but this will be his first try beyond 1 1/8 miles.
“There’s some other speed in the race, but I think he’s the speed of the speed, and we’re not going to take that away from him,” Cox said on a recent teleconference. “We’re going to be very aggressive, hopefully clear off. That gives him his best opportunity to win.”
Essential Quality, also trained by Cox, is 5 for 6 this year – highlighted by wins in the Belmont Stakes and Travers – his lone loss coming in the Derby. He has been the most consistent member of this quality crop of 3-year-olds.
Essential Quality has shown an ability to sit close if the pace is slow, or drop back and finish is the pace is hot.
“They’re not gonna get in each other’s way,” Cox said of his duo. “They’ve both had great years. Hopefully, they can add to their résumés.”
Hot Rod Charlie, second to Essential Quality in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Belmont, finished in front of him when third in the Derby, and comes off a win the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby in which he got a Beyer Speed Figure of 111. He wore blinkers in the Derby and Belmont, but not in the Haskell and Pennsylvania Derby. They are back on Saturday, at the request of jockey Flavien Prat.
“After the Pennsylvania Derby, Flavien suggested it, and he knows Charlie better than anyone,” his trainer, Doug O’Neill, said Wednesday.
O’Neill has admiration for Essential Quality, and appreciation for how that colt and Hot Rod Charlie have progressed from 2 to 3.
“It’s been fun to see the horses out of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile develop and mature and hold their form,” O’Neill said. “This field is so strong. Essential Quality, he jumps out at me. We’ve seen a lot of him this year.”
Medina Spirit, at present the winner of the Derby, was freshened after finishing third in the Preakness and has returned with two straight wins, in the Shared Belief here and the Grade 1 Awesome Again at Santa Anita. He always is prominent early.
“His last two races were impressive,” Baffert said.
Max Player also figures to be close early, being as that approach was used in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and he responded with a four-length victory and career-best Beyer of 102.
“The race is loaded with pace, but we’re going to stay aggressive and let him run,” trainer Steve Asmussen said.
Art Collector also prefers to be close. Since moving to trainer Bill Mott, he has won three races, all at 1 1/8 miles – including the Grade 1 Woodward – all by racing on or near the lead. He’s never competed at 1 1/4 miles.
“He’s made no mistakes,” Mott said. “This is going to be the biggest step, competitionwise. It’s the toughest group he’s faced, and there’s the test of 10 furlongs. They have to prove it. You never assume they’ll do it. But he indicates he’ll be okay. It’s not like he’s laying down in any of his races.”
Tripoli won the Grade 1 Pacific Classic here during the summer meet, with a careerbest Beyer of 104, but he was fourth in the Awesome Again.
Express Train won the San Diego here in July, but was a troubled sixth in the Pacific Classic and then third in the Awesome Again.
Stilleto Boy was third in the Shared Belief, in which he encountered trouble, then was a distant second to Medina Spirit in the Awesome Again.