Elate tests males in Classic; Omaha Beach in Dirt Mile

Ten years since Zenyatta won the race in “unbe-liev-able” fashion, Trevor Denman’s stretch call almost as exciting as the performance, another battle of the sexes is scheduled in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Elate, produced by two Oaklawn Park stakes winners, is pre-entered in the $6 million Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic Saturday, Nov. 2 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif.

As did Zenyatta over the same track, the 5-year-old racemare goes against males in a year lacking a strong male contender. Zenyatta, then undefeated, was named 2009 Horse of the Year after running down turf star Gio Ponti in the stretch of the Classic; a two-time winner at Oaklawn, Zenyatta had her 19-race winning streak snapped in the 2010 Classic, her final race, when Blame prevailed by a head at Churchill Downs.

Elate is a multiple Grade 1 winner of

$2.3 million for owners Claiborne Farm (Dell Hancock) and Adele Dilschneider. Although winless at Oaklawn, she has strong connections to the Hot Springs track; Medaglia d’Oro broke his maiden locally for trainer David Vance and won the

2003 Oaklawn Handicap for the late Hall of Famer Bobby Frankel while Claiborne homebred Cheery won the 2003 American Beauty over the track.

Possible advantages of Elate facing males in the Classic include the race’s mile-and-a-quarter distance, at which the mare has won the last two runnings of the Grade 1 Delaware Handicap.

Another is that she avoids a rematch with Midnight Bisou, who defeated Elate twice at Oaklawn in an ongoing perfect

4-year-old season. Midnight Bisou, reigning winner of Oaklawn’s Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap and Grade 2 Azeri, goes nine furlongs in the Grade 1 $2 million Distaff for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. Elate is cross-entered in the Distaff, also Nov. 2, but is first choice in the Classic.

Eleven pre-entered the Classic Wednesday including Oaklawn Invitational starter and Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby winner Math Wizard, trained by Saffie Joseph Jr. Heading the field are Grade 1 winners Code of Honor (Jockey Club Gold Cup, Travers), McKinzie (Whitney), Seeking the Soul and War of Will (Preakness).

Mongolian Groom surprised McKinzie in September’s Grade 1 Awesome Again at Santa Anita, prompting trainer Bob Baffert to pull the mount from fellow Hall of Famer Mike Smith. Joel Rosario rides probable favorite McKinzie in the Classic while Smith picked up the Mott-trained

Yoshida, a Grade 1 winner over dirt and grass.

* Smith keeps the mount on probable Dirt Mile favorite Omaha Beach, Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella’s BC choice for the star-crossed Arkansas Derby winner.

Mandella also considered the six-furlong Grade 1 Sprint and Classic for Omaha Beach after the War Front colt’s head victory in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship Oct. 5. A Dirt Mile rematch with the Baffert-trained Improbable, second by one length in the Arkansas Derby, is possible.

Owner Rick Porter’s colt was selected program favorite in the Kentucky Derby before an entrapped epiglottis knocked him out of the May 4 classic at Churchill Downs. A series of setbacks kept the colt sidelined almost six months. A February maiden winner at Santa Anita by nine lengths, Omaha Beach shipped to Oaklawn first for the Grade 2 Rebel, which he won by a nose over previously undefeated juvenile champion Game Winner.

* Arkansas-owned Grade 1 winner Wicked Whisper goes in the Grade 1 $2 million Juvenile Fillies Friday, Nov. 1. From the first crop of BC Dirt Mile winner Liam’s Map, Wicked Whisper comes off a career-defining victory Oct. 6 in Belmont’s Park Frizette. She has recouped $269,500 of the $500,000 that Conway owners Alex and JoAnn Lieblong paid her for in a 2018 Keeneland yearling sale.

* Grade 1 winner and Oaklawn superstar Whitmore has a BC Sprint rematch with Mitole, who in April denied the

6-year-old a third consecutive Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap victory in Hot Springs. Arkansas native Ron Moquett trains and co-owns Whitmore, runner-up in the 2018 BC Sprint at Churchill Downs (two-time defending Sprint winner Roy H, off since January, is not competing). The

4-year-old Mitole is an Asmussen-trained candidate for Horse of the Year.