City of Light’s schedule in flux

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – City of Light, the dynamic winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Saturday, “came out of the race in great shape” and was scheduled to return Monday to his home base at Santa Anita, where a plan will be decided regarding a next start, trainer Michael McCarthy said Sunday at Churchill Downs.

City of Light is scheduled to go to Lane’s End Farm upon retirement, but when that happens, and what City of Light’s race schedule will be, is in flux.

What is certain is that City of Light ran the best race of his career Saturday, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 110, a career best and the sixth straight time he had a Beyer of 102 or greater. The Dirt Mile was his third Grade 1 win.

City of Light has now won five times in 10 starts, including Grade 1 victories in the Malibu and Triple Bend – both seven furlongs – as well as the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap going 1 1/8 miles.

McCarthy and trainer John Sadler, both based in Southern California, were housed in Barn 43 this week at Churchill Downs, and they congratulated each other Sunday morning. Sadler had a big win in the Classic with Accelerate, but his colt Catalina Cruiser was well back of City of Light in the Dirt Mile.

Catalina Cruiser, unbeaten in four starts going into the Dirt Mile and the odds-on favorite in the race, was done at the top of the stretch and faded to sixth in the field of nine, 17 1/2 lengths behind City of Light.

Catalina Cruiser left for California early Sunday morning and will get a “full-on vetting at home,” Sadler said. Sadler said Catalina Cruiser “seemed fine right after the race.”

“But when a horse that good doesn’t run well, chances are something’s amiss,” Sadler said. “We’ll do a nuclear scan, see where we’re at. It’s the end of the year; we’ll check him out good and go on from there.”

Catalina Cruiser is scheduled to remain in training next year at age 5. He is a year younger than Accelerate, who is going to stud in 2019 at Lane’s End, and the thought of Sadler and co-owners Kosta and Pete Hronis prior to the Dirt Mile was that Catalina Cruiser could have a 2019 campaign similar to Accelerate’s this year. – Jay Privman

Stormy Liberal done for year

Peter Miller was at the airport Sunday morning with his family awaiting a flight back to California. But the veteran horseman may not have needed a plane to get him back home, considering the high he was still on following his record-setting performance the previous afternoon at Churchill Downs at Breeders’ Cup 2018.

Miller became the first trainer in the 35-year history of the event to send out repeat winners in two different Breeders’ Cup races after Stormy Liberal and Roy H successfully defended the titles they had won a year earlier at Del Mar in the Turf Sprint and Sprint.

“It’s still a little hard to believe,” Miller said Sunday. “I really couldn’t be happier. To do something that’s never been done, especially in this business, considering the hundreds of thousands of races that are run each year around the world, it’s amazing and a real testament not only to the horses but to our whole team.”

Miller said both horses came out of their races in good order.

“They both came back super; both looked really good this morning,” Miller said.

Roy H and Stormy Liberal, 6-year-old geldings owned in partnership by Rockingham Ranch and David Bernsen, ran arguably the best races of their careers Saturday. Roy H, who won the 2017 Sprint by a length over Imperial Hint, drew off to a 3 1/4-length triumph over Whitmore on Saturday, earning the same 111 Beyer Speed Figure he got the year before.

Stormy Liberal squeezed out yet another narrow victory, by a neck over World of Trouble, in the Turf Sprint, but earned a whopping 119 Beyer for the performance over the yielding turf course.

“It’s hard to believe they each ran even better this year than last,” Miller said. “We knew both were training super, and we were really happy with the way they came into their races. But you never know how they’re going to perform after making the long trip or over a new track, especially in Stormy Liberal’s case, over the soft turf course. In the end, it really couldn’t have worked out any better.”

Miller said he had no immediate plans for Roy H or Stormy Liberal.

“We’ll just enjoy all this for a while,” he said. “I doubt either would run again this year. Dubai is certainly a possibility again next spring, but that’s still a long ways off right now.”

Both Roy H and Stormy Liberal were narrowly defeated in Dubai earlier this season, with Roy H finishing a close third behind Mind Your Biscuits and X Y Jet in the Golden Shaheen and Stormy Liberal losing by a half-length to Jungle Cat while second in the Al Quoz Sprint.

Dubai also could be on the agenda for Imperial Hint, who finished third as the 8-5 favorite in the Sprint. Imperial Hint encountered minor traffic issues while racing in midpack down the backstretch but failed to muster a response once clear at the top of the stretch. It was the third loss in as many starts at Churchill Downs for Imperial Hint, who entered the Sprint off two impressive Grade 1 wins in New York.

“He came out of the race well, he cleaned his feed tub last night, and was bucking and kicking this morning,” trainer Luis Carvajal Jr. said. “I had my doubts about Churchill Downs coming in, while hoping those first two races here were about the distance more than the racetrack. But it’s obvious now he just doesn’t like this track. Javier [Castellano] said he just didn’t handle it. When he asked him to run, he was spinning his wheels. It’s so unfortunate, because he’s raced at a lot of different tracks, and it seems he runs well everywhere else.”

Carvajal said Imperial Hint would winter at Tampa Bay Downs and likely have a couple of preps in Florida before trying to make the Golden Shaheen again next year. Imperial Hint has missed the Golden Shaheen the past two years, first due to a fever that developed during the long trip to Dubai and again this year due to a virus that cost him two weeks of training.

Whitmore, who finished second behind Roy H despite a poor start from the rail in the Sprint, also will be back again in 2019. Trainer Ron Moquett said Whitmore came out of the race in excellent shape but will be given a break before heading to Oaklawn Park this winter, with the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap, a race he won this year, a primary goal.

“Obviously, I would have preferred he had a better start, but I was really proud of him yesterday,” Moquett said. “He really represented himself well. We’ll do what we did with him last year after the Breeders’ Cup, give him some time in the barn, some time on grass, then get him ready for Oaklawn, where they really have a great program for sprinters during the winter.”

– Mike Welsch

Shamrock Rose mulls La Brea

Shamrock Rose, the 25-1 winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Saturday at Churchill Downs, shipped Sunday to Mark

Casse’s training facility in Ocala, Fla., where she will stay active for the time being.

Casse said he believes Shamrock Rose is deserving of the divisional Eclipse Award for female sprinter, but he will “keep an eye” on the Grade 1 La Brea on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita “in case we need” a victory in that seven-furlong race to further bolster the filly’s candidacy.

Informed that Eclipse voters might be swayed toward Marley’s Freedom – the Bob Baffert-trained filly who was beaten only a half-length when fourth as the 9-10 favorite in a four-horse photo in the Filly and Mare Sprint – based on a stronger body of work for the entire year, Casse said: “But we beat her” in their lone head-tohead meeting.

“I don’t know how it all works,” Casse said. “We’re going to enjoy this, let it all sink in, then deal with that later. We’ll come up with something.”

The BC upset under Irad Ortiz Jr. by Shamrock Rose, a Pennsylvania-bred 3-year-old filly owned by Conrad Farms, was the second graded win of her career, following the Grade 2 Raven Run at Keeneland just two weeks beforehand. She earned a career-high 92 Beyer Speed Figure.

Casse said regardless of whether or not Shamrock Rose runs in the La Brea, she probably will eventually move to the Palm Meadows training center in Boynton Beach, Fla., before getting started on her 4-yearold campaign.

Meanwhile, Chalon, who seemed to have the Filly and Mare Sprint won until being caught in the last couple of jumps, was headed Sunday morning to trainer Arnaud Delacour’s main base at the Fair Hill Training Center in northeastern Maryland. Delacour said the filly probably will get a couple of months off before being eased back into training in early 2019 at the Classic Mile in Ocala ahead of a 5-year-old campaign.

The other horses in the photo, Anonymity and Marley’s Freedom, both were to return to their Southern California bases, with immediate plans yet to be determined. Golden Mischief, the fifth-place finisher, has been retired by her owner, Juddmonte Farms.

The Filly and Mare Sprint second choice, Selcourt, who faded to 12th after setting the pace, was sold Sunday night for $800,000 at Fasig-Tipton in Lexington. Four other starters also were sold there – Happy Like a Fool (sixth, $1.45 million), Finley’sluckycharm (seventh, for $1.5 million), Skye Diamonds (10th, for $500,000), and Miss Sunset (14th, for $825,000). – Marty McGee

Expert Eye may be retired

After winning the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile on Saturday, his first Group or Grade 1 win, Expert Eye was scheduled to fly back to England on Monday. No decision has been made regarding his future, but Expert Eye could be retired to stud by owner-breeder Khalid Abdullah.

“We’ll get him back home, and he can obviously come back to the farm and stand as a stallion, or he can stay in training,” said Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager for Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms. “Prince Khalid is going to have to think about that. We’ll have to make a decision relatively quickly.”

Expert Eye got a 101 Beyer Speed Figure, the lowest in the race’s history, for running one mile on tiring turf in 1:39.80, the second-slowest Mile time in the race’s history.

Expert Eye gave his stallion prospects a huge boost by winning Saturday. Before the Mile, his best win had come in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes as a 2-year-old, and though trainer Michael Stoute always had held the colt in high regard, it took until Saturday for his ability to fully express itself on the track.

Expert Eye, who raced on Lasix, is by the English-bred Acclamation and out of Exemplify, and is from the family of Juddmonte stars Sightseek and Tates Creek. – Marcus Hersh

Disco Partner ready to go

Disco Partner, third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint for the second year, may make another start this year, trainer Christophe Clement said Monday.

Clement said he would talk to owners Frank and Patricia Generazio about running Disco Partner back in the $125,000 Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship on Nov. 24 or possibly taking a big swing in the Group 1, $2.5 million Hong Kong Sprint on Dec. 9 at Sha Tin.

Disco Partner arrived back at Belmont on Monday morning after a van ride from Kentucky and “he looks very well,” Clement said.

Clement said Joel Rosario told him Disco Partner wasn’t handling the yielding turf at Churchill Downs early on in the race.

“He’s a horse that shows good speed, and Rosario said he was spinning his wheels,” Clement said. “By the time he found his rhythm, the race was over.”

– David Grening

Audible heading south

Following a successful return to the races in the $200,000 Cherokee Run Stakes on Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup card at Churchill Downs, Audible was scheduled to ship to South Florida on Tuesday to prepare for the Harlan’s Holiday Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Dec. 15.

The Harlan’s Holiday will be his next step toward the $9 million Pegasus, also at Gulfstream, on Jan. 26.

Audible hadn’t run since finishing third to Justify in the Kentucky Derby. He won the Cherokee Run by two lengths, covered the seven furlongs in 1:22.46, and earned a 99 Beyer Speed Figure for the fourth consecutive race. Audible won the Grade 2 Holy Bull and Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream earlier this year.

Trainer Todd Pletcher said that Audible simply needed time following the Kentucky Derby.

“Sometimes it’s hard to wait, but you got to,” Pletcher said. “Hopefully, it pays off down the road.”

Bulletin, who won Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint for Pletcher, went to WinStar Farm on Monday for a brief freshening. Pletcher said the horse would likely join his stable at Palm Meadows after the holidays.

Pletcher said owner Elliott Walden mentioned the possibility of pointing Bulletin to a race at the Royal Ascot meeting in June. He could be a candidate for the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at six furlongs or the Group 1 St. James’s Palace going a mile.

“If he gets a mile that creates a lot of options,” Pletcher said. “Elliott had thrown out that Ascot thing, too. We’ll see how things progress. He’ll go [to WinStar] and get a little break first.”

Of his other Breeders’ Cup starters, Pletcher said that only Opry, who finished 10th in the Juvenile Turf, is being considered for another start this year.

Pletcher said Opry had his head turned at the start “and blew the break.” Pletcher said Opry came out of the race pretty fresh and may be given another shot on dirt later this year, perhaps in the Remsen.

In his career debut, which was rained off the turf at Saratoga, Opry finished third, a half-length behind Cairo Cat, who came back to win the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs.

– David Grening