Dispersal Early Favorite in Breeders’ Cup

A full field of 14 horses was entered today for the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Dispersal was made the early favorite at 4-1 in a race that trainers almost unanimously are calling “wide open.”

Unlike last year, when Sunday Silence beat Easy Goer in another installment of their classic rivalry, or in 1988, when Alysheba held off the gallant charge of Seeking the Gold, this year’s Classic has produced no clear-cut favorite.

There’s Unbridled, the Kentucky Derby winner, and Dispersal, the Woodward winner that has won five in a row. There’s Rhythm, which won the Travers, and Flying Continental, winner of the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

With those four, and some of the others, Saturday’s 1 1/4-mile run at Belmont Park is hard to figure.

“It looks like the kind of race that any horse can win,” said Carl Nafzger, trainer of Unbridled. “When you get a race like this, there’s only two factors--your horse’s class and the jockeys.”

Unbridled, which will be ridden by Pat Day, drew the far outside post position. Starting inside of him, from the rail out, will be: Izvestia, Ibn Bey, Thirty Six Red, Opening Verse, Home at Last, Flying Continental, Rhythm, Beau Genius, Go and Go, Mi Selecto, Lively One, Dispersal and De Roche.

Dispersal, to be ridden by Chris Antley, was made the early favorite at unusually long odds of 4-1.

Rhythm, trained by Shug McGaughey and ridden by Craig Perret, was listed as the 9-2 second choice in the Classic, with Flying Continental, which will be ridden by Corey Black, at 5-1. The Nafzger-trained entry of Unbridled and Home at Last were listed at 8-1.

Two horses, Woodward runner-up Quiet American and Defensive Play, a European campaigner that has never started on dirt, were listed as alternate entries and will be eligible to fill out the field if there are any early scratches.

The real classic among Saturday’s seven Breeders’ Cup races, worth a total of $10 million, might be the $1-million Distaff.

Eight were entered in the Distaff, including the 6-year-old Argentine-bred mare, Bayakoa, winner of six of nine starts this year, and the 3-year-old filly Go for Wand, winner of her last five, all Grade I stakes.

“If we beat Go for Wand, I would think we’d get some consideration for Horse of the Year,” Bayakoa’s trainer, Ron McAnally, said. “If she’d beaten colts this year, there’d be no question about it, but the race is so wide open this year, we should get some votes.”

In post-position order, the field for the 1 1/8-mile Distaff is: Luthier’s Launch, Go for Wand, Flags Waving, Gorgeous, Bayakoa, Colonial Waters, Valay Maid and Mistaurian.

The Distaff drew the smallest of the seven fields.

Full fields of 14 were entered in the $1-million Sprint over six furlongs, the $1-million Juvenile Fillies over 1 1/16 miles and the $1-million Mile on turf.

The $1-million Juvenile, at 1 1/16 miles, drew 12 entries, and 11 were entered in the $2-million Turf over 1 1/2 miles.