No Lack of Entries for Breeders’ Cup

Full 14-horse fields will run in six of the eight races at Gulfstream Park on Breeders’ Cup day, including a capacity turnout for the $4-million Classic, the richest race on the card.

Even though the 16th Breeders’ Cup, scheduled for Nov. 6 at the Florida track, has added the eighth race--the Filly and Mare Turf--this still would have been a record for 14-horse fields. Only twice before--in 1992 and 1994--did the Breeders’ Cup have as many as four full fields on the same card.

Besides the Classic and the Filly and Mare Turf, the other races with capacity 14-horse fields are the Turf, the Mile, the Sprint and the Juvenile. The exceptions are the Distaff, which has 11 horses, and the Juvenile Fillies with 10.

When pre-entries were announced Wednesday, the extra race sent the totals over the top. There were 128 horses listed, 15 of them for more than one race, to bring the pre-entry total to 143. The previous record, in a seven-race year, was 126 horses accounting for 137 pre-entries in 1994.

In the six races with capacity fields, there are between four and 11 horses on the also-eligible list, hoping to run if another scratches. Fields for these over-subscribed races were determined two ways, with eight of the horses earning spots by piling up points in graded stakes races throughout the year, and six others voted in by an international panel of racing secretaries and handicappers.

To pre-enter horses, owners had to pay 1% of the race purse, a fee that was $40,000 for the Classic. Another 1% must be paid next Wednesday, when post positions are drawn for the races. Four pre-entered horses were even more costly. Not having been nominated to the Breeders’ Cup, for a fee of $500 before their first birthday, Son Of A Pistol, Enjoy The Moment, Caffe Latte and Captain Steve were supplemented into races. A fee of $90,000 apiece was paid to supplement Captain Steve for the Juvenile and Caffe Latte for the Filly and Mare Turf; Son Of A Pistol and Enjoy The Moment get into the Sprint at a penalty of $120,000 each.

This will be only the fourth time, and the first time since 1994, that a full field runs in the Classic. Mike Watchmaker, the national handicapper for the Daily Racing Form, has made Behrens a 3-1 favorite. Next on the early Watchmaker line are two horses from trainer Bob Baffert’s barn, General Challenge at 5-1 and River Keen at 6-1. In all, Baffert will run eight horses, including early favorites Silverbulletday in the Distaff, Forest Camp in the Juvenile and Chilukki in the Juvenile Fillies. Rounding out the Baffert crew are Captain Steve in the Juvenile, Forestry in the Sprint and Tuzla in the Mile.

A win by Silverbulletday would make the 3-year-old filly the first horse to win different Breeders’ Cup races. She won the Juvenile Fillies last year at Churchill Downs. Double winners in the Breeders’ Cup have been Miesque, in the 1987-88 Mile; Bayakoa, in the 1989-90 Distaff; Lure, in the 1992-93 Mile; and Da Hoss, in the 1996 and ’98 Mile. Buck’s Boy will try to repeat this year in the Turf.

Daylami heads a surprisingly large contingent of 26 foreign horses. In the two previous Breeders’ Cups run at Gulfstream, where the turns are sharp and the weather can be hot and humid, 33 imports failed to win in the 11 races they ran.

Horse Racing Notes

Del Mar Gray is the 8-5 favorite against six other rivals in the $250,000 California Cup Classic, the main event of the $1.275-million California Cup Saturday at Santa Anita. Entries for the 10 races, which are restricted to California breds, were taken Wednesday morning. A total of 101 horses were entered, including 18 in the $150,000 California Cup Distaff.