BREEDERS’ CUP THUMBNAILS

Here’s a quick, race-by-race look at Saturday’s eight Breeders’ Cup races -- $13 million worth -- at Arlington Park (in the order they’ll be run):

$2 million

8 horses, 1 1/8 miles on dirt

*--* DISTAFF

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Allen Paulson, who died in 2000, bred and raced Ajina and Escena, who won this race in 1997 and 1998. Paulson, now represented by his son Michael and a family trust, also bred Azeri, the 6-5 morning-line favorite based on seven wins in eight starts this year. Summer Colony, who beat Azeri by a length in the La Canada at Santa Anita in February, is also running, at 5-1. Since the La Canada, Summer Colony has run at six tracks, winning three times with two seconds and a third, which came in her last race, the Beldame on Oct. 5. Imperial Gesture beat her that day and seems well-suited for Saturday’s distance. Since running sixth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Take Charge Lady has won five of seven starts, the most recent victory coming in the Spinster at Keeneland, where nine of the previous 18 Distaff winners have prepped. A forgotten horse is Farda Amiga, who has done nothing wrong away from Santa Anita, winning the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs and the Alabama at Saratoga. Trainer Paulo Lobo’s filly was 20-1 in the Oaks and will be double digits at post time Saturday. This will be Farda Amiga’s first start in more than two months.

*--* JUVENILE FILLIES

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$1 million

10 horses, 1 1/8 miles on dirt

The Breeders’ Cup’s 2-year-old races, usually 1 1/16 miles, are longer this year because the shorter distance at Arlington, a 1 1/8-mile dirt oval, would have forced the fields into too quick a run into the first turn. Ivanavinalot, who had won five of six exclusively at Calder, was scratched Thursday morning because of a high temperature. None of the remaining contenders has run as far as 1 1/8 miles, so handicappers will be especially mindful of stamina, but Storm Flag Flying looks unbeatable at any distance. She’s won all three of her starts, in New York, and is a pedigree pick as well: Her dam, My Flag, won the same stake in the mud at Belmont Park in 1995. There’s another posthumous breeding angle here: Storm Flag Flying comes from the Phipps Farm, whose owner Ogden Phipps was 93 when he died in April, and the filly is now campaigned by Dinny Phipps, the breeder’s son. A win for Storm Flag Flying would be No. 8 in the Breeders’ Cup for trainer Shug McGaughey, which would leave him with half as many as Wayne Lukas (providing Lukas doesn’t win Saturday’s Sprint). After even-money Storm Flag Flying, the early odds go to the 4-1 Santa Catarina, who was second, beaten by two lengths, when McGaughey’s filly won the Frizette on Oct. 5.

*--* MILE

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$1 million

14 horses, on turf

More than any other Breeders’ Cup race, post positions are a factor. Half of the 18 winners broke from the four inside stalls. Forbidden Apple, Beat Hollow, Medecis and Good Journey will occupy those spots, with Beat Hollow, at a generous 6-1, given the best chance to beat Rock Of Gibraltar, who, like the insurance company’s hoary symbol, is a solid presence. The Irish-based Rock Of Gibraltar, who drew No. 10, has won 10 of 12 starts and is on a seven-race run in Group I stakes. Over there, they’ve already ascribed the 3-year-old colt to Europe’s pantheon. Beat Hollow, one of seven Breeders’ Cup entrants for trainer Bobby Frankel, was beaten by Landseer, like Rock Of Gibraltar an Aidan O’Brien trainee, but Landseer drew the 13 hole, near the dreaded outside.

*--* SPRINT

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$1 million

13 horses, 6 furlongs on dirt

This is no typo: Wayne Lukas, who has started 136 Breeders’ Cup horses, three times more than the next guy, and has won 16 of the races, more than any two other trainers, is represented only in this race this time. Lukas has two runners, the 5-2 favorite Orientate and the longshot Day Trader. Orientate is cut from the same cloth as Gulch, Lukas’ Sprint winner in 1989. In one of his best training jobs, Lukas made a sprinter out of Gulch, who had routed for his previous trainer, LeRoy Jolley. Orientate won the Indiana Derby, at 1 1/16 miles, late last year, and although he beat only one horse three weeks later in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, it took a while before he was shortened up. On dirt going short since June, he has reeled off four impressive wins, the last two with jockey Jerry Bailey, who has 12 Breeders’ Cup wins, the same as Pat Day. Two of Orientate’s rivals, the brilliant filly Xtra Heat and the longshot Disturbingthepeace, are to be sold at auction in Kentucky on Nov. 3. Xtra Heat’s owners, who buy horses to run, not breed, paid only $5,000 for the filly, who has won 24 of 31 races and earned $2.2 million. Xtra Heat, second to Squirtle Squirt in last year’s Sprint, will be consigned with a reported reserve -- minimum bid -- of $2.4 million. Disturbingthepeace, winner of both of Del Mar’s sprint stakes, which extended his streak to six wins, will be part of owner David Milch’s dispersal. Since winning the 2000 Sprint in a record 1:07 3/5 at Churchill Downs, Kona Gold has four wins in eight starts. But he has won only one of his last five and, as an 8-year-old, will be hard-pressed to become the sixth horse with multiple Breeders’ Cup wins.

*--* FILLY & MARE TURF

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$1 million

12 horses, 1 1/4 miles on turf

The only race to be added to the Breeders’ Cup menu since the inaugural in 1984, this stake has a formful limited history. Short-priced horses have done well. Banks Hill, last year’s winner, is not favored this time, however, having been beaten by Golden Apples and Voodoo Dancer in the Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita three weeks ago. Golden Apples, who won the Beverly D. at Arlington on Aug. 17, is the 5-2 favorite on the morning line. Voodoo Dancer was scratched. Banks Hill, ridden by Corey Nakatani in California, gets the estimable Bailey for the first time Saturday. With Soaring Softly and Perfect Sting, Bailey won the first two runnings of this stake. Kazzia, the German-bred filly who races for Sheik Mohammed of Dubai, won the Flower Bowl at Belmont Park in her U.S. debut, and while a short price her training has been compromised by a foot abscess. Michael Stoute, who has come from England to twice saddle the winners of the Breeders’ Cup Turf, is running Islington here. The Irish-bred filly, whose record is perfect in two starts at this distance, was a close-up fifth against males in the Arc de Triomphe this month.

*--* JUVENILE

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$1 million

14 horses, 1 1/8 miles on dirt

Sky Mesa, the 3-1 favorite, will be challenged by trainer Bob Baffert’s trio -- Vindication, Kafwain, Bull Market -- and Toccet, winner of the Champagne, and Whywhywhy, first in the Belmont Futurity. Aidan O’Brien, winner of last year’s Juvenile with Johannesburg, who successfully made the switch from grass to dirt, is back Saturday in numbers, with Hold That Tiger, Tomahawk and Van Nistelrooy. The latter is named after one of Manchester United’s best Premier League soccer players, who’s injured and might not play in England Saturday.

*--* TURF

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$2 million

8 horses, 1 1/2 miles on grass

The scratch of Blazing Fury (tendon injury) has reduced the Turf to its smallest field. High Chaparral comes by his 8-5 favoritism quite legitimately. He was third in the ‘Arc de Triomphe, beaten by 1 1/4 lengths, and O’Brien confessed that he didn’t have his colt sharp enough for 1 1/2 miles that day. Before the ‘Arc, High Chaparral won the English and Irish Derbies, part of a six-race winning streak. Trainer Jonathan Sheppard is in here with his gray 7-year-old gelding, With Anticipation, who has assembled a consistent record since running seventh in last year’s Turf, but Sheppard feels he might be running for runner-up money. “The last two years,” he said, “I think the European horses have been a cut above the ones the U.S. has been running.” Golan, the Michael Stoute-trained colt who has been running this marathon distance since his third career start, has won only one of his most recent four tries, but the victory deserved bold letters, under 133 pounds at Ascot. His 126-pound impost Saturday will feel like balsa. Ballingarry, under new ownership and saddled by Laura de Seroux for the first time, won the Canadian International in his finale for trainer Aidan O’Brien. There will be soft ground Saturday, the kind of course that agreed with Denon in the Turf Classic at Belmont.

*--* CLASSIC

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$4 million

12 horses, 1 1/4 miles on dirt

You ask handicappers to assess the richest race in the U.S. and many begin inversely, by throwing out horses: War Emblem’s best races are behind him; Medaglia d’Oro, Came Home and War Emblem are what’s left of a modest 3-year-old crop; Hawk Wing won’t transfer his grass form to dirt; Evening Attire’s recent wins are an illusion. Well, some horse has to win. While advertised as the career climax for War Emblem, the Kentucky Derby-Preakness winner, there are whispers that the colt might run in the Japan Cup before he’s shuffled off to stud. Makes sense. After all, it was the Japanese who paid $17 million for him as a stallion prospect. No questions asked, this is really supposed to be the windup for Came Home, who’ll win horse-of-the-year honors with a victory. He has been beaten only twice, but the losses in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and this year’s Derby are the crosses he has had to bear. Harlan’s Holiday, winner of the Blue Grass and Florida Derby, got a trainer change after a dull Preakness, and his last race, which produced a third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, gave die-hard supporters renewed hope. No Breeders’ Cup race has been dominated by such a small group of jockeys. All but one of the last nine have been won by Bailey, Day and Chris McCarron. Leaving Came Home for Mike Smith, McCarron retired in June. Bailey’s mount is Medaglia d’Oro and Day rides Dollar Bill, who’s listed at 30-1. It’s up to Bailey to preserve the trend.