Good evening (if you’re on GMT or similar) from Santa Anita racecourse in Arcadia in southern California, and good afternoon if you’re lucky enough to be Stateside for the Breeders’ Cup 2023 – the nearest thing that racing has to a world championship, with horses from the US, Britain, Ireland, France and Japan going to post for 14 races with prize funds that range from $1m (£807k) to $6m (£4.8m).
The “Future Stars Friday” card includes five Breeders’ Cup races, all of which, as the name suggests, are for juveniles. European stables are strongly represented in the three races on turf – the Juvenile Sprint, the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf and the Juvenile Turf – while the main event for US fans is the Juvenile on dirt, offering possible clues to the early favourites for next year’s Kentucky Derby.
Frankie Dettori’s biggest ambition now that he has decided to base himself at Santa Anita is to pick up a ride in the Run For The Roses, and while he does not have a ride in the Juvenile, the Pasadena area’s latest jockey-in-residence does have a mount in two of the three turf races: the Juvenile Turf Sprint (21.00) and then the Juvenile Turf at 23.40GMT.
The three turf events on the Friday card – the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf at 22.20GMT is the other) have all become key targets for the Europeans, and 10 of the 15 runnings of the Juvenile Turf have crossed the Atlantic, including five that have been bagged by Aidan O’Brien alone.
O’Brien supplies the first and second favourites tonight in River Tiber and Unquestionable, and there is not much obvious opposition from the Americans. Their turf fillies, though, look stronger and should provide decent opposition for the European-trained favourites, Porta Fortuna and Carla’s Way, while on the dirt, Tamara, the favourite for the Juvenile Fillies (21.40) could definitely be something special.
Some picks for the juvenile events, which kick off with Big Evs attempting to give Mick Appleby a first Breeders’ Cup winner, are here, along with some locals’ thoughts about Mr Dettori’s relocation, and the live blog will be running – hopefully – until the horses are back in their barns after the Juvenile Turf.
I say hopefully because the wifi here at Santa Anita is the slowest I’ve come across since the days of dial-up, and is currently pushing my blood pressure to an unsustainably high level. If I suddenly stop posting entirely, it either means the network has collapsed completely, or my head has exploded. Or possibly both in quick succession.
Still, technical issues notwithstanding, I’m very much looking forward to sharing this wonderful event with you, as immediately as humanly possible, throughout the next two days of world-class racing. Here’s hoping you all get lucky, and then stay lucky too.