Breeders Cup

Horse racing's biggest event, the Breeders' Cup, comes to Santa Anita starting tomorrow and continuing into Saturday. There will be 15 races, all worth more than $1 million. Times columnist Bill Dwyre and horse racing expert Eric Sondheimer will be discussing the event live at 1 p.m. There is no Zenyatta this year but the fields are pretty evenly matched meaning there should be big payouts for the bettors. Learn who to look for, what to expect and figure out why this event is back in Southern California.

Under pressure from trainers and owners who support the use of the diuretic furosemide to prevent bleeding in race horses, the Breeders' Cup Board of Directors voted Friday to reverse a decision that would have banned the drug's use for all races at its world championships on Nov. 1-2 at Santa Anita. Instead, the Breeders' Cup will continue the medical policy it put in for this past year's world championships, banning furosemide, previously known as Lasix, for only the juvenile races.

Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla., will be the site of the 7-race, $10-million Breeders' Cup thoroughbred racing card in 1989, it was announced Friday. The tentative date announced by the Breeders' Cup Board of Directors is Nov. 4. The fifth Breeders Cup series will be held this Nov. 5 at Churchill Downs. The 1989 Breeders' Cup will be the first to be held in Florida. The first four were held at Hollywood Park in 1984 and 1987, Aqueduct in New York in 1985 and Santa Anita in 1986.

Trainers Mark Casse and John Sadler said Sunday that they had 2-year-old horses bleed during races at the Breeders' Cup over the weekend at Santa Anita, the first time the anti-bleeding drug Lasix was banned from use in five juvenile races. Lasix, a powerful diuretic that also can be used to mask other drugs, helps prevent bleeding in horses. Lasix is scheduled to be banned next year from all 15 Breeders' Cup races. On Saturday, Dr. Rick Arthur , equine director of the California Horse Racing Board, issued a statement that no horses in the 2-year-old races had been found to have bled following a visible examination by veterinarians on the track and in the receiving barn.

There are 167 of the finest thoroughbred horses in the world who will compete as afterthoughts here the next two days. They are warmup acts to No. 168, a mare named Zenyatta. It is amazing to behold. Not only do other owners and trainers of horses entered in this year's Breeders' Cup, where $26 million in purses will be won, not resent her dominance of the scene. They welcome it. Renowned California trainer John Sadler, who has four entrants in this annual prestigious showcase of horse racing's finest, estimates he has seen the magical Zenyatta run in 15 of her 19 races -- all 19 victories, of course.

It's going to take a lucrative payment to nominate Obviously for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Mile next month at Santa Anita, but trainer Mike Mitchell and co-owners Anthony Fanticola and Joe Scardino are convinced the 4-year-old gelding has earned a shot based on his freakish-like performances in his last two races. Last month, Obviously set a course record for a mile on the turf at Del Mar in 1:32.10. On Saturday at Santa Anita, Obviously won the $150,000 Arroyo Seco Mile by a half-length over Trailblazer in 1:31.95, just six-hundreths of a second off the course record of 1:31.89.

Breeders' Cup favorites Horse; Jockey; Trainer; Morning-line odds; FRIDAY RACES Juvenile Sprint Secret Circle; Rafael Bejarano; Bob Baffert; 6/5; Juvenile Fillies Turf Elusive Kate; William Buick; John H.M. Gosden; 2/1; Filly and Mare Sprint Turbulent Descent; David Flores; Mike Puype; 6/5; Juvenile Fillies My Miss Aurelia; Corey Nakatani; Steven M. Asmussen; 5/2; ...

Breeders' Cup race-by-race rundown from Eric Sondheimer: Ladies' Classic Royal Delta surged from third place at the top of the stretch to win the $2-million Ladies' Classic, beating It's Tricky by 21/2 lengths in the 11/8-mile race. Favorite Plum Pretty from trainer Bob Baffert's stable led by a head at the stretch but fell to fifth. Juvenile Sprint Secret Circle, the first of nine scheduled Breeders' Cup starters for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, came through as the odds-on favorite.

Santa Anita, set to host the Breeders' Cup on Nov. 2-3, has been awarded racing's world championships for a second consecutive year in 2013. It will take place at the Arcadia track on Nov. 1-2, 2013. Santa Anita most recently hosted back-to-back Breeders' Cups in 2008 and 2009. The NBC Sports Network is scheduled to broadcast the $5-million Breeders' Cup Classic live and in prime time this fall and next fall. It will mark the 10th time the event has been held in Southern California over its 30-year history.

Friday's first day of Breeders' Cup horse racing at Santa Anita was a Ladies Day delight. Saturday's second day is expected to be, well, the same thing. Today is Zenyatta's day. No filly or mare has ever won the Breeders' Cup Classic, and they've run this race since 1984. One filly, Jolypha in 1992 at Gulfstream, finished in the money, a third to A.P. Indy. That's it for females in this testosterone dash. So far. The $5-million Classic has been the domain of the big boys, the rough and ready, who can power over whatever turf is presented and through whatever tight hole is presented.

Trainers Mark Casse and John Sadler said Sunday that they had 2-year-old horses bleed during races at the Breeders' Cup this weekend at Santa Anita during an event in which the anti-bleeding drug Lasix was banned for the first time from use in five juvenile races. Under a new Breeders' Cup policy, Lasix was prohibited from being used for 2-year-olds. Lasix, a powerful diuretic that also can be used to mask other drugs, helps prevent bleeding in horses. Lasix is scheduled to be banned next year from all 15 Breeders' Cup races.

Horse racing is in need of a new star, and she emerged Saturday, wearing a bright yellow one on the front of her silks. Rosie Napravnik, a red-haired 24-year-old from New Jersey, is poised to make a strong challenge as the Kentucky Derby's first winning female jockey after directing Shanghai Bobby to a stirring Breeders' Cup Juvenile victory at Santa Anita. She is the second winning female jockey in Breeders' Cup history. Julie Krone rode Halfbridled to a 2003 Juvenile Fillies victory.

Game On Dude didn't quite have enough game. Mucho Macho Man had insufficient macho. And so Saturday's Breeders' Cup Classic, a Hollywood show taking place before 55,123 well-dressed and well-entertained people at a horse track long established in star-studded Los Angeles as the Great Race Place, got its best moment via a wonderful little old lady from Kansas. Janis Whitham's Fort Larned won the Classic, the $3 million that comes with that, and the affection of thousands of new race fans.

Life has left Fred Bradley , 81, weakened in a wheelchair. The small-time horse breeder from Frankfort, Ky., leaned back from his vantage point and smiled on Saturday at Santa Anita. "I'm not getting any better," Bradley concluded. "But I'm not getting any worse. " Groupie Doll, a 4-year-old filly Bradley and his trainer/son, William "Buff" Bradley , personally pulled to birth on their 320-acre farm, won the $1-million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint by 41/2 lengths in the most dominating individual performance of the nine Saturday Breeders' Cup races.

If Game On Dude is going to win the horse-of-the-year award, then Saturday's $5-million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita is an ideal setting to make a lasting impression. A year after leading in the stretch and being overtaken by the late charge of Drosselmeyer at Churchill Downs, Game On Dude will try again to win the Classic, but this time the 5-year-old son of Awesome Again has a home-track advantage. So far, Game On Dude is a perfect five for five at Santa Anita. "You want to win the Breeders' Cup, you have to bring your A game that day," Game On Dude's trainer Bob Baffert said.

Mike Smith became the winningest jockey in the 29-year history of the Breeders' Cup when he guided Royal Delta to victory over My Miss Aurelia and Include Me Out in the $2 million Ladies' Classic on Friday at Santa Anita. It was Smith's 16th Breeders' Cup victory, passing Jerry Bailey. Royal Delta, trained by Bill Mott, won the Ladies' Classic last year at Churchill Downs and pulled off a wire-to-wire victory this time. The 4-year-old daughter of Empire Maker won the 1 1/8-mile race by 1 1/2 lengths in 1:48.80 and returned $5.40, $3.60 and $2.60.

In returning near Hollywood, the Breeders' Cup has embraced the magnet of celebrity by starting an “ambassadors program.” The inaugural group includes former Dodgers manager Joe Torre, actress Bo Derek, pro skateboarder Rob Dyrdek, sports talk host Jim Rome, singer Toby Keith and University of Louisville basketball Coach Rick Pitino. The group, joined by celebrity cook Bobby Flay, actress Elizabeth Banks, actress/singer Laura Bell Bundy and New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker, will serve as spokespersons for the Nov. 2-3 event at Santa Anita Park and help with promotion.

Super Ninety Nine, the pre-race favorites in Friday's $500,000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint, has been scratched after sustaining a scrape while moving about in his stall at Santa Anita Park. Also scratched Friday morning was Worth Repeating, one of the top contenders in the $500,000 Marathon. Super Ninety Nine, trained by Bob Baffert, was lying in his stall and apparently stumbled getting up and panicked. "I'm really upset," Baffert said. "He's scraped up; it's not serious, but you can't have stuff like this prior to a race like this.