One of the deepest European squads ever assembled for the Breeders’ Cup meeting continued to emerge from quarantine and on to Santa Anita’s main tracks here on Tuesday in advance of the 13 races on Friday and Saturday in which Europe will be represented in all but three.
Toronado, the favourite for the Breeders’ Cup Mile, and Dank, who will attempt to win the Filly & Mare Turf for the second year running, were among the leading contenders from British yards who looked fit and well during light exercise.
Flintshire, the Arc runner-up and favourite for the Turf, and Sir Michael Stoute’s Telescope, the second-favourite for the same race, cantered on the grass along with Brown Panther, another Turf contender, whose owner Michael Owen is due to arrive in California on Thursday.
“It was very straightforward, just getting a steady canter into him to see where we are and how he’s travelled over,” Sean Levey, who rode Toronado at exercise and does so every day at home, said later. “Everything was good and he feels great.
“We always knew he had a lot of ability. You could see it in the way he won the Craven [Stakes in 2013]. But he was a bit gassy in the Guineas and we just needed to get that out of him.
“He’s progressed with every step after that and, as a four-year-old, Hughsie [Richard Hughes, Toronado’s jockey] has said that he can’t believe how he’s mentally grown up as a four-year-old. Physically he was always strong but growing up mentally was what we needed.”
The Mile is run on Santa Anita’s tight turf course, inside the main dirt track, which can lead to trouble in running in a big field, but Toronado has a good draw in stall five and Levey feels the race could unfold to suit him.
“He’s a fast horse,” Levey said. “I know Kingman beat him [into second in the Sussex Stakes] but, if you look at the fractions they laid down in the final two furlongs, you can see he’s got bags of speed. He just shows it in a more relaxed manner now.
“He likes fast ground and I think he’ll love the injection of pace early doors. He’ll be able to jump and cruise away, and that’s what he wants, to be able to fall into a rhythm. That’s what he’ll love about American racing. They just go [at a strong pace] and the best horse can come out on top.
“The trouble can come on the bend but he’s drawn beautifully, so he will not be on the inside and killed early doors. He will not have to run into that traffic on the bend.”
Richard Hannon, Toronado’s trainer, will be Britain’s champion trainer in his debut season when the turf campaign concludes a week on Saturday and he took a Classic with his first runner when Night Of Thunder won the 2,000 Guineas in May. Now Toronado is top-priced at 9-4 to give him a Breeders’ Cup winner, something his father, Richard Sr, could never achieve, while Osaila, his contender for the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf on Friday, is top-priced at 11-2 with Hills.
Aidan O’Brien’s five-strong team for the meeting is due to emerge from quarantine on Wednesday and The Great War, the Irish trainer’s contender for the Juvenile on dirt, will face a diminished challenge from the home team after American Pharoah, the ante-post favourite for the race at around 2-1, was ruled out due to what Bob Baffert, the colt’s trainer, reported as a possible “deep bruise” in his left front foot.
The Upper Lambourn trainer Brendan Powell and the former leading jump jockey Graham Bradley have been cleared by the British Horseracing Authority’s disciplinary panel over a charge that Bradley had been training horses which then ran under Powell’s name.
“It’s a massive relief,” Powell said on Tuesday after the panel’s decision, which followed a three-day hearing last week, had been published.
“It’s been something that’s been hanging over me for a year. I understand the BHA have a job to do, and I respect them for that. I knew in my own heart and mind that we’d done nothing wrong.
“I’ve lost owners and horses over it, it takes its toll. It’s hard to get them back, but we’ll just have to try to see if we can attract new owners.”
Robin Mounsey, the BHA’s spokeman, said that the authority was “disappointed” by the decision. “We are obviously disappointed at the disciplinary panel’s verdict,” Mounsey said. “It is impossible to comment further without being in possession of the panel’s reasons for their decision.”
Godolphin has bought a share in Belardo, the winner of the Dewhurst Stakes, from Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia. The colt will run in Godolphin’s royal blue silks as a three-year-old while continuing in training with Roger Varian.
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