Happily Unbridled

The main prep race for the Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr I), the Goodwood Stakes (gr I), will be run this year on the same surface on which the Breeders’ Cup Classic will be run. This synthetic surface is called Pro-Ride and has recently been installed at Santa Anita in California. This is the first test of the racing surface and should tell us a lot about how which horses will handle the track and move on to the Breeders’ Cup.

The Goodwood is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race which means that the winner will automatically earn an entry into the Classic race on October 25.

Well Armed appears to be the horse to beat in the Goodwood. The 5 year old gelded son of Tiznow scored wire-to-wire victories in the San Diego Handicap (gr II) at Del Mar and the San Antonio Handicap (gr II) at Santa Anita. In his last start, the Pacific Classic (gr I), Well Armed lost by a neck to Go Between.

The defending champion of last year’s Goodwood, Tiago, is coming into the race without a start in nearly three months. Trainer John Sherriffs, who also trained Tiago’s half-brother Giacomo to victory in the 2005 Grade I Kentucky Derby, doesn’t think the colt will be at a disadvantage in the 1 1/8 mile race. Of course the surface is the main factor; Tiago has been training at the Hollywood Park Cushion Track and Sherriffs is unfamiliar with the Australian-manufactured Pro-Ride.

In addition to Tiago and Well Armed, the other Goodwood entrants include Spirit Won, Mast Track, Albertus Maximus,Tres Borrachos, Zappa, Informed, Surf Cat, Slew’s Tiznow, and Mostacoll Mort.

The Goodwood is shaping up to be a very competitive race. It will be a great race to watch and also should give us some idea of who’s going to be a major player in the big race at the end of October.

Go Baby Go!

Early Saturday morning, during a private session which curiously attracted virtually no media attention, retired hall-of-fame rider, Gary Stevens, breezed a horse over the latest version of the synthetic Santa Anita surface.

Santa Anita had problems with the synthetic surface installed in 2007 in compliance with a State of California mandate for all tracks in California to switch from dirt to synthetic. The first track had a multitude of drainage problems and racing days had to be canceled several times while the track was reworked to a suitable surface for racing. When the meet ended, that entire surface was removed and replaced with Pro-Ride, a synthetic surface created in Australia.

Stevens gave a ringing endorsement of this overhauled surface and even went so far as to say this is the best track he has ever been on. Coming from a jockey who has ridden over an estimated 200 to 300 tracks all around the world, this is high praise indeed.

This has to be good news, not only for the connections of Santa Anita Park who have worked so tirelessly to get this track as good as it can be, but also for the connections of all the horses from around the world who will come to the Breeders’ Cup.

Let’s hope they can keep this track surface properly maintained so that when the Breeders’ Cup comes to Santa Anita in late October, all the horses will have a quality surface upon which to race and the best horse in each race will have his or her chance to win.

Go Baby Go!