Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile Preview PT 1

Easily one of the most intriguing races on the four-race Breeders’ Cup card on the Friday at Santa Anita is the dirt mile, which will see the reappearance of California stalwart Goldencents as he seeks to capture the contest for the second year in a row. As usual, there is always a bit of controversy when a horse trained by Doug O’Neill is involved and, with his suspension prohibiting him from conditioning any horse at this year’s event thanks to an overage at New York track Saratoga for Wind of Bosphorus, Goldencents will run under the tutelage of his assistant Leandro Mora. 

CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE BET WITH BET365!

Despite this, it has only seen Goldencents’ price creep even lower as the field has become weaker with a few opting for the Classic as opposed to the dirt mile itself. While it never seems to attract genuine first class talent, the dirt mile is usually an intriguing race and one that you can usually bank on to provide some solid payouts. 

However, this time around, with Goldencents priced at a very slim 5/4 listing and having drawn the golden rail at Santa Anita, he looks in firm position to get the better of his counterparts here. Team O’Neill had been enjoying a good string of luck with the colt and the opportunity to capture a Breeders’ Cup race early on in the event will definitely give them some momentum as they go forward. 

His main rival appears to be Bob Baffert’s Fed Biz, who was involved in the Awesome Again stakes at Santa Anita on Breeders’ Cup preview day back in late September. He was part of a coupled Baffert entry that saw Victor Espinoza (the jockey for California Chrome in the Breeders’ Cup Classic) attempt to take Mike Smith and Shared Belief extremely wide heading into the clubhouse turn. 

Espinoza was given a seven day ban for his deliberate race-riding on top of the co-entered Sky Kingdom. Fed Biz could have been the beneficiary of what happened on the day but Shared Belief was able to gut out the victory and storm home late on to secure a breathtaking victory for the three-year-old colt.