Speightstown will have six runners in this year’s Breeders’ Cup Championships at Santa Anita Park, with all six running on Saturday in three different races. Already the nation’s second-leading sire with progeny earnings of $8,734,797, Speightstown could wind up in the top spot after the Breeders’ Cup wraps up on Nov. 3.
The WinStar stallion will have a trio of runners in the $1.5 Sprint (G1): Poseidon’s Warrior (post 13), Fast Bullet (6), and Sum of the Parts (1) are part of a full field of 14. Poseidon’s Warrior, winner of the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. has the speed to contend early but may be better suited coming from just behind the frontrunners. Fast Bullet is one of the more intriguing entrants in the Breeders’ Cup. The Bob Baffert trainee has been off for nearly a year, but has trained very well of late and looks to show the talent he flashed in his lone two efforts, both open-length wins, last fall. The speedy frontrunner Sum of the Parts has won four of five this year, most recently the Grade 3 Phoenix S. at Keeneland on Oct. 5.
Bridgetown will carry Speightstown’s hopes in the $1 million Turf Sprint (G1). The 5-year-old chestnut is making his third start in a Breeders’ Cup race. He finished second as a 2-year-old in the 2009 Juvenile Turf (G1) over this same Santa Anita course and a close-up fourth in the then-Grade 2 Turf Sprint in 2010 at Churchill Downs.
Finally, the duo of Delegation and Jersey Town will break side-by-side, from posts 2 and 3, respectively, as they face off with seven foes in the $1 million Dirt Mile (G1). Delegation ships to California from his Canadian base at Woodbine, where he took the Grade 3 Durham Cup in front-running style on Oct. 14. The bay 3-year-old has won four races and has never been off the board in six lifetime starts. Jersey Town, winner of the 2010 Cigar Mile H. (G1), broke out in a big way with a huge 3 1/2-length win last time out in the one-mile, Grade 2 Kelso H. Sept. 29 at Belmont Park. The 6-year-old veteran has finished in the top 3 in five of six lifetime starts at the mile distance.
