BREEDERS’ CUP NOTEBOOK
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS – Blazing Fury, a fast-closing second last out in the Turf Classic for trainer Jimmy Toner, was scratched yesterday morning from the Breeders’ Cup Turf after suffering a tendon tear to his right foreleg during a routine gallop at Belmont Park.
The injury isn’t career threatening but knocks the 4-year-old gelding, who would have been a live longshot in the Turf, out for the year.
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The plane from Ireland carrying trainer Aidan O’Brien’s eight-horse Ballydoyle brigade to the Breeders’ Cup, including European superstars Rock Of Gibraltar (Classic or Mile), High Chaparral (Turf), Hawk Wing (Classic) and Hold That Tiger (Juvenile), landed at O’Hare International yesterday at 4:14 p.m.
The flight was reported to be “perfect” and all the horses were soon bedded down in the quarantine barn at Arlington Park.
Euro-invader Golan, who shipped in late Sunday, was on the track yesterday morning after clearing quarantine. Trained by Sir Michael Stoute, the long-winded Golan has run just twice this year and is a big threat in the Turf at a price.
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Pacific Classic winner Came Home, whose only loss this year in seven starts came in the Kentucky Derby, worked a half-mile yesterday at Santa Anita in :48.1, his final prep for the Classic.
Trainer Patrick Biancone’s 2-year-old colt Whywhywhy, winner of the Belmont Futurity, breezed an easy half-mile in :52.4 yesterday at Arlington with jockey Pat Day up for the first time.
“This was an opportunity [for Whywhywhy] to meet the jockey, not the bride,” the French-born Biancone said. “Their success depends on how they work together as a team. I’m a romantic. I think they love each other.”