LONDON // The 2012 Dubai World Cup runner Game On Dude heads nearly two dozen pre-entries with form at Meydan Racecourse for the two-day Breeders’ Cup meeting at Santa Anita, California, November 1 and 2.
Game On Dude finished 12th in the world’s most valuable race, and was entered yesterday with 12 others to the 30th running of the US$5 million (Dh18.4m) Breeders’ Cup Classic.
The six-year-old gelding was an effortless winner of the Pacific Classic on his latest start, and will be joined in the 10-furlong contest by Planteur, who was third to Animal Kingdom in Dubai in March and filled the same spot in 2012.
Planteur, owned by Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad of Qatar and trained in Newmarket by Marco Botti, is one of 20 European entries.
It would have been 21, but Sheikh Joann’s Toronado worked poorly at Lingfield on Tuesday and is set to miss out.
“He clearly needs a bit more time, so we will put him away for next season, when the Breeders’ Cup will be his ultimate target,” said Richard Hannon Jr, assistant trainer to his father.
Royal Delta, who was 10th at Meydan in March, will bid to become a triple winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, and she joins seven others trying to repeat victories at the meeting last year.
Little Mike, who was campaigned in Dubai in the winter, will attempt to reclaim his crown in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, where he will meet John Gosden’s The Fugue, and Wise Dan will try to claim the Breeders’ Cup Mile once more.
Fort Larned will run in the Classic for Ian Wilkes, while Trinniberg has to put a disappointing season behind him. He has had four consecutive defeats since claiming the Breeders’ Cup Sprint last year, and will be joined in the race by Private Zone, who also struggled in the Dubai Golden Shaheen.
Others hoping to win 12 months on include Mizdirection, who is engaged in the Turf Sprint and Groupie Doll, who won the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint last year but runs against Royal Delta in the Distaff.
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