Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile: Goldencents can create history

Goldencents bids to become the first two-time winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita tonight (10.05) and looks a worthy favourite to land the spoils.

Trained by Leandro Mora, the colt is a real speedball who absolutely blitzed his rivals when scoring impressively by 2 3/4 lengths 12 months ago.

The son of Into Mischief flashed out from a wide draw in gate 11 and set scorching fractions before pulling away to win with tons in hand.

It was an awesome display, and what makes Goldencents so unique is that he can run four furlongs like a sprinter in 44 seconds and still find plenty at the business end of affairs when challenged by the closers.

The four-year-old also appears to have been given the ideal prep for the race, and looked better than ever on his penultimate start when landing the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar by 4 1/4 lengths from old rival Fed Biz.

Goldencents flew out of the stalls to lead,and after kicking clear 1 2/2 furlongs from home won unchallenged in a track record of 1:20.99 for the 7f trip.

That was followed by a cracking nose second to Rich Tapestry in the Grade 1 6f Santa Anita Sprint Championship at this venue where he came from off the pace, and the step back up to a mile is sure to suit.

Another plus is that he has bagged a great draw in stall 1 from which to attack from flagfall, and if pinging out as expected Goldencents is going to be a very tough horse to pass in the hands of Rafael Bejarano.

The obvious danger to Goldencents is the aforementioned Fed Biz trained by Bob Baffert.

The five-year-old has beaten the selection on one occasion, but had no excuses in this 12 months ago when a well beaten sixth behind Goldencents.

The son of Giant’s Causeway did, however, run a blinder last time out when a 3/4 length runner-up to the brilliant Shared Belief in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes over 1m 1f at this venue.

That run makes Fed Biz a big player, but the problem is that he is at his best when able to dominate and that scenario is unlikely given the awesome early pace of Goldencents.