The six-million-dollar question: who will win the Classic?

Breeders' Cup Classic (Grade 1) | 3yo+ | 1m2f Dirt | Sky

Santa Anita is the only venue that has thrown up a European-based winner of the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic but the 36th edition will go ahead without a foreign runner.

Arcangues and Raven’s Pass both earned their slice of history at the California venue which sits beneath the San Gabriel mountains. The lack of a runner from this part of the world is one of a number of factors that gives the $6 million Grade 1 a substandard look.

There is no outstanding older dirt horse in America and the three-year-olds haven’t exactly lit up the place.

Maybe one of the quartet from that generation will step up, or maybe the Bill Mott-trained Elate will seize the opportunity to become just the second mare to plunder a Classic after the mighty Zenyatta, who earned her place in racing folklore when coming from a hopeless position to scythe through the field under Mike Smith at Santa Anita in 2009.

Those were Santa Anita’s short-lived Polytrack days and there hasn’t been as much scrutiny of its surface since then as there is now. All eyes are on the Los Angeles circuit after the deaths of 36 horses since December.

Track officials have gone to considerable lengths to improve the integrity of the dirt surface and implement more robust protocols which include extending the withdrawal periods for anti-inflammatories to 48 hours from 24, and joints are not allowed be injected for a fortnight before a race.

Given the apparent absence of an equine superstar, the last thing the Breeders’ Cup and Santa Anita needs right now is something ugly to steal the headlines.

McKinzie, beaten just over 31 lengths by Accelerate at Churchill Downs last year, is back again, with Bob Baffert electing to swap Smith for the 2018 winning rider Joel Rosario in an effort to find an edge for a horse with stamina doubts.

McKinzie’s second behind Mongolian Groom in the Awesome Again Stakes in September was his third successive defeat at Santa Anita.

“He hasn’t been able to win here with Mike, that’s why I made the change,” says Baffert, who combined with Smith to win the race here with Arrogate in 2016.

“I’ve always thought he is a top horse and he has never really run a bad race, but Mike rides him different every time. It’s just an instinct. You need to let him run. I know a lot of people don’t think he can go ten furlongs, but he can if he is ridden properly.”

Rosario abandoned Bill Mott’s Yoshida to partner McKinzie. Smith takes over instead, so the potential is there for a rider who has won the race four times to exact vengeance, although Smith, a staunchly religious man, has been sanguine about it.

Yoshida on his toes at Santa Anita on Tuesday morningCredit: Edward Whitaker

Yoshida, fourth 12 months ago, was second to McKinzie in the Whitney at Saratoga and his sole Grade 1 win came at Churchill Downs in May 2018.

“He’s a good competitor and he’s done well at a mile and a quarter,” Mott said. “If he repeats last year's race, that will put him in the mix.”

Of Elate, Mott said: “We’re throwing her in deep. I think she fits the conditions very well and she’s proven it. Of course, we’re running against good competition, so she still has to run her very best race to compete.”

Code Of Honor, who won the Travers Stakes on his penultimate start and is drawn widest, looks the pick of the three-year-olds. Promoted to second in the Kentucky Derby, on his latest outing he was also awarded the Jockey Club Gold Cup in the stewards’ room after Vino Rosso edged across him before finishing a nose to the good.

Code of Honor (near side) wins the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park after Vino Rosso was disqualified

“He's coming off two mile-and-a-quarter races, and he had a really good work on Monday,” said trainer Shug McGaughey. “If he runs his Whitney back, he’ll be tough.”

Vino Rosso, one from the outside, won the Gold Cup here over C&D in May before being well held in third in the Whitney.

“I think we can get a trip where we’re in a good stalking position,” said his trainer Todd Pletcher. “We know he likes the mile and a quarter. We’ll hope to put him in a position to where he can show his strength.”

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