Arrogate Cruises In Most Recent Work For Breeders’ Cup Classic

The annual two day Breeders’ Cup Championships will be held at Del Mar Racecourse on November 3rd & 4th. Virginia race fans will be able to watch and wager all the action at the two Richmond area Off Track Betting (OTB) Centers — Ponies & Pints downtown and Breakers Sports Grille in the west end. A third OTB — at Buckets Bar & Grill in Chesapeake — could be open by Breeders’ Cup Day as well! And Virginia residents can wager on line via TVG.com, XpressBet.com, TwinSpires.com and NYRABets.com. We’ll have lots of advance “Cup” preview pieces here in the coming days including this from The Paulick Report on star horse Arrogate.

Arrogate stepped onto the track at Santa Anita on Tuesday morning and recorded a bullet breeze toward the Breeders’ Cup Classic. In company again with Bob Baffert-trained stablemate Uninvited, the 4-year-old son of Unbridled’s Song began well behind his workmate under Rafael Bejarano. According to drf.com Arrogate was credited with an official five-furlong time of 1:00.20, working from the half-mile pole to a furlong past the wire, then galloping out in 1:13.20.

Arrogate, in his most recent workout. Photo by Joe Metz, Clocker’s Corner

“He went nice and easy, just cruising around there,” Baffert said. “The track is deep this morning. He went really nice, was happy coming off the track.”

Three works remain before Arrogate tackle the challenge of the Classic at Del Mar. Several of those threats come from within Baffert’s barn, including current leading 3-year-old West Coast. Since Hall of Famer Mike Smith is the regular rider for both horses, Javier Castellano has picked up the mount on West Coast while Smith chose to stick with Arrogate.

Baffert’s other two Classic probables, Collected and Mubtaahij, would be piloted by Martin Garcia and Drayden Van Dyke, respectively.