Petrushka leads Breeders' Cup bid
Experts on both sides of the Atlantic were today unanimous in pinpointing triple Group One-winning filly Petrushka as Europe's best chance of success at the 17th running of the Breeders' Cup in America on Saturday week.
The Sir Michael Stoute-trained filly, who travelled to Kentucky's Churchill Downs track two days ago, heads a massive contingent of 19 European-trained horses from an original entry of 27 to have been handed a definite place in the eight-race 15 million-dollar plus series by the meeting's international selection panel.
The process passed without controversy this year in contrast to the fierce debate provoked last year when 1998 Derby winner High-Rise, then part of the Godolphin team, was excluded from the Turf event and a year earlier when Tamarisk - like Petrushka, owned by Highclere Thoroughbred Racing Ltd - missed the cut for the Sprint.
Petrushka tackles the Filly & Mare Turf, her owners due to pay the 90,00-dollar supplementary fee this Saturday, and by consensus is rated 2lb superior by the panel to her nearest US rival in the betting, last year's sixth Perfect Sting.
Europe also holds two first reserves for the 2000 championship. Godolphin's Bertolini in the Sprint and the Aidan O'Brientrained La Vida Loca in the Juvenile Fillies' will make the starting line-up only if one of the 14 horses selected ahead of them drops out. Hong Kong remains Bertolini's more likely next target.
Godolphin's dual Group One sprint winner, Diktat, was rated only 19th best of a bumper 29 entries for the Mile. Along with three other fellow European entries - Ireland's Bernstein and One Won One and France's Kingsalsa - who have that million -dollar event as their first preference - he looks unlikely to get a run at this stage.
Mick Kinane is rumoured to have been lined up to deputise for Pat Eddery on the Amanda Perretttrained Mile challenger, Indian Lodge, although final plans hinge on the outcome of the latter jockey's appeal against a four-day ban for irresponsible riding received at Redcar yesterday that would rule him out of his US engagement.
The Racing Channel's digital service will screen live all eight major races at the Breeders' Cup meeting at Churchill Downs. This five-hour programme is scheduled to start at 6pm, 12 minutes before the off time of the first race, with the featured Breeder's Cup Classic off at 10.10pm
Nigel Payne, spokesman for The Racing Network in the United States, explained: "The programme in the main will be a live feed from TRN through NBC, but there will also be input from the Racing Channel studio in London."
