Welcome to the Guardian’s live blog covering the 37th Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland this weekend, which will offer a sporting diversion from that other race in the US which has been front and centre stage for the last few days (weeks and months). That one is now very much into the closing stages, with the rider in blue colours several lengths clear and trading at 1.03 in running, while his rival in red – who does look to be putting up a pound or two overweight – curses about some back-stretch interference that no-one else seems to have noticed and threatens to lodge an objection.
In Lexington, Kentucky, meanwhile, there are 14 races that are still very much up for grabs, including seven on Keeneland’s turf course which have all attracted challengers from European stables.
There are, of course, several important differences to the usual run of things as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic: no spectators in the stands, Covid tests for all competing jockeys – which has forced Christophe Soumillon out of the meeting and into isolation after two positives – and strict social distancing everywhere on the track, including the presentations.
Soumillon’s unexpected absence means that Colin Keane, freshly re-installed as Ireland’s champion jockey for a second time after his debut title win in 2017, will take over on Dermot Weld’s Tarnawa, one of the favourites for the Turf tomorrow night.
Today, though, it is all about the two-year-olds – it’s called Future Stars Friday, after all – and the action kicks off at 7.30 when Wesley Ward’s Golden Pal – familiar to European fans as the narrow runner up behind The Lir Jet (who runs in the Juvenile Turf later on) in the Norfolk at Royal Ascot – will be a warm favourite for the Juvenile Turf Sprint over five-and-a-half furlongs. Hollie Doyle has a chance to add a Grade One to her recent debut Group One winner aboard Mighty Gurkha, while Nigel Tinkler’s Ubettabelieveit, a 40-1 winner of the Flying Childers at Doncaster last time, is also in the field along with Aidan O’Brien’s Lippizaner.
Europe drew a blank on the opening day last year and nothing will be straightforward, though four of the first five in the betting for the Juvenile Turf, and seven out of 14 runners in all, are visitors, including Battleground, the current joint-favourite for next year’s 2,000 Guineas.
The field for the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf includes Oodnadatta (Jessica Harrington), Nazuna (Roger Varian), Miss Amulet (Ken Condon) and Mother Earth (Aidan O’Brien), the latter being the filly who was last seen finishing third in the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket when her jockey and numbercloth suggested she was actually her stable companion, Snowfall. And there is another familiar name from the Wesley Ward stable in Campanelle, who blitzed her field in the Queen Mary at Royal Ascot in June.
Your correspondent is stuck on the wrong side of the pond this year, but I’ll do my best to post video form, betting moves, results and post-reaction as fast as anyone on the internet (if not faster). Buckle up for Breeders’ Cup 2020!