The Lumber Guy, G1 Vosburgh (NYRA/Adam Mooshian)
The Lumber Guy, winner of the Grade 1 Vosburgh Invitational Stakes, and Next Question, winner of Woodbine’s Nearctic Stakes and New York’s latest Grade 1 hero, will represent the Empire State in the 2012 Breeders Cup World Championships to be run at Santa Anita Park on Friday, November 2 and Saturday, November 3.
The names of 108 horses officially pre-entered for the 2012 Breeders Cup were made public on Wednesday morning. The Lumber Guy is pre-entered for the Grade 1, $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Next Question will go in the Grade 1, $1 million Turf Sprint.
Each of the Breeders’ Cup races (with the exception of the Dirt Mile) allows a maximum of 14 starters. The Sprint and Turf Sprint are oversubscribed, but both New York-breds won Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” Breeders’ Cup Challenge events and are secured berths in their respective races.
After The Lumber Guy (Grand Slam) won the six-furlong Vosburgh at Belmont Park on September 29, trainer Mike Hushion pondered his Breeders’ Cup options for the sophomore with breeder/owner Barry K. Schwartz. The colt’s other graded victory came in Aqueduct’s Grade 2 Jerome, run at one mile around one turn and the question was whether to enter him in the Dirt Mile or Sprint.
Hushion opted to go with the Sprint mainly because the Breeders’ Cup Mile is run around two-turns at Santa Anita. “There’s a short run to the first turn and [The Lumber Guy] tends to get a little headstrong early,” Hushion said. “Maybe one day, if the Breeders’ Cup ever comes back to Belmont, I’ll have a decision to make.” The Breeders’ Cup will be only the seventh start for the $465,800 multiple graded stakes winner.
Next Question, G1 Nearctic (Michael Burns Photography)
Next Question, a lightly-raced 4-year-old Stormy Atlantic gelding owned by Kirk Wycoff’s Three Diamonds Farm, burst on the scene a little more than a week ago with his Nearctic Stakes victory in his stakes debut on October 14. Bred by Dr. Lance G. Bell and trained by Mike Trombetta, Next Question was confidently supplemented to the Nearctic Stakes on the heels of a dominant victory in an open first-level allowance at Belmont on September 12.
At least one New York-bred defection from the Breeders’ Cup was due to this year’s Lasix ban in the juvenile divisions. Owner Mike Repole, who could have had as many as six starters in the Breeders’ Cup races – four of them 2-year-olds – will not be sending any horses Santa Anita. This includes not only Stay Thirsty, who would have been entered for the $5 million Classic, but Repole’s up-and-coming New York-bred juvenile turfer Notacatbutallama.
The Breeders’ Cup will be televised live by the NBC Sports Network and NBC.
[…] New York breeding program continues to showcase graduates as NY breds The Lumber Guy and Next Question are entered in the Breeders’ Cup world championships this Friday and Saturday at Santa Anita race […]