Mott has four horses among 180 entered in Breeders' Cup

• The 180 Breeders' Cup pre-entries are down from last year's record 194 for races at Churchill Downs
• Royal Delta, Ladies Classic winner in 2011, is pre-entered in Ladies Classic and Classic

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott has four horses out of the 180 horses pre-entered for the 15 Breeders' Cup World Championship races Nov. 2-3 at Santa Anita.

And all four theoretically could start in the $5 million Classic, though the 4-year-old filly Royal Delta is most likely to instead defend last year's win in the $2 million Ladies' Classic.

Mott swept both races last year at Churchill Downs, with Drosselmeyer taking the Classic the day after Royal Delta's victory.

This year he has the Classic-bound trio Santa Anita Handicap winner Ron the Greek, Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Flat Out (fifth last year when trained by Scooter Dickey) and Woodward winner To Honor and Serve (seventh last year).

They'll face a field that includes multiple Grade I winner Game On Dude (last year's runner-up) and major-winners Fort Larned, Mucho Macho Man, Richard's Kid, the 3-year-old Alpha and possibly Dullahan, a synthetic-surface whiz who also is eligible for the $3 million Turf.

The Ladies' Classic could bring together three former Breeders' Cup winners and champions in Royal Delta, unbeaten Awesome Feather (2010 Juvenile Fillies) and undefeated My Miss Aurelia (2011 Juvenile Fillies).

Besides that, there's multiple Grade I winners Love and Pride, Questing and Include Me Out.

"Both races are very, very interesting and I think the competition is deep in both," Mott said when asked to compare the two races. The trainer said it is unlikely that Royal Delta will be entered in both spots when the final fields are set Monday.

Royal Delta, a 91/2-length winner in her last start, The Beldame, gets her $60,000 entry fee for the Ladies' Classic waived as the winner of a Breeders' Cup Challenge race. But owner Benjamin Leon would have to pay an additional $150,000 if he also enters the Classic, an amount he would lose if Royal Delta ran in the Ladies' Classic.

The 180 pre-entrants is 14 fewer horses than last year at Churchill Downs, the first time there were 15 races. Twenty-three horses were cross-entered into another event. Twenty-nine horses are from outside North America.

The eight past Cup winners include 2011 winners St. Nicholas Abbey (Turf), Amazombie (Sprint) and Musical Romance (Filly & Mare Sprint).

Animal Kingdom, the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner, will make his first start since February and only second race since last year's Belmont in the Mile. Trainer Graham Motion said Rafael Bejarano has the mount, with John Velazquez committed to Mile favorite Wise Dan.

The Kentucky contingent will be strong, including Wise Dan, F&M Sprint favorite Groupie Doll, Dirt Mile contender Shackleford, Fort Larned and Dullahan.

For the first time since 1990 in New York, 2-year-olds will not be allowed to run on anti-bleeder medication. Of the 59 horses pre-entered in the five juvenile races, only 15 did not race on Lasix in their last start – 13 of those from Europe.
Santa Anita is back to dirt after its Breeders' Cup main-track events were run over a synthetic surface in 2008 and 2009. Horses that had run exclusively on dirt beforehand went 0-for-43 during those two years.

Jennie Rees writes for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal