Notes: Trainer "humbled" by Fort Larned's Classic win

• Fort Larned upset heavy favorite Game On Dude, who had been 5-0 at Santa Anita
• Wise Dan, Game On Dude among Breeders' Cup competitors scheduled to come back in 2013
• Trainer Bob Baffert shut out on home track at Breeders' Cup

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Trainer Ian Wilkes, the morning after he won the biggest race of his career, called Fort Larned's half-length victory over Mucho Macho Man in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic very humbling.

Wilkes' mentor and training associate, Hall of Famer Carl Nafzger, stayed at Churchill Downs, where the barn won Friday's Ack Ack with Neck 'n Neck.

But in a phone conversation, Wilkes said he told Nafzger "We did it. We did it."

"It's just humbling, hard to explain," he said at Santa Anita Park before flying back to Louisville. "I don't think it's sunk in. I don't think it will sink in for a while."

Wilkes said that because of the way the track played and the colt's running style, he wanted Brian Hernandez Jr. to keep Fort Larned close to the lead. After setting a swift pace, Fort Larned went all out to hold off Mucho Macho Man, who dogged him throughout.

"I was just hoping for the wire," Wilkes said. "If we'd gotten beat, that would have been tough. And I feel for Kathy (Ritvo, Mucho Macho Man's trainer). Her horse ran unbelievable. …. He ran quick, and he made a five-eighths of a mile move. We took it to 'em. And we had to, because there were some good closers in there.

"I really thought they'd go that fast, because that track is a little fast, speed-biased. I said (to Hernandez), 'We can't leave anything on the table. We have to lay our body on the line.' And he did it for us."

Wilkes said he thought heavy favorite Game On Dude, who had been 5 for 5 at Santa Anita, might be vulnerable when he was unable to hold on to win last year's Classic that ran in a slow 2:041/5 at Churchill Downs. "I just thought he was suspect at a mile and a quarter," Wilkes said.

Fort Larned won in 2:00.11.

Wilkes said that he and owner Janis Whitham will plot a 2013 career designed to end in the Breeders' Cup back at Santa Anita.

"One race I would like to run in is the Stephen Foster," he said. "I really want to do better than he did this year." Fort Larned finished eighth in that Grade I race at his hometown track.

Back in 2013? Among the older horses scheduled to stay in training next year, when the Breeders' Cup is back at Santa Anita, are the top four finishers in the Classic, including third-place Flat Out, fourth-place Ron the Greek and Game On Dude; the Mile's 1-2 finishers in Wise Dan and Animal Kingdom; Ladies' Classic winner Royal Delta and Filly and Mare Sprint heroine Groupie Doll.

Speed figures: Fort Larned earned a sensational 117 Beyer speed figure, Wise Dan 107 and Groupie Doll 108. Royal Delta, who on Friday joined the great Bayakoa as the only horses to win the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic twice, was awarded a 108 for her front-running victory against previously unbeaten My Miss Aurelia. (As an aside, the late Bayakoa, the 1989-'90 winner, is the maternal grandmother of Fort Larned).

Lasix issue: At least three horses experienced pulmonary hemorrhaging (bleeding) among the five juvenile races, where, for the first time since 1990, 2-year-olds were not allowed to run on the anti-bleeder medication commonly known as Lasix. Spring in the Air bled badly during the Juvenile Fillies, and third-place Capo Bastone bled significantly and last-place Monument a trace in the Juvenile.

Bad days for Baffert: Trainer Bob Baffert went 0-for-9 in Breeders' Cup races, with his best finish being previously unbeaten Executiveprivilege's second in Friday's Juvenile Fillies, and 0-for-12 overall during the weekend.

Game On Dude was seventh as the 6-5 favorite in the Classic, and only one Baffert horse was as high as 10-1 odds. Baffert has been winning at a 29% clip this year. He was 17 for 54 at the current Santa Anita meet before Friday's races.

Baffert often told reporters beforehand that being at home was only an advantage if you had the best horse.

"At least I got home in 10 minutes after the races," Baffert quipped. "I didn't have to wait around for any ceremonies or anything like that."

He's baaack? Trainer Doug O'Neill, who won the Derby and Preakness this year with Paul Reddam's I'll Have Another, said all week long that He's Had Enough was a top horse. Reddam's exquisitely bred colt had never raced on real dirt before finishing second by a head at 19-1 after a protracted stretch duel with Shanghai Bobby in the Juvenile.

"He has the talent, and obviously with his pedigree and body, he's got a lot going for him that says he could be a Derby kind of horse," O'Neill said, adding of the defeat, "your competitive juices are upset. But you quickly celebrate what an amazing effort it was and all the potential and fun times ahead if he stays injury free."

Stat from the past: In 2008-'09, when Santa Anita had a synthetic surface, Breeders' Cup starters who had only raced on dirt beforehand went 0 for 43, many from New York. Eastern horses had no such problem this year with Santa Anita back to a dirt main track.

Briefly: Mizdirection's victory in the Turf Sprint set a record for the longest layoff before a Breeders' Cup victory. She last raced May 27. Precisionist's prior race before winning the 1985 Sprint was June 23…. Saturday's announced attendance of 55,123 fit in with Breeders' Cup crowds in California, with 58,845 watching unbeaten Zenyatta becoming the first female to win the Classic in 2009. No track approaches Churchill Downs, which saw eight of the nine Cup crowds that have topped 65,000 – the exception being the 69,155 at Santa Anita in 1986…. Richard Mandella's seven victories at Santa Anita, including Friday's score with Beholder in the Juvenile Fillies, is the most for a trainer at a single Cup venue…. Argentina's 9-year-old Calidoscopio became the oldest horse to win a Breeders' Cup race in Friday's Marathon. He also is the first winner to be based in South America.

Rees writes for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal