Breeder’s Cup hopefuls make push Saturday at Belmont Park, Santa Anita

An extraordinary series of 10 Grade 1 stakes on Saturday, five each at Belmont Park and Santa Anita, mark the last push for many horses prepping for the Breeders' Cup on Nov. 2 and 3 at Santa Anita.

The races are the Flower Bowl, Beldame, TVG Jockey Club Gold Cup, Joe Hirsch and Vosburgh at Belmont, and the Rodeo Drive, Chandelier, Frontrunner, Awesome Again and Zenyatta at Santa Anita.

The marquee division will be the handicap horses running in the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Awesome Again.

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott has a strong hand in the Gold Cup with the two favorites in Ron the Greek (5-2) and Flat Out (3-1). Ron the Greek has Horse of the Year hopes that could be achieved with wins on Saturday and in the Breeders' Cup Classic five weeks from now. His resume includes wins in the Santa Anita Handicap and the Stephen Foster.

Game On Dude for trainer Bob Baffert will be a solid choice in the Awesome Again. Game On Dude is in a similar position to earn Horse of the Year honors as Ron the Greek. Game On Dude has wins this year in the Hollywood Gold Cup, Californian and San Antonio.

A key sidebar story will be Rafael Bejarano replacing Chantal Sutherland on Game On Dude. Bejarano is now the jockey of choice for Baffert on his best stakes horses.

The strongest favorite among the 10 stakes is Point of Entry (4-5) in the Joe Hirsch. The Shug McGaughey colt has won three marathon turf races in a row - the Sword Dancer, Man O'War and Elkhorn. This stamps him as this country's best turf runner. However, the water will get much deeper when the European stars ship over to face him in the Breeders' Cup Turf.

The Chandelier and Frontrunner are both 2-year-old stakes at Santa Anita. A couple of angles to keep in mind are nearly all of the babies will be running on dirt, and also going around two turns, for the first time. It could open up both stakes for upset results.

The undefeated Executiveprivilege has won all four of her starts for Baffert. She has shown perfect tactical speed to sit off the early leaders, then grind them down in the stretch.

Baffert has three colts in the Frontrunner (Carving, Den's Legacy and Power Broker), which may be the toughest race on the card. Others such as Dry Summer, Know More and Capo Bastone also figure to get a lot of attention.

The key for us handicappers on Saturday is scouting what horses will gain the most moving forward to the Breeders' Cup. Especially keep notes on trouble-trip runners.

■ FALL CLASSIC - The Fall Classic at The Orleans handicapping tournament will be Thursday through Oct. 6. The entry fee is $500. The top 20 finishers will qualify for the 2013 Horse Player World Series in February.

Richard Eng's horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @richeng4propick.