Pay attention Saturday to scout Breeders’ Cup

The reason is both Belmont Park and Santa Anita Park are hosting five graded stakes apiece for horses prepping for the Breeders’ Cup.

If you add the graded stakes to be run at Keeneland next weekend, you will have the chance to scout a good 90 percent of the North American horses participating in the Breeders’ Cup.

You should watch these preps with pencil and paper in hand. If you don’t normally make trip notes to find trouble horses, this might be a good time to start. If most handicappers have access to the same data you have, good trip notes may provide an edge.

Trainers walk a fine line in these prep races. Each stakes, by itself, is a worthy win. However, a trainer does not want his horse to peak too soon with a possible regression in the Breeders’ Cup.

So when you watch the preps Saturday, keep in mind that a good effort, without actually winning, might be very useful to the horse and its connections.

The graded stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday include the Frontrunner, Zenyatta, Chandelier, Rodeo Drive and Awesome Again. I will have an analysis of each stakes in Saturday’s Review-Journal.

It is simple to identify some of the main players. Nyquist, possibly the best 2-year-old in the country, heads up the Frontrunner. Songbird is his filly counterpart in the Chandelier. If both win, they could be the favorites in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies, respectively.

Meanwhile the mare Beholder has opted to run in the Zenyatta against her own sex. With a good race, she faces the strong likelihood of running in the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic versus males.

We salivate at the thought of a Classic field featuring Beholder, American Pharoah, Honor Code, Liam’s Map and others as the ultimate showdown.

At Belmont Park, Beldame favorite Wedding Toast has not started in four months since winning the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps. This is an example of where trainer Kiaran McLaughlin might not have her wound tight with the goal being the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. I will look at Curalina as an option.

In the Gallant Bloom, La Verdad has made mincemeat of the local distaff sprinters. I’ll look at Dame Dorothy who has won both of her starts at Belmont Park in graded stakes.

The Pilgrim on grass is a real puzzler, as most of the 2-year-olds have just one or two career starts. Being so young and precocious, a talented juvenile can improve dramatically in this spot. I will throw a dart at Ray’s The Bar, who broke his maiden beating 12 others at Ascot in England.

In the Vosburgh, Rock Fall has been managed brilliantly by trainer Todd Pletcher. If the race falls apart, Salutos Amigos could pick up the chips late in the stretch.

Finally, in the Joe Hirsch, both Red Rifle and Twilight Eclipse got smoked by French invader Flintshire in the Sword Dancer. They will be the favorites, as Flintshire will skip this dance.

I think Big Blue Kitten might be up for a big race off his second to The Pizza Man in the Arlington Million.

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: @richeng4propick