2018 Dirt Mile Odds & Entries

Race 5 on Churchill Downs's Saturday card with a Post Time of 1:16 PM

Entry	Horse	ML Odds	Jockey	Trainer
1	City of Light	5-2	Javier Castellano 126 Lbs	Michael McCarthy
2	Trigger Warning	20-1	Ricardo Santana, Jr. 123 Lbs	Mike Rone
3	Isotherm	20-1	Geovanni Franco 126 Lbs	Philip D'Amato
4	Seven Trumpets	15-1	Robby Albarado 123 Lbs	Dale Romans
5	Awesome Slew	15-1	Corey Lanerie 126 Lbs	Mark Casse
6	Seeking the Soul	5-1	Brian Hernandez, Jr. 126 Lbs	Dallas Stewart
7	Firenze Fire	6-1	Irad Ortiz, Jr. 123 Lbs	Jason Servis
8	Bravazo	20-1	Luis Contreras 123 Lbs	D. Lukas
9	Giant Expectations	15-1	Julien Leparoux 126 Lbs	Peter Eurton
10	Catalina Cruiser	8-5	Drayden Van Dyke 126 Lbs	John Sadler

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Catalina Cruiser headlines field for the 2018 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile

This year's Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile may feature the country's most talented older male. Catalina Cruiser headlines the list of 15 pre-entries for the race, which holds a purse of $1,000,000. The Grade 1 race will be contested over one mile and has a post time of 1:16 PM ET on Saturday, November 3, at Churchill Downs.

Catalina Cruiser has taken the racing world by storm in recent months. The colt has been perfect in four starts and made his presence felt on the national scene for the first time at Del Mar over the summer. On July 21, he made his stakes debut in the Grade 2 San Diego, which he won in romping gate-to-wire fashion by 6 3/4 lengths. He returned in the Grade 2 Pat O'Brien Stakes to blow out the competition yet again, this time doing so by 7 1/4 lengths. Those two victories displayed his brilliance, while his recent morning workouts show that he his breathing fire heading into this big event.

The lightly-raced Catalina Cruiser's biggest rival pre-entered here is the multiple Grade 1-winning City of Light. After starting 2018 with a win in the Grade 1 Triple Bend Stakes at Santa Anita, City of Light shipped to Oaklawn Park for the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap, the of his career around two-turns. That test ended up being no problem for him, as he defeated the powerful Accelerate by neck - Accelerate's lone defeat of 2018. Most recently, City of Light was a tough-luck second in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes at Saratoga.

Firenze Fire enters off of an impressive score in the Grade 3 Gallant Bob Stakes. After spending the beginning of the year on the Triple Crown trail, including winning the $150,000 Jerome Stakes to kick things off. A dismal effort in the Kentucky Derby convinced his connections to cut him back to a mile for the Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes, where he ran the race of his life and won by an eye-popping 9 lengths. This horse is 3-for-4 in one-turn mile-long events, with all of those wins coming in stakes races. He is also pre-entered in the TwinSpires Sprint, but the Dirt Mile is his first preference.

While Firenze Fire could be considered a one-turn mile specialist, fellow 3-year-old Trigger Warning is making his debut at it. However, he is no stranger to tough competition, having raced in four straight graded stakes events and hitting the board in three of those. Last time out, he was third in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby at tremendous odds of 81/1 after setting the early pace. He has been close to breaking through with a big win all season long.

The greatest story of all would be if the Churchill Downs Racing Club-owned Warrior's Club won this race. The first horse offered by the club after being purchased for $25,000, he has won over $700,000. Lately, though, he has not shown his best form. Earlier in the year, he won the Grade 3 Commonwealth Stakes and nearly became a Grade 2 winner, losing by just a neck in the Churchill Downs Stakes. He also was second three races back in the Grade 1 Vanderbilt Stakes at Saratoga. His Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas is one of the most successful trainers in Breeders' Cup history, having won a record 20 times at the meet.

Five horses are pre-entered here as their second preference: Limousine Liberal, Lone Sailor, Promises Fulfilled, Seeking the Soul, and Whitmore. Each of these horses could make an impact in this race if entered.

Other horses that have been pre-entered into the race include Awesome Slew, Dak Attack, Giant Expectations, Isotherm, and Seven Trumpets.

Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile Winners

About the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile

The Breeders' Cup Las Vegas Dirt Mile is a 1-mile (1.6 km) Weight for Age stakes race for thoroughbred racehorses three years old and up. As its name implies, it is part of the Breeders' Cup thoroughbred championships, the de facto year-end championship for North American thoroughbred racing, and is run on a dirt course (either natural dirt or a synthetic surface such as Polytrack). This contrasts with the similar Breeders' Cup Mile, run on grass. All Breeders' Cups to date have been conducted in the United States, with the exception of the 1996 event in Canada.

The Dirt Mile race was run for the first time in 2007 during the first day of the expanded Breeders' Cup at that year's host track, Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, New Jersey. It became a Grade I event in 2009.

Occasionally, various track configurations require minor changes in the distance of the race. The 2007 race at Monmouth Park was held at a distance of 1 mile 70 yards (1673 m) instead of the normal distance of 1-mile (1.6 km). The 2015 Breeders' Cup will be held at Keeneland, which does not have the ability to run one mile dirt races, and so the Dirt Mile is scheduled to be run out of the backstretch chute at a distance of 7 furlongs, 384 feet (1525 m).

2024 BREEDERS' CUP RACE SCHEDULE