O'Brien Looks for Juvenile Turf Repeat

The Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (gr. IT) kicks off the 2016 World Championships at Santa Anita Park Nov. 4. Since joining the Breeders' Cup lineup in 2007, the one-mile race has been won by European-based horses six out of its nine runnings.

Winning last year's Juvenile Turf with Hit It a Bomb, trainer Aidan O'Brien is again back with two entries, both sons of War Front  : Intelligence Cross and Lancaster Bomber. 

Group III winner Intelligence Cross is coming off of a fourth-place effort Sept. 24 in the six-furlong Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes (Eng-I) and has placed in two other group II satkes in England.

Lancaster Bomber was the runner-up in the Oct. 8 Dubai Dewhurst Stakes (Eng-I) to divison-leading Churchill. His other win came in an Aug. 4 maiden race at Leopardstown in Ireland.

Among the domestic runners are a few graded stakes winners. Undefeated in two starts Good Samaritan last ran in the Summer Stakes (gr. IIT) at Woodbine, defeating fellow Juvenile Turf competitor Channel Maker, who finished third. The Harlan's Holiday colt is trained by Bill Mott.

Also entering the Juvenile Turf off a win is Mark Casse trainee Keep Quiet who took the Oct. 9 Dixiana Bourbon Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Keeneland. The son of Elusive City finished a two-length runner-up behind Made You Look, also in the Juvenile Turf, in the Aug. 31 With Anticipation Stakes (gr. IIT) at Saratoga Race Course. The Todd Pletcher-trained Made You Look (More Than Ready  ) has two wins and one second out of his three starts.

Coming off an impressive  graded stakes victory is Oscar Performance, trained by Brian Lynch. The son of Kitten's Joy took the Pilgrim Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Belmont Park by six lengths. In his second to last start, Oscar Performance won an $83,000 maiden special weight at Saratoga by 10 1/4 lengths.

Arlington-Washington Futurity (gr. IIIT) winner Wellabled has hit the wire first in three of his four starts in a pace-setting fashion. After dominating the Futurity by 7 3/4 lengths, the Shackleford   colt won the Oct. 6 Fitz Dixon, Jr. Memorial Juvenile Stakes at Presque Isle Downs by two lengths. In his three win--all coming on synthetic surfaces--his combined margin of victory is 17 1/4 lengths.

Also entered are grade I-placed Favorable Outcome, stakes winner and West Coast runner Big Score, European stakes winner Rodaini, and grade II-placed Channel Maker among others.