Catapult Rounds Out Sadler's Breeders' Cup Workers
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Photo: Zoe Metz
Catapult works five furlongs at Santa Anita Park
Trainer John Sadler admitted he was feeling a bit of relief as he watched Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) contender Catapult walk back to his barn Oct. 28 at Santa Anita Park.
The important work is done for his four Breeders' Cup horses. All he has to do now is get them to their races while dealing with a factor unfamiliar to most Southern California horsemen—weather.
"I feel good, because we got all our major works in, and I feel the horses are cranked up very well," said Sadler, who worked Classic (G1) favorite Accelerate , Dirt Mile (G1) favorite Catalina Cruiser, and Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) entrant Selcourt a day prior at Santa Anita. "So if the weather is bad (at Churchill Downs), all we have to do is hold into the race.
"I might lighten up on their gallops if it's a really muddy track, but the one thing I do want to do over there is go to the gate. If we have one horrific day, which might be Thursday, they'll go to the gate Wednesday. It just depends. I've looked at the weather a lot. The models show rain. The question is, how much?"
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Specifically regarding Woodford Racing's Catapult, who breezed five furlongs in 1:00 1/5 Sunday, Sadler is confident in the ability of the son of Kitten's Joy , at least against American competition. Catapult has been impressive in his past two starts—wins in the Eddie Read Stakes (G2T) and Del Mar Mile Handicap (G2T)—but taking on quality milers from Europe is a significant step up.
"If you look at the form, what's interesting is, he beat (four-time graded winner) Sharp Samurai twice at Del Mar, and he beat (fellow Mile entrant Next Shares), who won the Shadwell (G1T), twice at Del Mar," Sadler said. "And I don't think Chad (Brown) has a monster in the Mile, so for the American ones, he's right there. … The question with him is the Euros. That's the scenario. I joked that the winner will be a 3-year-old filly by Galileo, Aidan O'Brien's fourth (horse)."
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Sadler also joked about the monkey on his back—his winless record in Breeders' Cup races—and the questions about it he gets from the media.
"I've done all my talking this week, so next week, if somebody calls you and says, 'Have you seen John Sadler?' you can tell them he gave all the quotes last week," he said. "We got 30 people to ask him about his streak of not winning."