Higher Power On The Move
Photo Credit Eclipse Sportswire / Breeders’ Cup Photos ©
Hronis Racing’s Higher Power galloped and stood in the gate Wednesday, coming to the track around 6:30 a.m. along with stablemate Ollie’s Candy.
This year’s Classic field is widely considered one of the more wide open editions of the race, as evidenced by the tepid 3-1 favoritism for McKinzie on the morning line. Higher Power has been worse than third just once in his past seven starts and scored a victory in the Pacific Classic on Aug. 17.
Though trainer John Sadler said the son of Medaglia d’Oro still needs to prove he can duplicate that form, the bay colt is far from the only one with questions hanging over them heading into Saturday.
“It’s an interesting field, it’s probably a great gambling race this year because you could take a lot of horses and say they have a pretty good chance,” Sadler said. “There are a lot question marks on all of them. With Higher Power, can he repeat that performance that he had at Del Mar and do it again? Because he’s got that one. But he has to do it again. Can McKinzie go a mile and a quarter? That’s another one. Then, how do the 3-year-olds stack up against the olders? So there are a lot angles you can look at. (Elate), she looks like she wants that distance, she’s also a Medaglia d’Oro. That’s another fascinating look at that race.”
