Dennis' Moment leads bevy of Breeders' Cup favorites on rail

Trainer John Shirreffs summed it up well Monday night upon learning his Paradise Woods would be breaking from the rail in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

“I don’t think anyone really likes the 1 post position,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

That’s the plan of attack for numerous connections to top horses whose chances could be compromised by breaking from the innermost stall at Santa Anita Park.

Both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies morning line favorite Donna Veloce and Dennis’ Moment, top choice for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, have the No. 1 in Friday afternoon’s features.

Donna Veloce has raced just once, breaking her maiden by open lengths and around one turn. But in the step up from the maiden special weight ranks to championship company, she now faces another question.

RELATED: Full Breeders' Cup post positions and odds

Grade 3 winner Dennis’ Moment is more seasoned, and his trainer, Dale Romans, had hoped for an inside draw — just not that far inside.

“I probably would have picked 2, 3 or 4. I wanted to be down on the inside, but I’d just as soon not be in the 1,” Romans said. “…It just makes it more important that he breaks good. But he’s never turned a hair or done anything wrong.”

Jason Loutsch, racing manager for Dennis’ Moment, relayed that jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. is “going to have to earn his money here.”

“My wife said, ‘I thought you can’t win out of the 1 hole,’” Loutsch added. “I said, ‘That’s the Kentucky Derby. This is a little different.’ I was ecstatic to see we’re 8-to-5. I thought that was a nice honor. Just hope for a clean trip now.”

The inconvenient post positions start right back Saturday when 3-year-old Covfefe goes from the rail in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. She drew inside in her only other race against older competition, Churchill Downs’ Roxelana Stakes, and burned out in a speed duel.

Trainer John Sadler had a choice of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint or Dirt Mile with Catalina Cruiser, the Sprint’s rail rider.

“We’ll leave it up to Joel Rosario,” Sadler said. “When you’re looking at the race, I factored in that he might get a bad post. It’s not the post you would pick, but that is what we have and we’ll have to figure it out.”

One prominent spot where the No. 1 post didn’t affect a major contender was in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Math Wizard, at 30-1 the longest morning line shot in the field of 11, drew the rail.

The favorite, McKinzie, has a more ideal No. 8 post.

“I was happy with it. You never want to be down inside," said the colt's trainer, Bob Baffert, where you "don’t have any control.”

Fortunes were favorable for some other top choices.

“If I had to pick a post, four is what I would pick,” said owner Jeff Bloom of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff filly to beat, Midnight Bisou.

“I was kidding around with the owner Marc Holliday before and said that if we got 5 I’d be really happy,” said Carlos Martin, who trains Come Dancing for the Filly & Mare Sprint. “So 4, I’ll take it.

“Covfefe, she’s a great filly, she has the 1. I guess we know her strategy, what’s she’s going to have to do. I think I have some options, so I’m happy.”

And as for Richard Mandella, whose popular Omaha Beach was assigned the No. 5 in the Dirt Mile: “I couldn’t have picked a better one,” the trainer said. “He’s right in the middle there.

“Everything should go well, but we know we have to have a little bit of luck to go along with that post position.”