• Trainer’s challenge reduced by recent death of Line of Duty • O’Briens account for bulk of the
Irish runners at Santa AnitaThe Breeders’ Cup meeting at Santa Anita lost three of its European team members on Monday – including —Magical, the Champion Stakes winner – but there is still likely to be a total of 33 runners from the continent’s stables in
California on Friday and Saturday, on a par with recent years and including representatives in all but one of the seven turf events.
All but three of those are from
Britain and
Ireland, with two generations of the O’Brien racing dynasty – Aidan and his son Joseph – accounting for the bulk of Irish runners. The
British team, though, are spread between a much wider range of stables, with no fewer than 13 trainers sending horses to
Los Angeles, most of whom have a single runner.