ARCADIA, Calif. — Seventeen horses arrived for the Breeders’ Cup shortly after 9 a.m. yesterday following an arduous trip that began with a late-night van ride from Belmont Park to Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, N.Y. Their Tex Sutton flight then took off at 2 a.m., stopped in Louisville, Ky., to pick up some more horses, then continued on to Ontario Airport in southern California, ending with another van ride to Santa Anita.
The flight was originally scheduled for MacArthur Airport on Long Island, but was rescheduled because of Hurricane Sandy.
The horses included Bill Mott’s contingent of Flat Out, Ron the Greek, To Honor and Serve and Royal Delta, Shug McGaughey’s Point of Entry, and others trained by Chad Brown, Mike Hushion, Mike Trombetta and Diane Alvarado.
* Ten other Breeders’ Cup horses still trapped at Belmont Park are scheduled to van up to Newburgh — assuming the roads are not flooded and the bridges are open — and fly out tomorrow morning. They will be accompanied by agents from the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau to comply with the protocols that require Breeders’ Cup horses to be under surveillance for 72 hours before they race.
Those horses include Todd Pletcher’s Dreaming of Julie, Kauai Katie, Shanghai Bobby and Turbulent Descent, Tom Albertrani’s Brilliant Speed, Kathy Ritvo’s Mucho Macho Man, Tony Dutrow’s Grace Hall and Barclay Tagg’s Jersey Town.
The flight, if it gets off the ground, will stop in Louisville to pick up Wise Dan and Fort Larned.
* Royal Delta, looking to repeat in the Ladies’ Classic, suffered a small laceration on her thigh while being loaded for her flight yesterday.
“She scraped herself boarding the plane, and [the veterinarian] closed it up with some sutures,” Mott said. “It was a superficial wound. From my standpoint and her standpoint, I don’t think it will be an issue. It’s no different from a hockey player getting a little cut on his forehead and getting stitched up. They’re athletes.”