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Columnist Ralph Siraco: Breeders' Cup Taking Shape

With less than three weeks until the World Thoroughbred Championships on Oct. 27 at Belmont Park, trainer Bobby Frankel has garnered 36 stakes races this year including 13 of Grade I status. Jockey Jerry Bailey has already broken his single-season earnings record -- established in 1996 -- of $19,465,376 by racking up $19,850,501 in purse winnings.

The pair of Hall of Famers, who coincidentally were both inducted in 1995, teamed up to win the biggest Breeders' Cup prep race of the weekend. Belmont Park held its annual Breeders' Cup Preview Day with five Graded stakes races on Saturday and the main event was the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Run at the same 1 1/4 mile distance as the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic, a field of seven went to the post in hopes of a repeat appearance on the last weekend of this month.

Frankel sent out Aptitude, and the son of 1992 Horse of the Year A.P. Indy quickly turned the Jockey Club Gold Cup into a coming-of-age daylight demolition of the Classic hopefuls. The performance delivered a 10-length promise of faith to Frankel, who never gave up on the potential he saw early in the 4-year-old's career.

Although Aptitude finished second in the 2000 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, the Juddmonte Farms color bearer didn't get much more respect after winning this year's Hollywood Gold Cup via disqualification. But Frankel always knew his runner had not yet lived up to his potential. After a solid Saratoga stakes victory, Aptitude served notice on Saturday that he has arrived.

Frankel may be represented in seven of the eight Breeders' Cup races this year, and Bailey is set to scale three of those starters. In addition to Aptitude for the Classic, Bailey is set to ride Flute and Squirtle Squirt. Flute finished second on Preview Day in the Beldame while Squirtle Squirt was a recent runner up in the Vosburgh Handicap.

Frankel has all but the Breeders' Cup Juvenile covered -- and that race looks like a virtual walkover for the Bob Baffert-trained Officer, who took the Champagne on Saturday in what amounted to an afternoon workout.

Frankel will enter You, who won the Frizette on Saturday, in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, Flute in the Distaff and Squirtle Squirt in the Sprint. He will enter Starline, who recently finished third in the Flower Bowl over the Belmont turf course, for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf, and has both Turf Classic winner Timboroa and Clement Hirsch Turf Championship winner Senure lined up for the Breeders' Cup Turf.

Frankel has Aptitude set for the Classic, and a decision of whether to pay a supplemental fee of $800,000 for Woodward Stakes winner Lido Palace to join his stablemate in the Classic should be coming soon. Frankel's weakest link may be in the Breeders' Cup Mile where his hopes lie with Thady Quill, who finished second on Sunday in the Oak Tree Mile at Santa Anita.

In other recent Breeders' Cup preps:

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