Wednesday, Oct. 25 Santa Anita Weather: Cloudy Temperature: 63° Track: Fast ARCADIA, Calif. – Arcangelo trained about as well as a horse could train on a regular basis this summer at Saratoga as a prelude to his impressive victory in the Grade 1 Travers. He put the finishing touches on a terrific series of works with an easy, five-furlong maintenance breeze with jockey Javier Castellano aboard 10 days prior to the race. The circumstances will not be quite the same for Arcangelo when he makes his final start of the year a week from Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race that finds him taking on older horses for just the second time in his career. He also will meet a vastly stronger group than he defeated in both the Travers and Belmont while doing so over a relatively unfamiliar surface at Santa Anita. As a result, trainer Jena Antonucci has taken a little different approach to Arcangelo’s preparations for the Classic. His final work for the race still came 10 days out on Wednesday, but it was a much more serious drill than what Antonucci felt the horse needed coming into the Travers 10 weeks earlier. :: Get Breeders' Cup Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the DRF Clocker Team when you purchase a BC VIP Package! With regular exercise rider Robert Mallari aboard, Arcangelo left the five-eighths pole at a little better than a two-minute clip (14.03 seconds) before officially beginning his work at the half-mile marker. He completed the distance in 47.52, getting his final quarter in 23.82 while sharply roused to finish before galloping out five furlongs in 1:00.65 and easing up after six panels in 1:14.60. It was decent, but not nearly as impressive as those eye-catching run-outs he put in on a regular basis this summer at the Spa. “We were looking for sharper today, and that’s exactly what we got,” Antonucci said. “We’re going to need some speed here because of the competition and the racetrack, and knowing what you’re running into and managing your horse appropriately is so important. “Robert has done a phenomenal job putting in a high cruising speed and deep foundation under this horse. He came back to the barn bucking and kicking after the work.” :: BREEDERS’ CUP 2023: See DRF’s special section with top contenders, odds, comments, news, and more for each division Although Arcangelo was the lone Breeders’ Cup worker on Wednesday’s tab at Santa Anita, a lot of eyes were on fellow Classic contender White Abarrio when he came out to train in semi-darkness minutes after the first renovation break. He jogged a mile and galloped 1 1/4 miles while showing good energy throughout after missing a scheduled work Monday due to what his connections described as an issue with his shoeing. “He trained great today, he nailed it,” said Mark Cornett, owner/racing manager of C2 Racing Stable. “He’s 100 percent. I know there have been a lot of questions about why he missed the work Monday, and the answer is really twofold. One he wears glue-ons, so when his foot starts growing out it pinches him. We couldn’t breeze him Monday because Ian [blacksmith Ian McKinlay] was flying in to shoe him that day. He put a size 8 on him instead of the size 7 he had been wearing.” Cornett said as a result of missing Monday’s breeze that was to feature jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. in the irons, trainer Rick Dutrow decided to put White Abarrio on the same work schedule as prior to his one-sided victory in his last start Aug. 5 in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga. That means White Abarrio will work Friday, eight days prior to the Classic. “Rick said why mess with success going forward,” Cornett said “All the timing will be the same. It certainly worked to perfection in the Whitney.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.