ARCADIA, Calif. – In the same way that Bill Belichick is annually expected to have his New England Patriots in contention for an NFL championship, trainer Bob Baffert is expected to have a contender for Thoroughbred racing’s most important events. Coming off his sixth Super Bowl triumph with New England – and his eighth Super Bowl as a head or assistant coach – Belichick has guided the Patriots to an 8-0 record at the halfway point of the season. Baffert, one year removed from winning his second Triple Crown with Justify, has the Belichick-inspired colt Eight Rings in position to earn a divisional championship if he can win Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita. Eight Rings, a son of Empire Maker, will have a home-field advantage of sorts, as he dominated the Grade 1 American Pharaoh here by six lengths on Sept. 27, making him the only member of this eight-horse field to have a win at Santa Anita. His other victory was by a similarly impressive 6 1/4 lengths at Del Mar in August. Originally, the Juvenile had a nine-horse field. On Tuesday, however, top contender Maxfield had to be withdrawn due to an unspecified injury to his right front leg. Maxfield is owned by Godolphin Racing and trained by Brendan Walsh. Baffert is quite familiar with losing a major player this close to game day. In 2014, one day after entries were made, he had to scratch favorite American Pharoah from the Juvenile due to injury. “You feel for the connections,” Baffert said. “It’s so hard to get here then to have a really good one like that. I hope it’s minor.” :: BREEDERS’ CUP 2019: See DRF’s special section with fields, odds, comments, and more Eight Rings was fortunate to escape injury in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity when he ducked in soon after the start, ran into another horse and unseated jockey Drayden Van Dyke. Twenty-five days later he bounced back in the American Pharoah and has done well since, according to Baffert. “I really like him,” Baffert said. “He’s trained well. He’s fast. He’s quirky.” As Belichick has 42-year-old Tom Brady at quarterback, Baffert has 47-year-old John Velazquez in the irons on Eight Rings. Velazquez is a good fit for Eight Rings as the veteran jockey likes to get his horses involved early and Eight Rings has plenty of early speed. “Johnny knows him well,” said Baffert, who has won this race four times, including last year with Game Winner. “You got to get run on his mind.” Much like the Patriots will have competition from the Kansas City Chiefs and, perhaps, an upstart such as San Francisco – the other unbeaten NFL club at 7-0 – Baffert’s Eight Rings will have a major rival in Dennis’ Moment, the 8-5 morning-line favorite trained by Dale Romans. Dennis’ Moment, a son of Tiznow, clipped heels and lost his jockey at the start of his career debut on June 23 at Churchill Downs. He came back five weeks later to win a maiden race by 19 1/4 lengths at Ellis Park and then won the Grade 3 Iroquois at Churchill by 1 3/4 lengths. In 2016, Romans brought Not This Time to Santa Anita for the Juvenile. At that time, Romans said he had the potential to be the best horse he had trained. Not This Time got beat a neck by Classic Empire, was injured, and never raced again. Romans said that Dennis’ Moment has impressed him more than Not This Time did at the same point in their careers. “I’ve never had a horse at this stage that acts like this horse, that trains like this horse,” Romans said. “He’s 8-5 for a reason.” Romans wasn’t thrilled with Dennis’ Moment drawing the rail, but will let Irad Ortiz Jr. work out a trip from there. “This horse is a good horse, he’s just so talented and so versatile,” Romans said. “He took some dirt in his face, so if he has to sit back and let them come over on him he’s shown he can do that. He’s got the turn of foot to get himself out of trouble if he has any problems.” There are only six other runners in the field, making this the smallest Juvenile since 2004 when there were also eight at Lone Star Park. Scabbard – who made his first starts under the name Noose – won his debut before running second to Green Light Go in the Saratoga Special and Dennis’ Moment in the Iroquois. He had to steady at the half-mile pole in the Iroquois and then come wide. Trainer Eddie Kenneally and owner Joseph Sutton have retained Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith to ride Scabbard from post 5. Storm the Court ran third to Eight Rings in the American Pharoah, one race after getting bumped by Eight Rings and losing his rider in the Del Mar Futurity. Shoplifted, a good-looking debut winner at Saratoga, finished fifth in the American Pharoah after breaking poorly. Wrecking Crew finished second in the Del Mar Futurity and was diagnosed with ulcers shortly thereafter. Anneau d’Or and Full Flat, both of whom have raced exclusively on turf, complete the field. The Juvenile is the last of five Breeders’ Cup races – all restricted to 2-year-olds – on Friday’s card, billed as Future Stars Friday. First post for the 10-race card is 10:45 a.m. Pacific.