The last three critical preps for the Breeders’ Cup Classic were run on a very busy Saturday of stakes action, and two of the three were won by heavy favorites. But if you thought that helped bring the Classic picture into sharp focus, you might want to think again. The Awesome Again at Santa Anita featured Accelerate and West Coast, the first two future-book favorites for the Classic, and nothing they did in finishing one-two figures to change their status in that regard. But whether what they did in finishing one-two makes you eager to bet on them in the Classic could be another matter. Accelerate was his own worst enemy Saturday. He acted up in the gate, and that had the domino effect of causing him to break slowly, which put him in the position of being wide throughout – specifically four wide on the first turn and three wide on the far turn. Accelerate won in clear-cut fashion despite that lousy trip, and yet I sense he left more than a few folks cold. And that is because even when you factor in his trip, his performance was simply not on a par with his victories this year in the Pacific Classic, the Gold Cup at Santa Anita, the Santa Anita Handicap, and the San Pasqual – scores that propelled him to the top of his division and made him the future-book Classic favorite. Accelerate had to work hard to put away a West Coast who was announced to be significantly short of his best while making his first start since finishing second in the Dubai World Cup in late March, and to do so, he needed a time for the nine furlongs of 1:50.38 that was glacial for the class of horse involved. We know that at the heart of it, the Awesome Again was only a prep and not the goal, that Accelerate can do a lot better than he showed, and that he will relish the return to the 1 1/4-mile distance in the Classic that he clearly adores. Still, there are questions. Can Accelerate just flip the switch back to “on” in the Breeders’ Cup, or was the Awesome Again an indication that his form has slipped? Reasonable people can go either way on this. As for West Coast, I can’t blame folks for thinking that with the benefit of his comeback outing in the Awesome Again, he is now primed for a peak performance in the Classic and will turn the tables on Accelerate. After all, West Coast is a champion. He was champion 3-year-old male last year, and his third in last year’s Classic and second in the subsequent Pegasus World Cup, both to Horse of the Year Gun Runner, were performances of the like Accelerate has yet to really produce. However, this little point bothers me a bit: Third in the Awesome Again, only a half-length behind West Coast, was Isotherm. Isotherm is a turf horse who was taking a shot in the Awesome Again. He had only four prior attempts on dirt, and his best finish on it by far was a second of four in a weak and very slowly run Brubaker at Del Mar in August. And Isotherm wasn’t a clunk-up third in the Awesome Again. He battled from the get-go. So, his close finish, combined with a winning Beyer Speed Figure of a mediocre 100 that Andy Beyer says there is no doubt about, brings into serious question the strength of this race. The other heavy favorite to win a Breeders’ Cup Classic prep Saturday was Mind Your Biscuits, who ran away with the Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs. Right here, let me say I was dead wrong about Mind Your Biscuits. I was completely against him in the Lukas Classic because I was firmly convinced he is a one-turn closer and not a router. But Mind Your Biscuits was certainly a two-turn horse Saturday night, at the very least, and at the track that will host this year’s Breeders’ Cup. But in terms of clarity for the Classic, the Lukas Classic didn’t really help. While we now know Mind Your Biscuits can comfortably get 1 1/8 miles against the right field, we don’t know about him going 1 1/4 miles in the Breeders’ Cup. It bears repeating that there is a much greater difference between 1 1/4-mile and 1 1/8-mile races than a simple eighth of a mile. And if Mind Your Biscuits should opt for the Classic over, say, the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, he will face substantially better company than he dispatched on Saturday. I mean, Toast of New York got up for second in the Lukas Classic in what was only his third start since being beaten a nose in that controversial Breeders’ Cup Classic won by Bayern (which was also Toast of New York’s last legitimately good race), and that was almost four long years ago. On the other end of the spectrum, Discreet Lover got up at 45-1 to win a crazily run Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park. No clarity here. Discreet Lover was 45-1 for a reason. You could look at Discreet Lover’s career past performances – all 43 starts going into Saturday – from now until next week, and even after the fact, you will not find a single line that suggests he could have won the Gold Cup. But this Gold Cup was about race dynamics, not necessarily past performance. The simple explanation is that this Gold Cup just fell into Discreet Lover’s lap after Mendelssohn pushed Diversify into an insanely fast early pace that no horse could have sustained, and when none of the other closers bothered to show up (I’m looking at you, Gronkowski). Like the rest of the world, I was bowled over by Mendelssohn’s courageous performance. As Diversify faded to finish fifth – understandably so given the scorching fractions he was goaded into and how hard he ran under comparable conditions in winning the Whitney and Suburban in his prior two starts – Mendelssohn somehow fought on and finished third, only giving in late to be beaten two lengths. Mendelssohn might have scored the moral victory in the Gold Cup, but you have to wonder what’s left of him at the moment, and whether he has enough time to recover and perform as well in the Classic. I am even less bullish on Dubai World Cup winner Thunder Snow despite his finishing second, beaten just a neck. Thunder Snow may have sat a distant third early in the Gold Cup, but he was isolated, and it turned out to be the perfect spot given the insanity that was going on in front of him. The leaders came back to Thunder Snow in upper stretch, he inherited the lead, and yet he could not outfinish the unheralded Discreet Lover. If Thunder Snow couldn’t close the deal after pulling such an ideal trip, I suspect he’ll be in trouble when races don’t unfold so favorably. Saturday notes: • There are still such important preps as the Alcibiades, Breeders’ Futurity, Champagne, and Frizette to go. But at this point, Game Winner and Bellafina, the overwhelming winners of the American Pharoah and Chandelier at Santa Anita, are the clear active leaders of their respective divisions and clear favorites for their respective Breeders’ Cup races – the Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies. I really liked the way Game Winner pulled away late in the American Pharoah. He gives the very strong impression that added distance will be no problem whatsoever. • Wins in Grade 1 races worth $350,000 are not supposed to be anywhere near as easy as Imperial Hint’s was in the Vosburgh at Belmont. You won’t see horses win any easier. But while Imperial Hint is very, very good, the manner in which he won the Vosburgh was also a function of what passed for his opposition. To put it mildly, there just wasn’t any. • Another big turf race, another different winner as Channel Maker turned back Arlington Million winner Robert Bruce to emphatically take Belmont’s Joe Hirsch Turf Classic. Considering Channel Maker finished second to recent claimer Glorious Empire in the Sword Dancer after dead-heating with him in the Bowling Green, I wondered aloud after the Joe Hirsch if Channel Maker’s win made Glorious Empire our top turf male. Colleague David Grening said it instead makes any good European horse who comes here 1-5. Dave’s right. • Speaking of former claimers having big success on turf, Vasilika, the winner of the Rodeo Drive at Santa Anita, just has to be the claim of the year. She was taken by trainer Jerry Hollendorfer for $40,000 in February, has now won seven straight, and boasts a Grade 1 score to go along with her Grade 2 win in the Mabee at Del Mar.