Tom Pedulla offers five takeaways from a major weekend of racing that will significantly impact the Nov. 1-2 Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Del Mar. He looks at five Grade 1 races Saturday that offered automatic, fees-paid berths in corresponding Breeders’ Cup races. Breeders’ Cup Challenge races for 2-year-old males were held from coast to coast with the winners of the Champagne Stakes at Belmont at the Big A (Aqueduct), the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, and the American Pharoah Stakes Presented by DK Horse at Santa Anita Park all securing berths in the $2 million FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Presented by TAA Nov. 1. Pedulla also reflects on the Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes at Keeneland (FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile Presented by PDJF) and the Frizette Stakes (NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies) held at Belmont at the Big A.

PRECOCIOUS RUNNER: Undefeated Chancer McPatrick advances to the Juvenile as a top contender after he rallied for a 2 ¾-length victory in the Champagne, a one-turn mile. Flavien Prat was aboard for Flanagan Racing. Trainer Chad Brown praised the youngster, who previously won the seven-furlong Hopeful Stakes, for another polished performance. “He runs his races like he’s a year older than he is. He runs like an experienced, fit 3-year-old,” the trainer noted. “He’s got a long, strong run. He showed it in all three of his starts.” Chancer McPatrick will encounter two turns and try the 1 1/16-mile distance for the first time in the Juvenile. “The way he relaxes and the way he finishes up, I don’t see going two turns as a problem,” Brown said.

East Avenue wires 'em. (Eclipse Sportswire)

EXCITING POTENTIAL: Add Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity winner East Avenue to the potent lineup Godolphin is set to bring to the Breeders’ Cup. Their homebred handled his second start with remarkable ease for jockey Tyler Gaffalione, dispatching Hopeful Stakes runner-up Ferocious by 5 ¼ lengths in an authoritative front-running effort. That made for one excited trainer in Brendan Walsh. “I’ve been lucky enough to have a couple of very good horses the last two years, especially with Godolphin, and he seemed like he was right up there,” he noted. “I was just waiting for confirmation. I think he’s a very special horse.”

GREAT TO HEAR: Trainers say all kinds of things when they give their jockeys pre-race instructions, typically alerting riders to any quirks or tendencies a horse might have. Martin Garcia was not quite ready for what he heard from Hall of Famer Bob Baffert before he piloted Citizen Bull in the American Pharoah Stakes. “Mr. Bob told me early that this horse was doing really good. He just told me, ‘Let him run how he wants to run and then you will take a picture.’ ” Sure enough, Baffert extended his record with his 13^th victory in the race. For good measure, he also won the Oak Leaf Stakes Presented by Oak Tree at Santa Anita with Non Compliant as she secured a berth in the Nov. 1 Net Jets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies starting gate.

Carl Spackler and Gaffalione shine. (Coady Media)

PLAYING THE BREAK: Jockeys must make almost instant decisions when the starting gate spring open, and those snap judgments often go a long way in deciding the outcome of races. Tyler Gaffalione decided to go for the lead after Carl Spackler broke well from the outside post in the Coolmore Turf Mile. He was rewarded with a front-running, one-length decision in the $1.25 million race, the richest non-Breeders’ Cup contest in Keeneland’s history. “I looked to the inside and nobody was really in any hurry to get going forward. I didn’t want to take too much away from my horse, so I just put my hands down and let him get comfortable,” Gaffalione explained. “He proved he was the best. He’s a tremendous athlete.” Carl Spackler owns consecutive Grade 1 triumphs. He took the Aug. 11 FanDuel Fourstardave Stakes at Saratoga in his previous start.

Scottish Lassie much the best. (Eclipse Sportswire)

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH: Trainer Jorge Abreu, a former assistant to Chad Brown, had done well since striking out on his own in 2016. But he had not won a graded-stakes race before Saturday. He broke through in style when the maiden Scottish Lassie dominated the one-turn mile Frizette Stakes by nine lengths for jockey Jose Lezcano. Abreu finally had the right horse at the right time. “I was expecting a good race. I know people didn’t believe – not in her, in me – because this is the first time I’ve ever won a graded stake. You need the quality to win those kinds of races, and I thought I had the horse.”