Bodog Beat

With the Breeders' Cup approaching Surf Cat has never looked better. (AP Images)

Surf Cat will race in the richest and most important of four graded stakes, the Grade 1, one million Pacific Classic.  Arson Squad competes in the Grade 2 – $300,000 Pat O'Brien Handicap for sprinters and Magnificience competes in the Grade 3 – $200,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap for female sprinters.

"This will tell us a lot about where we'll be in October," assistant trainer Karen Headley said Tuesday morning while overseeing the Del Mar barn of her father, who had the morning off for a doctor's appointment.

David Flores, who will ride all three Headley horses on Sunday, worked five furlongs aboard Surf Cat Tuesday morning, clocked in at 57.60 seconds.

"He's much more seasoned now," Karen Headley said. "He can do anything – short, long. As he's gotten older, he's gotten more mature. But he's always thinking. He feels so good."

Surf Cat, who is now five, is far more advanced physically then mentally three years ago according to Karen Headley, who does the early training of her father's horses at Fairplex Park in Pomona.

"His brains had to grow into his body," she said.

Headley’s father, 74, is anxious to compete in this year’s Breeders’ Cup, October 24-25 at Santa Anita’s Oak Tree meeting.

"He's excited about running nice horses against horses that are not running on steroids," Karen Headley said. "He's hay, oats, and water."

This year's Breeders' Cup is the first in which steroids will be prohibited.

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