From a sporting standpoint, the Friday night scratch of Ulysses from the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf due to an inflamed fetlock was a shame. Ulysses, who was the track morning line favorite as well as the favorite on the line I made for DRF, was a two time Group 1 winner this year. Moreover, Ulysses’s performance would have offered a fascinating measure of the brilliant Enable, whom Ulysses chased in two of his last three starts.

And selfishly, the scratch of Ulysses was a shame because I was looking forward to taking a little shot against him as the favorite because I had questions about him going the Turf’s 12 furlongs. I wasn’t convinced this distance was what he really wanted. But when a short price you were planning on taking a bit of a shot against is scratched, it does lessen the gambling appeal a bit.

Highland Reel is now, by a wide margin, the most accomplished European shipper in this Turf. He won this race last year in front-running fashion after getting away with very easy early fractions, and was as sharp as ever winning two Group 1s in England in June. Highland Reel’s last two outings were not up to his usual standards, but he ran into a freak winning performance in the Champion Stakes two weeks ago. That outing also had the scent of a prep race.

I picked Highland Reel over Decorated Knight, who won’t be as big a price as he would have been if Ulysses were still in the Turf, but who should still be a square ticket. Decorated Knight was 25-1 when he upset weaker in the Irish Champion last time out, but note he split Highland Reel and Ulysses when second in the Prince of Wales’s in June.

The ranking American turf male coming into this Turf is Beach Patrol, winner of the Arlington Million and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic in his last two starts. Beach Patrol’s Joe Hirsch, a runaway five length score, was by far the best performance of his career, and a duplicate of that would put him in the ballpark with an in-form Highland Reel.