The entries are out, the posts are drawn, and the nose has met the grindstone.

It’s Breeders’ Cup week.

Blinkers Off will be fairly quiet early in the week, as preparation and writing of longer pieces for Picks and Ponderings as well as ShapperDaCapper goes on.  Those will be cross-linked here, when they are up.  Later in the week, for any races that I am not previewing for either of those sites, I will be writing my thoughts on them here.  In short, my thoughts on all twenty stakes races at Santa Anita will be up somewhere, and easy to find from here.

There will not be as much other content as usual.  Specifically, the Curlin Babies updates will be postponed, with a two-week update next Monday.  There will be midweek updates if any draw into graded stakes races, and of course I will look at Danette’s chances in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (GI) this Saturday.

I will also not wait another moment to link to these fantastic pictures of Blisstering Strike (Brief Bliss, by Navarone).  This three-year-old Curlin filly finished second beaten a head in a six furlong, $25,000 N2L turf sprint at Belmont on Sunday, and was claimed by trainer Kelly Rubley and owners Ninety North.  I’ve been following Ninety North for a while because they also own Sheldon, with whom I fell in love during morning works before the Secretariat Stakes.  They post a lot of pictures of their horses on Facebook, and they posted three shots of Blisstering Strike from today!  In a serious sense, I hope she thrives in her new barn…and in a more whimsical sense, she has ears the size of satellite dishes, and they’re adorable.

But, now we return from this brief stroll into the wonderful world of Curlin babies, back to the world of the Breeders’ Cup.  Keep an eye out this week: it’s going to be a wild ride, and Blinkers Off will be there with information and analysis.