Mike Watchmaker

There have been a few performances that might have been equally impressive, but for my money, there has been no performance this year that was more impressive than Winter Memories’s victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Garden City Stakes at Belmont.

Maybe it’s because they are so fast they can’t be caught to put a saddle on them (just kidding, in case you weren’t sure), but I find it interesting that the four horses with the four highest Beyer Speed Figures this year at any distance on any surface have a total of only eight 2011 starts between them. Here are thumbnail profiles on this quartet:

If a 3-year-old stays around long enough, he or she will eventually have to face older horses. That said, there is still something very exciting about the big prospective matchups of 3-year-olds against older horses at this Belmont Park fall meeting, which begins Saturday.

Since May, I’ve occasionally relayed the latest Breeders’ Cup future book odds. The most recent Breeders’ Cup future book odds from the race and sports book at Wynn Las Vegas are out, and I thought I’d pass along the current favorites for the seven races Wynn has posted.

Saturday’s Alabama Stakes at Saratoga could have gone a long way toward settling the 3-year-old filly title if It’s Tricky had made it her third straight Grade 1 victory. She didn’t. Yet, the outcome of the Alabama, a runaway victory by Royal Delta over It’s Tricky, still provided a lot of help sorting out this division.