1:30 pm ET: There's power, heat, hot water, phone and wifi service at Aqueduct, luxuries I haven't enjoyed since the hurricane hit and the lights went out on Long Island at 6:52 pm Monday. So here I am in a nearly deserted (two reporters and a lonely mutuel clerk) Big A Press Box for Breeders' Cup Friday.
Looks like about 156 minutes before post for the BC Juvenile Sprint, first leg of a pick-6 I'll be playing, both for myself and for a group of fans at Capital OTB. Capital and I are each putting up $1,000 today and $5,000 tomorrow.
Here's the final Breeders' Cup lineup of races, followed by your 2012 horse-by-horse cheat sheet, with starts, victories, earnings, highest winning level, career-best Beyer Speed Figure and trainer for each horse. I'll be augmenting this chart with odds, sires and other tidbits in the days ahead. Final fields with riders (and the undercard races) will be drawn Monday.
Pre-entry past performances are up, so get cracking.
12:20 pm: Overcast and cloudy, temps in the 60's, main track harrowed and "good," turf course yielding, races 1 and 4 off the grass on an 11-race Jockey Club Golc Cup card that features five Grade 1 stakes and a two-day $96k pick-6 carryover.
12:01 pm: 406 races down, 11 to go. Early first post of 12:30 pm for Day 40 of 40, an 11-race card headlined by the G2 (boo) Hopeful, the G3 Glens Falls, and a mandatory pick-6 payout on Closing Day at the Spa.
