Steven Crist

Feeling fresh, fit and dangerous returning from a 10-day horseplaying hiatus for today's Cigar Mile card at Aqueduct, a 10-race affair starting at noon, with the G2 Demoiselle, G2 Remsen, G1 Gazelle and G1 Cigar Mile slated to be run as races 6 through 9 starting at 2:15 pm ET.

  Common-pool wagering on Breeders' Cup Saturday was $110 million, a resounding $14.3 million increase over last year and due largely to a $12.1 million increase in wagers on, or ending with, the Breeders' Cup Classic. Combined with a $2.7 million increase on BC Friday wagering over last year, the two-day total was up $16.9 million, or 11.75 percent from last year: 

Post time is 1:52 pm for the first leg of an Aqueduct Pick-6 that begins with a four-day, $415,271 carryover. Even after late scratches, it's a troublesome sequence with a lot of bulky fields: it's 12 x 10 x 12 x 8 x 8 x 10, a mere $1.84 million to buy it: 

Horses who made their final preps on dirt and synthetic surfaces fared equally well in the eight main-track Breeders' Cup races this year, as opposed to the 0-for-43 collar that dirt horses took in the 2008 and 2009 editions over Pro-Ride at Santa Anita. The chart below shows where each Cup starter made his final start before the Cup this year and last. Runners coming off dirt and synthetic races showed almost identical winning and in-the-money percentages in 2010, after a 2009 edition where dirt runners floundered badly:

Does the scratch of Workforce from the Turf make today's Ultra Pick Six harder or easier?