Jay Hovdey

  9:00 a.m. (PDT) Saturday

Because there is very little chance that most of us will ever be lucky enough to be among the inner circle of an  animal that performs at the level of Frankel, who won for the ninth time in nine starts last Saturday in England, I thought it might be fun to hear from someone in the family. In this case it is the racing manager for Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte Farm, Lord (Teddy) Grimthorpe. At least, that's what it says on his business card.

I realize it is in the interests of all concerned to frame the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5 as the race that will determine the 2011 Horse of the Year. Understandably, this is the talking point emanating from the informational wing of the Breeders' Cup, since such a theme cultivates energetic pre-event chatter and helps sell tickets. It also perpetuates the self-fulfilling mandate of the Breeders' Cup as THE year-end championship event. If winning the Classic does not confer the ultimate award, what does?

This time of year it rains Hall of Fame inductions, from major league baseball in Cooperstown (Bert Blyleveln entered last month), to the NFL last Saturday night (all hail Deion Sanders, Marshall Faulk, Richard Dent, Chris Hanburger and Les Richter) to this Friday's ceremonies in Saratoga Springs for Thoroughred racing's finest.

Of the $15,715,478 gambled on the races at Del Mar on Saturday through transparently reportable sources, $31,413 of it was bet on the debut of the Head-to-Head proposition offered in the featured Eddie Read. This figure represented 0.19 % of the total pool (okay, let's round up and call it 0.2 % -- looks better), which is just about where it belongs until, hopefully, it is put out of its misery.