Accelerate, Enable top Breeders' Cup future wagers on Classic, Turf

Accelerate, winner of the Awesome Again Stakes last Saturday at Santa Anita and the undisputed leader of the handicap division, has been made the 5-2 favorite in the final Breeders’ Cup Classic Future Wager, to be held this weekend along with a future bet for the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Accelerate is one of 19 individual interests in the Classic future wager, along with a field bet. The Turf has 13 individual interests and a field bet, and Enable, the 4-year-old filly who is the pre-race favorite in this Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in France, has been made the even-money favorite.

Betting for the two pools will open Friday at noon Eastern and close Sunday at 6 p.m. The minimum bet is $2, and takeout is 17.5 percent, the rate for win bets at Churchill Downs, the host of the two-day Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 2-3.

This will be the second Classic future pool held this year by Breeders’ Cup. In the first pool, which was offered over the last weekend in August, Accelerate closed at 3-1, just after dominating the Pacific Classic Stakes at Del Mar. That pool had 23 individual interests, but the field is beginning to get tighter as the major preps for the Breeders’ Cup get in the books.

West Coast, the 4-year-old horse who finished second the Accelerate in the Awesome Again after a six-month layoff, is the second choice in the future pool, at 8-1. Three horses – McKinzie, Catholic Boy, and Thunder Snow – were made the co-third choices at 10-1.

In the Turf, two horses, multiple European stakes winner Roaring Lion and Arlington Million winner Robert Bruce, have been made the co-second choices at 8-1. Channel Maker, winner of the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Stakes, and Glorious Empire, winner of the Sword Dancer Invitational, are next at 10-1 each. Crystal Ocean, second to Enable in her comeback race at Kempton on Sept. 8, is 12-1.

Enable won the Arc last year as a 3-year-old, and her odds in European bookmaking shops hover around even money for the race. She is set to face 17 rivals in Saturday’s 1 1/2-mile turf contest.