Balmoral: Sunday 11/2 Analysis
Jeremey Day's analysis of the Sunday 11/2 card at Balmoral Park.
Jeremey DayNov 02, 2014
Jeremey Day's analysis of the Sunday 11/2 card at Balmoral Park.
Owner-trainer Wesley Ward said from Florida early Sunday that he intends to bring Judy the Beauty back as a 6-year-old next April at Keeneland in the Grade 1 Madison Stakes, a race the mare won this year en route to what surely will be a divisional championship.
If the Super Bowl is decided by a pass play with contact between receiver and defender or the NBA finals by a drive to the basket on which there is obvious contact, a referee’s borderline decision can determine the outcome of a championship event. Whatever the official decides is sure to prompt endless debate.
Sunbean set a stakes record Saturday night at Delta Downs, where he cruised to a 4 3/4-length win in the $100,000 Gold Cup. Louisiana Flyboy finished second in the one-mile race, while it was another length back in third to Masters Degree.
Preliminary all-sources handle on the 13 Breeders’ Cup races held this year at Santa Anita on Friday and Saturday was $127.8 million, according to charts of the races, down 5.7 percent compared with betting last year on 14 races, when the numbers were also juiced by a carryover in the pick five.
A Breeders’ Cup Classic that was set up to be a clean-cut title-decider for Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male instead had a wholly unsatisfying ending Saturday at Santa Anita, where Bayern led from start to finish after clobbering several rivals at the start but was left the winner by the stewards after a lengthy inquiry.
Good Lord held off a late charge by Page McKenney to win the $130,000 Mountaineer Mile for the second time Saturday night at Mountaineer Racetrack.
To hear Mike Smith tell it, Shared Belief was finished at the start.
The roller-coaster ride that was California Chrome’s star-studded 2014 campaign came to a bittersweet end in the gloaming at Santa Anita late Saturday afternoon, where the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner came within a half-length of winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic and clinching not only the 3-year-old championship but perhaps Horse of the Year honors as well.
Yannick Gingras showed up at Vernon Downs on Saturday night for a quartet of stakes races and went home with a hat trick, but Maven truly stole the show with her victory in the $178,000 Muscle Hill for older trotting mares. Rocklamation, French Laundry and Lady Clarabella were the other stakes winners.