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.
Strut the Course probably locked up the Sovereign Award for this year’s champion older female in Canada with an impressive score in the Grade 3, $208,300 Maple Leaf Stakes at Woodbine on Saturday.
Trainer Jonathan Pease does not often send runners to the Breeders’ Cup, but when he does, it is with strong intent.
