ARCADIA, Calif. – Tamarkuz was fed a steady diet of one-turn races throughout his career, but in his 20th and perhaps final career start, he successfully stretched out around two turns to win the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Friday at Santa Anita, scoring an 11-1 upset over the likes of Dortmund, Gun Runner, and Runhappy.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Oscar Performance acted like a good horse from the time he was broken to saddle, and on Friday at Santa Anita, he was the leading man in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, tracking the pacesetting Wellabled, bursting to the front, and going on to a 1 1/4-length win over Lancaster Bomber and a tough-luck Good Samaritan.

It was a first Breeders’ Cup victory for both trainer Brian Lynch and jockey Jose Ortiz. “Just absolutely thrilled as I am for my first Breeders’ Cup, I’m thrilled to have done it with Jose,” said Lynch.

A $500,000-guaranteed pool for the opening pick five on Breeders’ Cup Saturday wakes up bettors. So here is a look at the sequence and my Ticketmaker Play

Race 1

Up first is the Juvenile Turf Sprint at 6 1/2 furlongs down the hill. I prefer a couple late-running horses cutting back in distance:  Harbour Master (4) and Kitten’s Cat (10) – both “A” plays in Ticketmaker. Although their lack of speed is a disadvantage, they simply look classier than the rest.

The late pick four on Breeders' Cup Saturday features a guaranteed pool of $3 million, and I'm looking to take a small swing against a couple of short-priced favorites.

Race 9 - Turf

A number of owners and trainers will be supporting New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program by pledging a percentage of their 2016 Breeders’ Cup World Championship purse earnings to New Vocations, which rehabilitates, retrain, and rehomes retired racehorses. This will be the seventh year owners and trainers have donated a percentage of their Breeders’ Cup purse earnings, and so far from such efforts more than $380,000 has been raised, with 100 percent of funds raised supporting the program’s aftercare efforts.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Victory to Victory was scratched from Friday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita because of a splint bone injury, trainer Mark Casse said.

“She popped a splint the other day,” Casse said Friday. “It’s been biting her the last few days. It’s nothing serious. She’ll miss a few weeks of training.”

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2016: Odds, comments, video previews, and more

DRF sales editor Joe Nevills analyzes each race of the 2016 Breeders’ Cup World Championships in the form of Haiku; a Japanese poem of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five.

Friday, Nov. 4
Juvenile Turf
The golden trio
O’Brien, Moore, and “L1”
Intelligence Cross

Dirt Mile
Free of Chrome’s shadow
Dortmund gets his time to shine
Much the class in here

Race 6
A – 4,5,11
B – 1,6,8,13

Race 7
A – 1,3
B – none

Race 8
A – 1,13,14
B – 4, 7

Race 9
A – 1,5
B – 6

50-cent bet = $97

:: See Marcus Hersh’s pick four play in DRF TicketMaker and bet it with DRF Bets

The lone pick five of the day on Breeders' Cup Friday starts in race 1, perhaps the most wide-open race of the sequence. The enclosed TicketMaker play is for $74, but I will play the "A" ticket twice for a total bet of $86.

From a gambling perspective, the two-day Breeders’ Cup extravaganza, which offers 13 races for top horses in all divisions, is always among the best times of the year to look for prices and to try to make scores.

The new DRF Bets Breeders’ Cup win bet “Hit It or Split It” $7,500 challenge won’t require you to look for value. What it does require is that you cash at least five win bets over the 13 races to become eligible for the prize. 

With that in mind, let’s look for five horses to consider using in order to qualify.