Most horseplayers won’t wager on the Grade 3, $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon until Friday afternoon. But two significant “bets” have already been made by the owners of Alcomo and Prince Will I Am, who required supplemental fees to gain entry.
Alcomo, a Brazilian-bred by Rainbow Corner, was supplemented by owner Abdul Rahman Al Jasmi for $75,000. Prince Will I Am, owned by Casa Farms, was supplemented for $45,000.
Trainer Mike Mitchell received two text messages from owner Ahmed Zayat on Wednesday morning regarding Jaycito, their contender for Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
“The first was ‘I’m so nervous,’ ” Mitchell said. “I text him back and said, ‘I’m not nervous until something happens where my horse isn’t doing good.’ When he’s doing great, I’ve got nothing to be nervous about.”
In the second text, Zayat asked Mitchell if he was happy with how Jaycito was doing.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After walking around the Churchill Downs turf course Wednesday, prodding the ground with a cane-like probe to determine just how firm the going was here in Louisville, trainer Michael Stoute and Juddmonte Farms racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe reached a decision on Workforce’s status for the Breeders’ Cup Turf: They decided not to decide.
“We’re going to monitor each day,” was how Stoute put things.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – They emptied out all the pills, and still, no relief. The handicapping headache that is the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint could have its winner come from pretty much anywhere in the full gate of 14, with a wide-open Churchill Downs tote board portending as much.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There’s plenty of action on Friday, what with six Breeders’ Cup races. There will be cameras, what with ESPN2 televising four hours, beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern time. And, for the first time in Breeders’ Cup history, there will be lights, what with Churchill Downs having installed permanent fixtures first used in June. The Breeders’ Cup is being run for the 27th time, and though it was only miles from Hollywood, Calif., the previous two years, only this year can one truly say, lights, camera, action!
NEW YORK – Nobody is calling the first day of Breeders’ Cup races “Filly Friday” this year, for obvious reasons: The sport’s three most accomplished females are all running against males Saturday – Zenyatta in the Classic, and Goldikova and Proviso in the Mile. As a result, Cup officials have concerns that the Friday card is a little light on marquee names this year.
They may need to rethink the way their 14 races are carved up between Friday and Saturday, but the good news is that Friday’s six Cup races still have plenty of sporting and wagering appeal.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The last Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs left all except the hardest contrarian awash in satisfaction. Ouija Board was a chalky 7-5 winner in 2006, and the victory − which followed a win in the 2004 running and a second in 2005 − reminded American racing fans what a world-class grass horse looks like. Another one has come to Churchill this week, and Midday will be strongly favored to succeed where Ouija Board failed by winning the Filly and Mare Turf for the second year in a row.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Nothing, it seems, can stop Zenyatta. Not even a semi.
When she left Barn 41 at Churchill Downs on Wednesday morning, Zenyatta began down a path toward the racetrack when she suddenly came face to face with the cab of a truck, whose driver apparently didn’t realize that it was training hours and millions of dollars worth of horses, not to mention the riders perched on their backs, were moving about. Zenyatta was moving forward, a large entourage following right behind. There was only one solution to this stare down. The semi moved back.