OCEANPORT, N.J. - From the time Ginger Punch guaranteed herself a spot in the Breeders' Cup Distaff by winning the Go for Wand at Saratoga in July, trainer Bobby Frankel continuously harped on the reasons not to run in the race.

Since Ginger Punch was not nominated to the Breeders' Cup as a foal, it cost owner Frank Stronach $180,000 to supplement her to the Distaff. Frankel fretted about the speed-favoring nature of Monmouth Park's surface and the fact that if a horse drew an outside post in a big field, that supplemental fee would "be flushed away."

OCEANPORT, N.J. - By winning Saturday's $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Monmouth Park, Lahudood went from afterthought to likely champion, providing a fitting conclusion to what has been a roller-coaster year for her trainer, Kiaran McLaughlin.

Five months ago, McLaughlin had a stable that included defending Horse of the Year Invasor, soon-to-be Grade 1 winners Flashy Bull, Lear's Princess, and Shakespeare, plus Makderah, a budding filly and mare turf stakes winner. Lahudood was on few people's radar screens.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Okay, so Kip Deville is based in New York with one of the powerhouse stables in American racing, that of Rick Dutrow, but there is no way that any horse in this year's Breeders' Cup came from more obscure origins.

Bred in Oklahoma by the Center Hills Farm, Kip Deville is a son of the $2,500 stallion Kipling and the mare Klondike Kaytie, a daughter of Encino. The horse was "live" on the board in his career debut - an Oklahoma-bred maiden race on Nov. 14, 2005, at Remington Park. He won by more than three lengths. The race's purse was $14,000.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - From unraced maiden to Horse of the Year, all in nine months. That was the story arc for Curlin. He began his career in February, and completed a sensational, ambitious 2007 campaign Saturday at Monmouth Park with an emphatic victory in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic, a win that should clinch for Curlin both Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Nick Zito had run in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile before, but often with reticence. The record of horses who had won the Juvenile, and then the Kentucky Derby, had been as bare as a newborn baby, which gave Zito pause. But two things changed Zito's mind about running this year. First, the Juvenile-Derby drought was broken earlier this year by Street Sense. And Zito correctly realized he had a chance to nail down a championship if War Pass could win the Juvenile.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Curlin, who had not raced before February, completed a sensational, ambitious campaign Saturday at Monmouth Park with an emphatic victory in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic, a win that should clinch for Curlin both Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - George Washington had to be euthanized on the racetrack after suffering a catastrophic injury to his right front ankle during the running of Saturday's $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Monmouth Park.

According to Dr. C. Wayne McIlwraith, the on-call veterinarian for the American Association of Equine Practitioners, George Washington incurred an open fracture of the cannon bone in the right front fetlock joint and also fractured both sesamoids.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - English Channel finally broke through and won the big one, capturing the Breeders' Cup Turf in his third try, while international star Dylan Thomas floundered home a distant fifth while racing on a soft turf course he clearly hated.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - If Kiaran McLaughlin didn't truly believe that Lahudood was the better of the two turf fillies owner Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum sent him earlier this year, he's certainly a believer now as Lahudood rolled to a three-quarter-length victory in Saturday's $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf over the extremely soft turf course at Monmouth Park.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - You could've heard 10,000 tales of woe from the connections of losing horses on this sodden Saturday at Monmouth Park, a day when many horses surely struggled to get their footing on a super-soft grass course. But not from Cornelio Velasquez, who had just given Kip Deville a textbook ride in the Breeders' Cup Mile.

"He loved the soft turf," Velasquez said. "He loved it."