OCEANPORT, N.J. – By the time Breeders' Cup Day is over, the Juvenile Fillies usually is long forgotten, overshadowed partly because of its early placement on the Saturday program and by the relative unfamiliarity that fans have with its young participants.

This is not to diminish the importance of the Juvenile Fillies. It is, after all, a prelude to what often unfolds the following spring in the more glamorous 3-year-old filly division, and it goes without saying that horsemen also don't mind the paydays the $2 million purse yields.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – The first, second, and third finishers from the 2006 Breeders' Cup Turf are back for an encore presentation in the 2007 race at Monmouth Park – and the widespread perception is that they haven't got a chance.

There is a good reason for that – and his name is Dylan Thomas.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Midnight Lute will be the favorite in Saturday's $2 million Breeders Cup Sprint at Monmouth Park. But even his trainer, Bob Baffert, knows that in a race like the Sprint, having the favorite is no assurance of also having the winner.

"All I can do is hope the best horse wins," said Baffert. "Other than that, it's out of my hands."

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Todd Pletcher was sitting at his desk in his Churchill Downs barn office the morning after last year's Breeders' Cup World Championships when he came across a story on his computer that told of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein being sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.

"Now that guy had a bad day," Pletcher said.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – This year's edition of the Breeders' Cup Distaff is so competitive that reasonable handicappers such as Daily Racing Form linemaker Mike Watchmaker and Monmouth Park oddsmaker Brad Thomas disagree on who will be favored in the $2 million race.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Of all the Breeders' Cup races, none is impacted more by location than the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. It is a 1 1/16-mile race, but at Belmont Park, it is run around one turn. At a track like Monmouth Park, site of this year's Breeders' Cup, it is run around two turns.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - The ESPN cameras sit strategically positioned like machine-gun nests all over Monmouth Park. They point down from the grandstand roof, take in every angle of the racing ovals below, and during the Breeders' Cup broadcast will spray shots of well-buffed minor-celebrity faces and million-dollar horseflesh, one after another.

This is not racing reality.

Most track life takes place in quiet corners, far from the camera's arc - anonymous, mundane toil, sometimes building toward something better, often going nowhere in particular.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - For pretty much anybody else, the last few years would have been just great.

But this is Bob Baffert. This is the white-haired, wise-cracking, iconic trainer who dominated Thoroughbred racing in the late 1990s while making a nonrefundable reservation for himself in the sport's Hall of Fame. This is the man who won three Kentucky Derbies and two Dubai World Cups, was voted three Eclipse Awards as top trainer, led the nation in stable earnings for four straight years, and trained seven champions.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - When Prussian made his career debut on Aug. 17 at Saratoga, it was easy to think ahead 10 weeks to one of the three new Breeders' Cup races. Prussian seemed to be custom made for the Juvenile Turf, and nothing he has done in the intervening couple of months has suggested otherwise.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Dream Rush has won 6 of her 8 career starts, including two Grade 1 races. La Traviata is undefeated and virtually untested in three starts. But both 3-year-olds have achieved their impressive resumes using similar front-running styles that could potentially clash when they meet for the first time in Friday's inaugural $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Monmouth Park.