This is the time of year when conventional wisdom holds that 3-year-olds must prove themselves against older horses. But this fall, in the chase for the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic, and for Horse of the Year, the question will be whether older horses can match up with the nation's best 3-year-old, Bernardini.
CHICAGO - The matching of U.S. and European talent can pump up interest in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, but this year - a year with plenty of talent on both sides of the Atlantic - the leading U.S. lady isn't really American. And, she may not even be running.
The East has produced the bulk of the expected starters for this year's $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff, but the action will shift west on Sunday, when Healthy Addiction and Hollywood Story make their final push toward the race in the Grade 2, $250,000 Lady's Secret Breeders' Cup Handicap at the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita.
The Lady's Secret, at 1 1/16 miles, had a probable field of five on Wednesday, said racing secretary Rick Hammerle. Healthy Addiction is the 120-pound highweight off a win over Happy Ticket in the Grade 2 Clement Hirsch at Del Mar on Aug. 6.
Considering that European horses have won or dead-heated for first in six of the last seven runnings of the Breeders' Cup Turf, probably the most logical place to start looking for the winner of the 2006 Turf is overseas.
The race that figures to have the most impact on the Turf - at least as far as the foreign contingent is concerned - will be run this weekend. The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, set for Sunday at Longchamp, drew several of the world's top turf horses in its field of 12, most notably Hurricane Run, Deep Impact, and the 2005 BC Turf winner, Shirocco.
The three-race winning streak that has propelled Aragorn to the top of the American turf mile division has left trainer Neil Drysdale enthused about the autumn.
And what a time to have a colt in peak form. Over the next six weeks, Aragorn will start in the Grade 2 Oak Tree Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Oct. 7, then face many of the world's best milers in the Breeders' Cup Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.
ELMONT, N.Y. - It was a gut feeling that told trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. to bypass the Breeders' Cup Classic with Saint Liam one year ago. On form, Saint Liam belonged, having just given Ghostzapper his greatest battle of 2004, in the Woodward Stakes. But Dutrow sensed something wasn't quite right with Saint Liam. There were no injuries, but the colt's slight lethargy gave his trainer pause.
ELMONT, N.Y. - At 8 a.m. Saturday morning, 45 minutes before Lost in the Fog would walk over to the Belmont Park security barn and almost seven hours before post time for the Breeders' Cup Sprint, trainer Greg Gilchrist said: "I think the holding barn will be an advantage for us, because we've been through it before. I guarantee at least a half-dozen horses in today's Breeders' Cup will not run their races because of their experience in the holding barn."
Little did Gilchrist realize that one of those horses might have been his.
Total preliminary handle on the eight Breeders' Cup races at Belmont Park on Saturday was a record $112,865,068, a 4.1 percent increase over the preliminary handle total from last year.
The growth in handle indicates that Breeders' Cup is still capable of increasing betting interest in its card, after two years of marginal growth or declines. Last year, the preliminary betting figure of $108.7 million was a 1 percent increase over the 2003 number, which had declined 1 percent compared to the 2002 event.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The Breeders' Cup lures casual fans with a blitzkrieg of top-class races. And it lures gamblers because somewhere, sometime during Breeders' Cup Day, those races will produce boxcar payoffs.
Saturday was no exception: In the eight Breeders' Cup races, only two favorites won, Folklore in the Juvenile Fillies and Saint Liam in the Classic.
On an afternoon when longshots largely ruled the day at Belmont Park, order was restored as dusk settled on the 22nd Breeders' Cup. Saint Liam, the favorite in the $4,680,000 , overcame a disadvantageous post and 12 rivals to win the nation's richest race by one length before 54,289 and make an emphatic claim that he is the Horse of the Year.
