WASHINGTON - The Breeders' Cup races are traditionally contentious and difficult to decipher. But on Saturday's card at Belmont Park, almost every event has a clear-cut favorite. In wagering at European and offshore venues, as many as six of the eight favorites are listed at 2-1 or lower.
NEW YORK - The tag line for the new advertising campaign promoting the Breeders' Cup is "Who do you like?" It's a good catchphrase and a question horseplayers ask one another thousands of times a day. The more specific question for Saturday's eight championship events might be, "Who do you trust?"
ELMONT, N.Y. - There is a daunting appeal to perfection, something to be admired but rarely attained. And while it is no big deal for a 2-year-old to be undefeated at this point in his or her career, it is for a 3-year-old sprinter, a 3-year-old filly, or a 4-year-old who runs on the grass. The Breeders' Cup at Belmont Park on Saturday has one of each.
ELMONT, N.Y. - It would have been a grand sight, and so appropriate, to have seen Norfolk Stakes winner Brother Derek going postward on Saturday in the $1.5 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile with jockey Alex Solis adorned in the true colors of his owner.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Jimmy Jerkens is quick to lament the fact that his fabled racing family has so far pitched a shutout in Breeders' Cup competition.
"I don't know what it is, but we just haven't had any luck in these races," Jerkens said.
"We" means Jimmy, age 46, and his legendary father, Allen Jerkens, who is 76. The elder Jerkens has been winning big races in New York for half a century, while Jimmy served his father as assistant trainer for 20 years before going out on his own nine years ago.
WASHINGTON - The Breeders' Cup races are only a few days away, but a sharp debate is already under way about their possible impact on the sport's year-end championships. The arguments center on the 3-year-old Lost in the Fog, who will bring a 10-for-10 career record into the Breeders' Cup Sprint.
If he wins, Lost in the Fog will, naturally, earn the Eclipse Award as the outstanding sprinter of 2005. But might he also be named the champion 3-year-old over Triple Crown hero Afleet Alex? Might he even deserve to be Horse of the Year?
ELMONT, N.Y. - For us country folk, the Big Apple can be pretty intimidating. Everything is either very tall, very loud, or very expensive. People are angry, in a hurry, and dressed so much better than the rest of us.
Comedian Fred Allen once cracked that "everywhere outside New York City is Bridgeport, Connecticut," which was his way of saying that New York was like no place else, so don't bother to try. Johnny Carson defined New York as "an exciting town where something is happening all the time, most of it unsolved."
NEW YORK - Notes upon fooling with the Breeders' Cup pre-entry past performances for way too long without doing any actual handicapping:
The 117 pre-entered horses have combined to win 598 of 1485 career starts, a victory rate of 40.26 percent.
Those 598 victories include 98 Grade 1 or Group 1 stakes. Ashado (Distaff) has the most such triumphs with seven, followed by Starcraft (Classic or Mile) and Bago (Turf) with five each and Azamour (Turf) and Better Talk Now (Turf) with four.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Enough already. Whoever's sticking pins in the Richie Migliore voodoo doll, give it a rest.
After Migliore's latest bad break on Thursday in New York, word got around that the longtime rider finally had decided to donate his body to science, but science said no thanks. They had already seen their fill of Mig's anatomy.
They all hurt - the broken neck (1988), the shattered forearm (1999), the fractured wrist and ribs (2004) - but for some reason this one drove the pain deep into Migliore's usually resilient heart.
