The longer the race, the more important the pace.

This racing axiom is older than dirt, but it’s worth dredging up in the context of the Grade 2, $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon because – at a distance of 1 3/4 miles – the Marathon is about as long as races get in this country these days.

“Pace is important in every race,” notes trainer Al Stall Jr. “The longer the race, the more of a chance the pace can get away from you, if you go too fast in the middle stages. I think that true class comes out in longer races.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For someone who sent out two Breeders’ Cup winners last year, trainer Bret Calhoun sure has flown under the radar this week. The 47-year-old Texan is back with one of those winners, Chamberlain Bridge, who started from post 1 when he captured the 2010 BC Turf Sprint and will break from post 14 with Jamie Theriot back aboard when he defends his title Saturday in the $1 million race at Churchill Downs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Four horses are stretching out in distance. Four horses are cutting back. The only member of Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile field who last ran at the distance was beaten 11 lengths.

Such is the dilemma facing handicappers when trying to come up with the winner of the $1 million Dirt Mile, which despite a boatload of defections – both expected and unexpected – came up an extremely competitive race. As it is run at Churchill Downs, the Dirt Mile is a one-turn race.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, the Swiss-born brothers who bred and own Goldikova, announced during the 2008 post-BC Mile press conference that they would delay retirement and bring the Mile winner back to race at age 4, a cheer went up from assembled media.

How quaint.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It was a little more than five years ago that trainer Michael Matz led an unbeaten colt to Churchill Downs in a quest for greatness, and the horse, the ill-fated Barbaro, fulfilled expectations, decisively winning the 2006 Kentucky Derby in what would be the final victory of his short career.

Sadly, as few racing fans can forget, the colt would succumb in January of the following year following complications from a shattered hind leg he suffered in the 2006 Preakness.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Cape Blanco, retired now, came and quickly conquered, shipping three times from Ireland to the United States and winning three of this country’s top grass races, the Man o’ War, the Arlington Million, and the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic. Back home, Cape Blanco had finished sixth, fourth, and 13th the last three times he raced on turf.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Big Drama and trainer David Fawkes return to the scene of their finest hour Saturday at Churchill Downs when they try to defend their title in the $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Keep studying. Cram if you need to. Examine every statistic and nuance you can find regarding the 14 horses in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, then make your best guess – like everyone else.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The license plate on his truck says South Dakota, so it’s obvious trainer Bill Mott, who grew up in tiny Mobridge, S.D., has not forgotten his roots. Though he now trains primarily in New York and Florida, it is Kentucky where Mott first gained fame. He has won more races than any trainer in the history of Churchill Downs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Any doubt how Uncle Mo might have bounced out of his relatively disappointing final work for this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic on Sunday morning were erased the moment he stepped out onto the racetrack shortly after 6 a.m. here at Churchill Downs on Wednesday. He turned in an exhilarating training session during which he galloped as strong, as sound and as spectacularly as could be expected leading up to such a major event.