Cleaning Up at the Breeders’

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The Breeders’ Cup was first run in 1984 at Hollywood Park, and it changed the face of racing. Until then, autumn had been a graceful progression of races at Keeneland and Belmont, and the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita. Suddenly, everything was compressed. With this traveling marquee event, racing had another “greatest day” and most of the divisional championships would be decided at one track, over the course of one day. Races such as the Jockey Club Gold Cup have intrinsic ties to the track at which they are run. The Gold Cup feels like a New York race. The Breeders’ Cup has no such nostalgia. There is no whisper of days gone by. There are no pictures of Ben Jones or Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons saddling horses, no grainy black-and-white newsreel footage of past races.

Instead, there are huge sacks of money.

What’s more, horses come from all over the country to run for that money. The old way might have been regal, but now everyone’s got to run against everyone else, and that’s how we end up with fantastic paddocks full of incredible horses all ready to go.

Out on the Jersey Shore at Monmouth Park, the Breeders’ Cup is trying out a new format, spread over two days, with excellent new races. Two days of racing is asking a lot of all but the most dedicated fans, but there is no doubt that these races were good additions to the card, and good horses have shown up to run in them.

Consider the new Juvenile Turf race run at a mile for $1 million on Friday (post time approximately 5 p.m.). Twenty-three entrants applied for the 12 available slots, the largest field of applicants for any of the Breeders’ Cup races. Bill Mott’s undefeated (in two starts) Prussian is the Morning Line favorite, and the horse to beat. The imports, however, are very strong. Another new addition to the card is the Dirt Mile, which attracted an excellent, deep field. Favored in that race will be Discreet Cat, yet to come into his own this year, but with a five for five record last year. He’s facing such serious rivals as Lewis Michael, Corinthian, and Xchanger.

Not all of the excitement comes in the new races. The Turf has turned out to be perhaps the hottest contest of the day. Run over 1 1/2 miles for a whopping $3 million, Dylan Thomas, coming into this race off of two big wins, will be taking most of the bets. I refuse to go against a horse named Dylan Thomas (just as I refuse to bet against Purim, running in the Mile, which is too bad, because I don’t think he’s got much of a chance), but he will certainly have his work cut out for him. Next to him in the gate is English Channel. This gutsy horse is coming off an excellent win at Belmont that he won on the stretch. He had to power through on the rail — there absolutely did not appear to be enough room for a horse — to explode in the final strides and prevail. Eight-year-old Better Talk Now is looking to improve on his second place finish last year, he’s had three starts this year, one of which he won. Last time out, he got up to show in the United Nation at Monmouth. Last year’s turf winner, Red Rocks, has made the trip from Ireland again, and although he’s been beaten by Dylan Thomas a couple of times, you cannot count him out.

One disappointment to race fans is the absence of Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches. She suffered a hairline fracture to her right front pastern at the Gazelle Stakes at Belmont; we’ll have to wait until 2008 to see her run again. The filly that beat her, Lear’s Princess, will start in the Distaff. All of these races build up to the climax of the weekend, the Breeders’ Cup Classic, in which nine very strong entrants will run for the staggering sum of $5 million. Here’s how I see that race playing out: Lawyer Ron will track Hard Spun on the outside, which will have been a precarious set up to achieve, what with Hard Spun having to cross all the way from the eight-slot to get his spot on the rail and Lawyer Ron having to engage some tactical speed to let Hard Spun take the early lead without getting upset. Any Given Saturday settles in third, with Street Sense to his outside. Curlin is near the back, waiting. They will stay like that until the stretch turn, at which point Curlin will start rolling. He’ll come up to Street Sense first, and they’ll hook up and go.

What happens next is hard to say, and although I’ve said you can’t have a five-way dead heat, in about half of the runnings of this race that I imagine, that’s exactly what I get.

Here’s the other outcome I see: Each of these horses gets locked up with another, Curlin and Street Sense are bothering each other, Hard Spun and Lawyer Ron are dueling, and Any Given Saturday is left to find his own path. He bursts onto the stretch. He pulls away.

mwatman@nysun.com


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