JC / Railbird

Breeders’ Cup

The Way It Is

Gary West on the Breeders’ Cup Classic results deciding HOTY:

Zenyatta’s 14 victories before this year, and all the goodwill and inspiration she has meted out, and all the publicity and attention she has brought to the game and all her brilliant charismatic flashes probably won’t trump what happens when the latches of the gate spring open a few minutes after sunset on Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs. That’s just the way it is.

If Zenyatta loses to another leading HOTY prospect, it’ll be a crisis.

Posted in Racing on October 24, 2010 / Tagged Breeders' Cup, Classic, Distaffers, Eclipse Awards, Horse of the Year, Ugly Debates, Zenyatta

Friday Notes

There have been retirements, defections, and unexpected announcements, but the recent Breeders’ Cup news that’s most interested me is that Theyskens’ Theory is now a probable for the Juvenile Fillies. ‘Theory,’ a Bernardini-sired 3/4 sibling to 2005 juvenile champion Stevie Wonderboy, started her career with three straight wins two wins from three starts before finishing third to Together and White Moonstone in the Fillies’ Mile. Trainer Brian Meehan, who hadn’t been talking about the BC for the buzz baby before that race at Ascot last month, much less a surface switch, said of the effort, “It was a good run, just not her best.” Maybe she’ll show that at Churchill Downs.

Keeneland president Nick Nicholson is succeeding Alan Marzelli as Equibase chairman at the end of the year. Dare to dream? It would be nice if the announcement heralded positive changes for the industry’s database going forward. Getting ahead of things, I started wondering what datasets I’d most like Equibase to make freely available in the way that Keeneland has its Polycapping database and sales results. All the Triple Crown races, of course, and the Breeders’ Cup races, as a group and by division. The Eclipse winners, as a group and by division. Pools, certainly, by track, by year, by wager type …

Dick Powell gets political:

While watching Mr. McMillan direct every issue back to the rent being too damn high, it occurred to me that maybe this is just what we need in horse racing. Instead of analyzing to death all the nuances of the issues that plague our sport, maybe we need the single-mindedness of Mr. McMillan. Maybe, we need Mr. McMillan himself to be our leader. Maybe we need Mr. McMillan to head up a new movement called “The Takeout is Too Damn High!”

Racing already has a McMillan. Its name is HANA.

With the end of the Suffolk Downs meet fast approaching, many East Boston racehorses are in need of new careers. CANTER New England is holding its fifth annual Showcase this Sunday, October 24, on the Suffolk backstretch, from 9:00 AM to noon, for just that reason. Read this delightful OTTB success story, about how well a retired Suffolk thoroughbred adapted to life off track, and stop by to check out the dozens of jumper, riding, and pasture prospects that the hard-working CANTER volunteers have cataloged for this year’s event.

Posted in Racing on October 22, 2010 / Tagged Breeders' Cup, Buzz Babies, CANTER NE, Data, Datasets, Equibase, HANA, Industry Moves, Juveniles, Nick Nicholson, OTTBs, Politics, Suffolk Downs, Takeout, Theyskens' Theory, Wishlist

On the Surface

Stan Bergstein in DRF:

And so, as it became apparent that Pro-Ride was not the answer to synthetic success, just as 3M’s Tartan had not been, I realized things had come full circle in racing, as in much of life. First, I had watched Delvin Miller’s dream for a synthetic track implode, and now Richard Shapiro’s as both visions disintegrated with their tracks.

Oh, come on.

At the fall meet midpoint, Keeneland, now in its fourth year with Polytrack, reports on-track handle has increased and that all-sources handle is barely off from 2009. Horseplayers are betting the surface. Breeders’ Cup contenders are prepping over it. The Polytrack is, as Alan pointed out on LATG, “as much of a synthetic surface success story as Santa Anita was a failure.”

But that’s not the story you’ll get, and most certainly not from DRF, which sells products as speed-biased as the old Santa Anita dirt track.

Tangentially related: At the Races blogger Matt Chapman rounds up the likely European contenders for the Breeders’ Cup. He comes up with 24 names, 19 of those for the turf races. If that is indeed the likely contingent, it’ll be off about a third from the number of 2009 European contenders, and I don’t think there’s much argument the return to a main track dirt surface isn’t a factor. Fewer Euros isn’t such a big deal this year, but I keep bringing the subject up because — as suggested most recently by the new Champions’ Day, which is marketing itself as an alternative to Churchill dirt in 2011, and the shift in breeding power to European studs, as discussed by Bill Oppenheim and Sid Fernando — it does seem as though the era of American exceptionalism, vis-a-vis dirt breeding and dirt racing, is passing. We can keep our dirt — at the price that we’ll matter less internationally in the future.

Posted in Racing on October 20, 2010 / Tagged Breeders' Cup, Champions Day, International, Keeneland, Santa Anita, Track Surfaces