Archives for October 2016

The 2016 Breeders’ Cup Classic is shaping up as the most competitive edition in years and one that is difficult to handicap.  Trainer Bob Baffert has won the last two Classics with American Pharoah in 2015 and Bayern in 2014, and has two potential strong entries in 2016 with Arrogate and Hoppertunity.

Mr. Baffert’s leading entry is the 3-year-old Arrogate, who demolished the rest of the field in the Travers at Saratoga Race Course, setting a new track record for 1 ¼ miles in 1:59.36.  Jockey Mike Smith remarked:  “Galloping out, I had trouble getting him to stop.”  The colt was unraced as a 2-year-old and has won four of his five starts in 2016, losing only his maiden race early in the year.

The Baffert stable’s Hoppertunity won the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on October 8th and was third in the 2016 Dubai World Cup in March.  Overall, he has won 6 of 22 starts with earnings of $3.6 million.

2013 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome will be making his second start in the Classic, finishing third in 2014.  He has won all six of his races in 2016, including the Dubai World Cup, and has lifetime earnings of an astounding $13.4 million.  He would be the first Kentucky Derby winner to also win the Classic as a 5-year-old, simply because most Kentucky Derby winners are retired after their 3-year-old season.  California Chrome is not fashionably bred and had to prove himself on the racetrack as an older horse.

The 4-year-old Frosted is inconsistent to say the least, and thus one never knows which version of Frosted is about to run.  In 2016, he won the Whitney Stakes and ran 5th in the Dubai World Cup.  If the on-his-game Frosted shows up in the Classic, he is capable of putting a lot of heat on the horses that prefer to run on the front end, most notably on Arrogate.

Formidable horses like Effinex, who won the Suburban in July at Belmont Park, will also contest the Classic.  Coolmore, the powerhouse from Ireland, typically enters a turf horse in the Classic and came close to winning the race with Giants’ Causeway in 2000.  Possibilities for Coolmore are the sensational 4-year-old filly Found, who recently won the 1 ½ mile Qatar Prix De L’Arc Triomphe at Chantilly in France, and Highland Reel, who finished second in the Arc.  Both are also entered in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.  No matter which race Found runs in–the Classic or the Turf–a concern is that the filly ran in the Arc on October 2nd and then came back to finish second in the QIPCO Champion Stakes on October 15th in England, and now travels to California for another demanding race on November 5th.  That is asking a lot.

Barring scratches of key horses, the Breeders’ Cup Classic offers the intrigue of a seasoned, mega-money-winning California Chrome against the lightly raced  3-year-old sensation Arrogate.  Is Arrogate the real deal or a one-hit wonder?  However, a number of other capable entries could ruin the party for both of them.

Copyright © 2016 Horse Racing Business

Present a racing historian with this arguable fill-in-the-blank question: “The best racehorse to lose in a Breeders’ Cup race was…?” and familiar monikers of all-time greats like Dancing Brave, Giant’s Causeway, and Serena’s Song will be forthcoming.  Now reframe the question to read: “The best horse to waste two prime opportunities to win a Breeders’ Cup race was…?” and a single name stands out—Easy Goer.  While other Hall of Fame caliber horses tried and failed to win a Breeders’ Cup race once, Easy Goer on two occasions botched his chance as the odds-on favorite.

Leading up to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on November 5th, 1988, the Ogden Phipps-owned and Shug McGaughey-trained Easy Goer was considered as close to being a shoo-in to win as is possible in horse racing.  The big red 2-year-old colt by Alydar had triumphed in four of his five races in 1988, losing only in his maiden effort by a nose, and had dominated the competition in winning the Grade I Cowdin on October 1st and the Grade I Champagne on October 15th.

Easy Goer’s Daily Racing Form past performance line for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile pointed to reasonable explanations for his unexpected second-place finish:  “Bumped start, jumped tracks.”  The experts’ preferred rationale for Easy Goer losing to IsItTrue, a colt that he had easily dispensed with in both the Cowdin and the Champagne, was that he did not cope well with Churchill Downs’ muddy racetrack surface.

Easy Goer prepped for the 1989 Kentucky Derby with victories of 8 ¾ lengths in the Swale, 13 lengths on the Gotham, and 3 lengths in the Wood Memorial.  On the first Saturday in May, Easy Goer faced a field of 15 colts in the Kentucky Derby and, based on his dismantling of all challengers in 1989, he was the prohibitive favorite.

Spring rains visited Louisville on Derby Day 1989 and were turned to sleet by the unwelcome winter-like temperatures, resulting in a muddy mess of a racetrack.  Easy Goer repeated his performance of six months earlier on the same sort of soggy racetrack by rallying late to finish second, 2 1/2 lengths behind Sunday Silence.

Fourteen days later in the Preakness, the two colts dueled with one another down the stretch with Sunday Silence prevailing by a nose.  The finish was so close that radio-TV announcer Dave Johnson could not tell who had prevailed.

Easy Goer got a large measure of revenge in the Belmont, and then some, with a commanding 8-length “take that” thrashing of Sunday Silence.  Easy Goer followed up his impressive Belmont outing with a string of effortless-looking wins in four Grade I races–the Whitney, Travers, Woodward, and Jockey Club Gold Cup.

The stage was set for an Easy Goer-Sunday Silence showdown in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park in early November.  The race lived up to its high-noon billing.  In another dramatic finish, Easy Goer, the betting favorite, closed menacingly in deep stretch on the front-running Sunday Silence, only to fall short by what the telecast announcer Tom Durkin excitedly described as a “desperate neck.”

The aptly named Easy Goer had the unfortunate timing of being in the same foal crop as Sunday Silence, a colt whose tactical speed and maneuverability gave him a slight advantage over Easy Goer at distances of 1 ¼ miles or less.  Moreover, Easy Goer’s loss to IsItTrue in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile can be written off as a fluke owing to an off track and a troubled start.  Excuses aside, the record books report in black and white that a horse named Easy Goer ran second as the favorite, not once, but twice in Breeders’ Cup championship races, as well as in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.

Yet Easy Goer should not be remembered as a hugely talented horse that underachieved in the biggest races of his career, not by a long shot, or else his name would not be enshrined in American horse racing’s Hall of Fame in upstate New York.

Copyright © 2016 Horse Racing Business

The Breeders’ Cup bills itself as the World Championships of horse racing.  While this claim is hyperbole, the Breeders’ Cup races that come closest to being world championships are held on grass.  Unlike the dirt races, turf fields normally include a significant number of top-flight European runners.

My personal favorite race on the Breeders’ Cup two-day cards is the Breeders’ Cup Turf.  The 1 ½ mile challenge is a classic distance and the horses run over a grass surface that is in keeping with the traditions and origins of horse racing in the 18th century.  Turf racing, in my view, has an unrivaled elegance about it and the 12-furlong distance requires the utmost in tactical riding.

This year’s field will once again include formidable entries from Ireland’s Tipperary County-based Coolmore Stud and its partners.  In the recent 1 ½ mile Qatar Prix De L’Arc Triomphe at Chantilly in France, Coolmore accomplished an amazing feat.  Its runners, all trained by Aidan P. O’Brien, finished one-two-three:  Found, a 4-year-old filly,  won, followed by the 4-year-old colts Highland Reel and Order of St. George.  All three were sired by Coolmore’s Galileo, who finished sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on dirt in 2001.  Found won the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Turf and has career earnings of over $6.9 million.  Coolmore connections and Aidan O’Brien have dominated the Breeders’ Cup Turf in the 21st century with five wins.

The Breeders’ Cup Turf will draw a strong field of European and American runners to take on whatever horses Coolmore decides to send to Santa Anita.  Though turf races are the European’s forte, North American horses have been competitive.  Results are closely divided with European-based runners  having a slight advantage of 17 wins in the previous 32 Breeders’ Cup Turf races.  However, European horses must overcome the side effects of long-distance travel and time-zone differences.

Copyright © 2016 Horse Racing Business