Thoroughbred racing's biggest day is in the books. The 30th edition of the Breeder's Cup World Thoroughbred Championships was quite eventful to say the least! Last weekend's two day events were full of great finishes, minor upsets and some nice payouts. Here are my thoughts of the 13 races leading up to the feature race, the Classic and the coverage that NBC and their sports network afforded racing's world series. Unfortunately, it's disappointing for wagering fan of our sport.
The coverage kicked off on Friday afternoon around 4:45pm eastern standard time with five races until around 8pm. The Breeder's Cup Marathon is a nice race to wager on and make a few bucks (which I did with my second choice; London Bridge - $20.00) but, this race means very little during the season leading up to this grade II event. Both Juvenile Turf races have been dominated by the European runners. For the third straight year (6 out of 7) with the colts and back to back with the fillies. Speed was "golden", when Goldencents wired the field in the dirt mile and capped a $150 - fifty cent pick 3 with my top two selections from the first three Breeder's Cup races. The distaff was billed as the showdown between two-time champion of this race; Royal Delta and three year old filly phenom; Princess of Sylmar. But, that battle never materialize, when the five year old mare came up empty and the sophomore filly was never a factor.
It was a big day at the windows for me and I was looking forward to Saturday's races which were another late afternoon start at 3pm. Here's where the television coverage got very skewed in my opinion. We only saw the first BC race of the day; the Juvenile Fillies, as they went into the gate and the running of the race. The NBC Sports Network was TOO busy with their coverage of Notre Dame Football and their pre-game show versus Navy. Of course, something would happen in this race and the outcome was very interesting from a wagering stand point. Unfortunately there was a spill in the race and Hall of Fame jockey; John Velazquez was hurt and was off all his remaining mounts on the rest of the card. In the closing stages of the finish, race leader; She's a Tiger drift out in the stretch and interfere with longshot Ria Antonia and was disqualified, which placed the 32-1 outsider into the top spot paying $66.60!
The next three straight races would be won by the betting favorites. Europeans run one/ two with Dank running another big race stateside on the weeds, Groupie Doll became the first back-to-back winner of the filly and mare sprint and Mizdirection remained undefeated on the Santa Anita downhill turf course and also was the first two-time winner of this race. The wide open Juvenile had an upset with New Year's Day trying "real" dirt first time and scoring at a $23 mutual. Again, it was a one/two finish on the grass for the Europeans with Magician ($27) narrowly defeating favorite filly; The Fugue and so far, ALL the Europeans dominated Breeder's Cup distance turf races. The event which I really didn't have a major opinion in (the Sprint) was won by top selection; Secret Circle at an "underlay" price of $7.00 in my opinion. This set up for the two "showcase" races of the entire two days next!
The defending Horse of the Year and winner of last year's Turf Mile; Wise Dan, showed that he is STILL the top horse in North America with another impressive victory with subbing pilot aboard; Jose Lezcano for the injured John Velazquez. So after that great victory, we head to the main event / featured race and a switch from NBC's Sports Network to NBC for the Classic. Here, we go from straight forward horse racing coverage to something like "Entertainment Tonight". Stay tuned next week, for my full coverage of the 2013 Breeder's Cup Classic with the rundown results of the race and my critique of what we saw on NBC's prime time coverage of racing's biggest event.
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