Day 2 Breeders Cup Thoughts

[Tvghrtvfan]

The euro invader George Vancouver was the winner of the Juvenile Turf. Nice to see Aidan O’Brien get a win for jockey Ryan Moore. The horse has a future for next year. Probably the biggest disappointment in there was Dundonnell who didn’t seem to be a factor at all and took some horses wide too so wasn’t anywhere found in the top 3.

What can I say about Groupie Doll!! She is the best in her field and is in her own league. Look out for her if she stays in training for next year and certainly made her serious case if she gets a nomination for Horse of the Year. We all know that she has the Female Sprint division wrapped up.

Tapizar was the upset winner of the Dirt Mile. He certainly looked amazing winning it and certainly has a liking to Santa Anita. The biggest disappointment has to be Shackelford because it broke slowly and lost all chance of winning. Also both Emcee and Fed Biz were disappointing too.

Mizdirection the filly beat the boys in the Turf Sprint. The other filly Reneesgotzip came in 3rd. Nice run and certainly great to see a famous person win that one. Sports TV Host Jim Rome was the owner of Mizdirection and certainly we need more figures in horse racing like him. It will keep him in the game for a while longer. Disappointments in there were California Flag and Bridgetown who were the last 2 and they were one of the top 4 choices. I think the inside affected California Flag’s chances in there.

Shanghai Bobby is the real deal as this one appeared beat and came back and won it!! Great ride by Rosie Napravnik but I was gonna say bad ride by her for moving too soon but the horse had some life left and didn’t want to get beat! That’s a champion right there! I think he has the 2 year old division wrapped up. He looked exhausted but still game. I thought in that race we saw bad rides by the 2nd and 3rd place finisher jockeys. Mario Gutierrez on He’s Had Enough and Joel Rosario on Capo Bastone. Mario was blocked in the stretch and costed the horse the win but I don’t know if it would win since Shanghai Bobby didn’t want to give up the lead. Joel’s ride on Capo Bastone was bad that he has the horse blocked and went too wide coming for him. Would’ve been a factor if hadn’t been too blocked. The biggest disappointment was Power Broker who didn’t get the trip he wanted.

I underestimated Little Mike and thought he couldn’t get a one mile and a half in that BC Turf and he did. That was a masterpiece ride by Ramon Dominguez. He rode a great race as he took back and won the race. Though he’s not a lock for the Turf divison because he has to contend with the Mile winner who had just a good of campaign as he did. Point of Entry was a closing 2nd but don’t know about him being a factor champion turf horse. Last year’s winner came in 3rd. The biggest disappointments were Shareta the filly, Dullahan and Slim Shadey. Tough to see the Japanese invader Trialblzaer get beat. We can say now that Dullahan is not a turf horse.

Trinniberg was amazing taking down his olders and winning that BC Sprint. Great ride by Willie Martinez aboard this one. The Lumber Guy came in 2nd and a nice try by Smiling Tiger to get 3rd. Disappointing that last year’s winner Amazombie didn’t hit the board and certainly isn’t the same horse from last year. Others that disappoint include Coil and Capital Account both Bafferts didn’t fire. So I think Trinniberg should be strong enough to win the award for Outstanding Sprinter this year.

Wise Dan certainly is horse that looked much the best winning that Mile Turf!! New track record of 1:31.3 which is a 15 year old track record. Nice ride by John Velazquez who’s best rider of our Generation and great training job all season by Charles Lopresti. Nice run by the layoff runner Animal Kingdom who finished a nice 2nd. Nice run too by pacesetter Obviously who I thought would hang in but both Wise Dan and Animal Kingdom are better than him but he beat the Euros though. The euros were disappointing of both Moonlight Cloud and Excelebration. I think that Though he’s not a lock for the Turf divison because he has to contend with the Turf winner who had just a good of campaign as he did.

The Classic went to Fort Lardned who won the Whitney Handicap over the summer and kept putting in great Beyer numbers. Him and Mucho Macho Man put in game races in defeat. Game On Dude didn’t break fast enough and didn’t seem to look good at all. Certainly age maybe catching up to the horse. Maybe today just wasn’t his day. He was the biggest disappointment in there along with Ron The Greek and To Honor and Serve. Nice ride by jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. who was the 2004 Eclipse Award winning Apprentice (Rookie) Jockey of that year. Nice to see him having continued success after that and great for trainer Ian Wilkes a former assistant to Carl Nafzger. Disappointing to see both Rafael Bejarano and Bob Baffert not win any Breeders Cups this year since they seemed the most live out of anybody then Joe Talamo not winning any BC races either since he seemed live in some races too. The only local riders that won BC races were Garrett Gomez, Aaron Gryder and Mike Smith. The CA horses didn’t seem to dominate either except they only had 1 win today and it was in the Turf Sprint. Nice attendance of 55,000 people on hand today and certainly IMO turned out better than I thought.

[Handsomepolack]

ASCOT OR DUBAI festival of racing is more interesting than the BC, it never used to be, but i see something wrong or missing from the American festival of racing? is it me or do any of you feel the same

[Southieboy]

ASCOT OR DUBAI festival of racing is more interesting than the BC, it never used to be, but i see something wrong or missing from the American festival of racing? is it me or do any of you feel the same

I think it has to do with the post-synthetic BC's of 2008-2009 with the top Euro participation in those years. Frankel would have come over if the pro-ride was still at SA this year. I am probably going to get ripped on this but if the BC goes to Del Mar in the next few years I hope it is with the poly otherwise it will be one of the worst BC possible, no one from overseas would ship to run on the remodified turf track, with the poly they would stack the fields in most of the races which would balance the cards out.

[Tvghrtvfan]

I think for Horse of the Year, I think Wise Dan, Groupie Doll and Royal Delta certainly got to be in serious conversation for it. I think it’s tough but could it be a female again?

The best ride by a jockey of the 2 day action at the Breeders Cup would go to Ramon Dominguez on Little Mike IMO.

[Southieboy]

HOY begins and ends with Wise Dan. End of Story. Fort Larned will probably be runner up with the Arlington Million and BC Turf winner (Little Mike) likely getting nothing.

[Tvghrtvfan]

I will add that jockey Corey Nakatani was another local rider that won a BC race with Tapizar.

[Tvghrtvfan]

Great TV coverage over the 2 days by both the Breeders Cup Simulcast Show and NBC Sports and the NBC Sports Network alone. Nice commentary on the Simulcast show by the HRTV group of Jeff Siegel, Richard Migliore, Kurt Hoover, Brad Free, Caton Bredar, Joanne Jones, Jon White, Fanny Salmon, Carolyn Conley, and Aaron Vercruysse. Then on NBC by Laffit Pincay, Gary Stevens, Randy Moss, Jerry Bailey, Mike Battaglia, Donna Barton Brothers, Jay Privman, and Nick Luck.

[Handsomepolack]

DMR yes stick with poly/sand mixture please, as for their Turf, yes it needs re-grooming, any info on the new turf lay-out

[MaryS]

DMR yes stick with poly/sand mixture please, as for their Turf, yes it needs re-grooming, any info on the new turf lay-out

Looking at plans this week. Looks like a huge improvement in both layout and surface/base.