BODOG BREEDERS CUP BETTING

Champions and emerging stars highlight eight-race card at Belmont Park

Oct. 26th, 2005

By Kristen MacDonald
BodogNation Contributing Writers

New York is used to crowning champions in October and on Saturday it will crown eight of them. The Breeders' Cup, the World Series of horse racing, features a race card of the globe's finest thoroughbreds dueling for millions.

Although Preakness and Belmont winner Afleet Alex is injured and will not race, the field still has plenty of headliners. In all, four defending Breeders' Cup champions and six undefeated runners will race at Belmont Park; more than $14 million in purses is at stake. The highlight of the card, the Classic, will see a field of the world's top colts and geldings vying for the $4.68-million purse. The early favorites are Saint Liam and Borrego, who will look to hold off Irish challenger Oratorio. Others to watch throughout the day include undefeated three-year-old Lost in the Fog (Sprint), defending Distaff champ Ashado and intriguing Brazilian entry Leroidesanimaux (Mile). Here is a preview of all eight races:

JUVENILE FILLIES ($1 million). Post time: 1:20 p.m.

Fourteen two-year-old fillies will race 1 1/16 miles on the main track for $1 million in the Juvenile Fillies. The winner of the Grade I Frizette, Adieu (3/1), is slightly favored on the morning line over her east-coast rival, Folklore (7/2). Adieu has beaten Folklore in two of their three matchups, however, the two managed to avoid each other in their respective prep races for the Cup. Rather than face Adieu in the Frizette, Folklore chose to run in the Grade I Matron on Sept. 17 at Belmont, where she creamed her competition by 14 lengths. She turned in a Beyer Speed Figure of 99 in that race, compared to the 82 that Adieu registered in the Frizette. Both fillies will have competition from the west in Wild Fit (6/1), who has two wins in three lifetime starts (including the Grade I Del Mar Debutante), and Diamond Omi (10/1), who stopped Wild Fit's win streak, beating her by three quarters of a length in the Grade II Oak Leaf at Santa Anita on Oct. 1.

JUVENILE ($1.5 million). Post time: 1:55 p.m.

Undefeated First Samurai (8/5) is the favorite in the Juvenile for two-year-old males and will break from the ninth pole. He is four-for-four, including victories in the Grade I Hopeful at Saratoga in August and Grade I Champagne over a sloppy surface at Belmont on Oct. 8, his last start. He earned a 101 Beyer mark that day, one of only two triple-digits in the field, and if the track is wet Saturday he will be tough to beat. However, the horse to earn that other triple-digit Beyer, a 105, is also here. Henny Hughes (5/1) won his first three starts but has finished second to First Samurai in his last two. He has inched closer to his rival each time and may have the best chance of holding him off here. There is one other colt who enters the race with only wins on his record, Sorcerer's Stone (10/1). He broke his maiden at Churchill Downs in July and has followed it with a victory in a 5½ furlong stakes and a Grade III mile score, both at Arlington Park.

FILLY & MARE TURF ($1 million). Post time: 2:35 p.m.

Ouija Board (5/2) will try to take the Filly and Mare Turf for the second year in a row. The entry from Great Britain prepared for the Grade I 1¼ mile race by taking the Group III Princess Royal Stakes at Newmarket driving. She was the favorite last year when she won this race, and she will be the favorite again. Riskaverse (15/1) finished a head in front of Wonder Again (6/1) in the Grade I Flower Bowl on Oct. 1 over the same course and at the same distance as Saturday's race. Wonder Again has been within a length of a victory in her last three starts while Riskaverse was a big surprise when she took the Flower Bowl at odds upward of 35/1. Since finishing a disappointing 11th running wide the entire way around in this race last year, Megahertz (5/1) has won four graded stakes in Southern California and finished second in her other two starts, both just a neck behind the winner.

SPRINT ($1 million). Post time: 3:10 p.m.

Lost in the Fog is the even-money
favorite in the Sprint - and for good
reasons.

Lost in the Fog (Even) has more to prove than any of the favorites. He is a three-year-old running against mostly older horses. He has never lost a race. He has only triple-digit speed figures, including his maiden victory. He is based out of Northern California, not Southern. He was purchased for $48,000, peanuts for a racehorse. He has only once gone off over even money. Everybody wants to beat this horse, who will start from the seventh post. But who in the Sprint has a chance? Possibly Wildcat Heir (15/1). He has won his last two races and is 5-for-10 at the Sprint's distance of six furlongs. He will need a race just as great as his last, where he won by more than five lengths at Monmouth Park, to compete against the class of colts and geldings here. Taste of Paradise (12/1) pulled off a huge upset when he took the Grade I Vosburgh at Belmont on Oct. 1 and in the process defeated Lion Tamer (3rd) and Pomeroy (5th) who will look to bounce back. Lion Tamer is 8/1; Pomeroy 12/1.

MILE ($1.5 million). Post time: 3:45 p.m.

Horses bred in five different countries, including Ireland, France and Chile, are among the 14 colts and geldings entered in the Mile. The early favorite, installed at odds of 5/2, is the five-year-old from Brazil, Leroidesanimaux. Since coming to the States to run in Southern California, Leroidesanimaux has won eight of nine starts over five different courses. His last and strongest performance was a 7¾-length victory in the Grade I Atto Mile at Woodbine, where he earned a Beyer mark of 115. He will start from the 11th hole Saturday and his competition on Belmont's turf course will include Great Britain's Funfair (12/1). When he defeated Artie Schiller (6/1) by a head in the Grade II Kelso, Funfair won Belmont's prep race for the Mile. He also upped his win streak since coming to the U.S. to three. Singletary (8/1) is the Mile's returning champion and comes into the race off a win in the Grade II Oak Tree Mile, the same race he used to prepare last year.

DISTAFF ($2 million). Post time: 4:20 p.m.

The Distaff will feature another defending champion in four-year-old filly Ashado (5/2). Last year, she went off as the favorite facing a field of older mares, ran into traffic troubles, and still came out victorious. This year, she breaks from the No. 3 pole. In the Grade I Beldame, Happy Ticket (5/1) finished just a half-length behind Ashado in the final prep for both horses. Happy Ticket has won 10 of her 12 starts, including the Grade I Ballerina at Saratoga in August where she defeated Pleasant Home (30/1) over a muddy track. Stellar Jayne (4/1) has won her last two races, both at Belmont including the Grade I Ruffian Handicap. The lightly raced three-year-old Nothing But Fun (30/1) is undefeated in four lifetime starts, including two at Belmont.

TURF ($2 million). Post time: 4:55 p.m.

Remember Lost in the Fog in the Sprint? This race has a rising superstar of its own, Shakespeare (5/1). He enters the Turf undefeated in five starts. His last win was his most impressive as he determinedly held off English Channel (10/) and Ireland's Ace (12/1) in the Grade I Turf Classic Invitational on Oct. 1 at Belmont. English Channel only lost that race by a head and boasts an impressive record of his own with five wins in eight starts. However, this is the Turf, not the Sprint, and this race may be the deepest on the Breeders' Cup card. Almost every horse entered has a legitimate shot at winning. Better Talk Now (8/1) won this race last year at 27/1 and has won three graded races since. Motivator (6/1) won his first four races in Great Britain, including the Group I Epsom Derby, and has finished second behind the European phenomenon Oratorio, who has opted for the Classic over the Turf. The French have sent Bago (8/1) with five Group I races to his record, but he has been beaten by Irish-bred Azamour (4/1) and Alkaased (15/1). Anyone have a coin?

CLASSIC ($4.68 million). Post time: 5:35 p.m.

Favored Saint Liam ran sixth in his
only other 1¼-mile race.

That phenom from Ireland, Oratorio (12/1), is running in the richest race in North America. Considered a 1-3/4 -mile specialist, Oratorio has won two of three starts at the distance of the Classic and will start from the No. 4 post. But North America has several of its own challengers ready to shut down the import. Saint Liam (3/1) is the early favorite, coming off an easy victory in the Grade I Woodward, where he captured his 10th straight triple-digit Beyer Speed Figure. He also owns the highest lifetime figure of the field, a 123, earned during his second-place finish to Commentator at Saratoga in August. His weakness may be the distance. Saint Liam, who starts from the 13th post, has run this far only once, finishing sixth in the Santa Anita Handicap behind Rock Hard Ten and Borrego. History could be on the side of Rock Hard Ten (7/2). The last time the Breeders' Cup was held at Belmont was in 2001 and the Classic was won by Tiznow, a Santa Anita Derby winner who used the Grade I Goodwood as his final prep. Rock Hard Ten also has won the Goodwood at Santa Anita, as well as his three races prior to that one, all graded stakes. Borrego (4/1) is another Classic entry on a tear. He took the Grade I Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 21 and then the Grade I Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont on Oct. 1. Starcraft (12/1), the New Zealand runner whose owners had to put up $800,000 to supplement him to the Classic, drew the far outside post 14. His late, supplementary entry pushed the purse above the $4-million plateau. Look for Choctaw Nation (15/1) to be flying from behind as he did to finish a surprising third in the Dubai World Cup last spring, and the Canadian long shot A Bit O'Gold (50/1) has 10 wins in 17 lifetime starts.

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Note: All times Eastern; odds are pre-entry and are subject to change.

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