The Breeders' Cup 2015 (horseracing, sport, gambling)

Did you know the Breeders' Cup was happening this weekend?

I didn't, until I came across a brief mention of it on one of the sports forums that I read.

After all, American Pharoah turned out to not be the superhorse the media hyped him up to be, and so the mainstream media is off to chase whatever other fad might get them pageviews and clicks. Which is a bit of a shame since the field for this year's Classic is actually relatively weak, and could easily have served as a great coronation for American Pharoah. Regardless, American Pharoah will probably still dominate whatever media coverage remains, even though he shouldn't.

For what will probably be the same price payout, any money you want to bet on American Pharoah to win should be spent on Golden Horn. If American Pharoah were to win the Breeders' Cup Classic and Golden Horn were to have retired after the L'Arc de Triomphe, Golden Horn would still have my vote for horse of the year. That's how much this horse has accomplished this year. After winning the Epsom Derby in June, Golden Horn has taken on Group One horses of all ages, unlike American Pharoah who has yet to run against older horses. Like American Pharoah, Golden Horn also suffered an upset defeat in August. But since then, the horse has already won two more Group One races, including what is arguably Europe's biggest weight-for-age race in the L'Arc de Triomphe.

Of course there are risks. This will be his 8th race of the year, and the last time an Arc winner came to run in the Breeders' Cup, Dylan Thomas disappointed. But given that both American Pharoah and Golden Horn will be heavy odds-on favorites, I'd rather have my money on the truly proven champion.

I Told You So (sport, horseracing)

I think this clip completely sums up my thoughts on the Travers Stakes.

"If you want to crown 'em, then crown their ass!"

American Pharoah did win the Triple Crown, and fully deserved all the accolades for that achievement.

"They are who we thought they were!"

But that doesn't mean American Pharoah is one of the best horses ever, or even of this generation, or even of this year. I know it's a bit apples and oranges to compare American dirt racing to European turf racing, but at least Golden Horn has already beaten older horses (several Group 1 winners), and when he was finally upset, that race was pretty stacked.

Of course there are those who want to talk about Frosted pressuring him and maybe even bumping him. But that was my point exactly when I wrote that first American Pharoah piece after the Belmont. He was practically handed that race, as can be seen by comparing the starts of the Belmont and the Travers:





Another sad thing about all this is that there's so little mention of Keen Ice in the post-race media. The horse showed an excellent turn of foot in the final furlong to overtake American Pharoah from a two length deficit. Instead, it continues to be all about American Pharoah. The questions about his racing future, the excuses the ESPN writers continue to make for him (such crap that I refuse to link to it). In my view, this sad media coverage further validates my original point that The Sport of Kings has long been dead in America, and American Pharoah was the final nail in the coffin.

Better, but Still Not Much of a Challenge (horseracing, sport)

I didn't pay any attention to the Haskell. That race was a gimme for American Pharoah, much like my argument that he didn't really face much of a challenge in the Belmont. While this weekend's Travers Stakes at Saratoga will still be against fellow 3 year olds, I'm hoping the "Graveyard of Champions" will provide at least a bit of a challenge. When I wrote my post on American Pharoah a while back, it wasn't to criticize the horse or say that he wasn't an all-time great. My main gripe was with the excessive media fawning over him. He's definitely a great horse, but all the comparisons to the very best horses of all time seemed far-fetched given the competition he'd faced.

I probably won't be convinced until he beats older horses in the Breeders Cup Classic. But even then, it would probably depend on the margin/ease of victory whether I would even think about putting American Pharoah ahead of Frankel or Sea the Stars as the best horse of the past decade (let alone all-time). It doesn't help that Shared Belief sustained an injury earlier in the year, although I'm a bit suprised that the IFHA (International Federation of Horseracing Authorities) has American Pharoah rated 6 pounds higher than Shared Belief.

I'm still hoping American Pharoah routs the rest of his competition all the way through the Breeders Cup Classic to prove me wrong, but I'll definitely have my "I told you so" ready if he doesn't step up to the challenge.

ESPN Films: Charismatic (entertainment, horseracing, tv)

I've been a fan of almost all of the documentaries in ESPN Films' 30 for 30 series. While the 30th anniversary has passed, ESPN continues to release documentaries that had originally been planned, and they continue to be of extremely high quality.

"Charismatic" is the story of both the horse and its jockey, Chris Antley. Chris Antley was an extremely talented jockey who had battled substance abuse throughout his career. The kind of talent that is now completely gone from American horse racing in my view. I especially remember Chris Antley, as his first Kentucky Derby win aboard Strike The Gold was the first Derby winner I ever picked. Charismatic was an underachieving horse that became one of the biggest upset winners of the Kentucky Derby, and had a chance at the Triple Crown before breaking down in the final furlong of the Belmont.

Like most of the 30 for 30 documentaries, the subject matter transcends sports and is a human interest story that delves into real human drama. It was directed by Steven Michaels, son of legendary sportscaster Al Michaels. I highly recommend it, and you can watch it on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVY9M3Gyfmo

While we're at it, here's my favorite race call ever, featuring an exciting finish between two legends in turf racing and a roaring crowd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sfUKPLowpM

Another Great Sports Weekend (sport, horseracing, poker)

Another great sports weekend in what I think might be one of the greatest sports years ever. This weekend wasn't about the major sports though. A very entertaining baseball postseason has come and gone, this NFL season still hasn't produced any clear-cut favorites, and the NBA season has barely started.

The sporting events that really got me excited this weekend were horseracing and poker. All eyes were on Zenyatta and she almost came through with the win. It's always hard for a backmarker to win a high level race, so I was actually quite impressed. I still do not buy into the hype that she's the best female horse ever, but she's certainly in the conversation. Clearly dominant against other female horses, but I don't buy into the Breeders Cup runs as she clearly had a much easier campaign going into an end of year race.

The World Series of Poker main event final table also took place this weekend, and I was following the live blog on the ESPN website. I would have watched the ESPN3 live broadcast, except that Time Warner sucks and is still having issues with that. I don't want to put any spoilers on here, but there were some amazing hands and some real poker was played, not just a shovefest.

New NFL Season (sport, gambling, horseracing)

The new NFL season starts tonight and it couldn't have come at a better time for me. I welcome the distraction from the other failures going on in my life right now. I know that each week, I will spend enjoyable time poring over the lines, setting up my fantasy team, and watching the games on tv and sweating other games online.

In fact, it reminds me of growing up in Hong Kong with horseracing. The Hong Kong horseracing season is about three quarters of the year (used to be shorter) and it's a big deal. I would actually say that horse racing is Hong Kong's unofficial national sport. Back in secondary school (those who know me know that I started on gambling early), I could barely wait for the barrier draws and racecards to come out every Monday for a Wednesday meet and Thursday for a weekend meet. In the same way that I go over the NFL lines now, I went over all the horses, jockeys, trainers, and course and distance stats. There was at least one year where I knew every single horse's name (around 600 horses) in both Chinese and English. But it's not really just about the gambling. I enjoy both horse racing and American football as sports by themselves. And even though I could spend just as much time on them as other things in my life, they are/were a welcome distraction from the grind of school/work and lovelife.

Since I'm comparing the NFL season to the Hong Kong horseracing season, there's one interesting horseracing tidbit that I wonder whether it applies to the NFL. It's frequently noted that older horses have the best chance of springing an upset early in the season, when the racing season begins again after the summer break, because it's easier to get them in shape and they've made the most out of the rest they got over the break. Younger horses, on the other hand, frequently need to race and grow into fitness. So does this mean that an older, veteran-filled NFL team, would have a better chance against a younger team in the first two weeks than they would later in the season? Would this be reflected in the line? For example, this week's Detroit at Chicago game is interesting. Detroit has a lot of big young names in Stafford, Megatron, Best, and Suh, while Chicago's defense is carrying guys like Urlacher and Peppers. The line started at 7 but has moved to 6 now as people start to think that Chicago's not really that good and are getting more and more excited about the potential of that young Detroit team. They may be right in the long run, but perhaps the veterans of Chicago will get a good jump on them this early in the season. We will see, but it's certainly an interesting thing to consider.

Congratulations Hong Kong! (sport, horseracing)

It was a big weekend in sports in Hong Kong. As hosts of the East Asian Games this year, Hong Kong's football (soccer) team managed to pull off a huge upset to win the gold medal. To understand how big of a feat this was, I think they were underdogs just to make the semifinals. Just goes to show that home field advantage is always a factor in sports.

The other big sporting event of the weekend was the Hong Kong International Races (horseracing), truly the world turf championships. The sprint had one of the deepest horse racing fields ever assembled with multiple group 1 winners from a myriad of racing jurisdictions. In the end, Sacred Kingdom regained his crown as the world's best sprinter, beating three other Hong Kong horses as Hong Kong swept the superfecta. Hong Kong also showed its dominance in the Mile event, again having the first four home as Good Ba Ba won the event a historic third consecutive time. Collection also ran well for Hong Kong in the main event Cup, coming in second to probably the best mile and a quarter turf horse in training right now.

It's a great time to be a Hong Kong sports fan!

This Year's Horseracing (horseracing)

The Breeders' Cup is this weekend, but with big names Rachel Alexandra and Sea the Stars not participating, there is very little buzz. The horse racing industry continues to die in the states while the Melbourne Cup, which is being run today, continues to be the race that stops a nation.

World turf racing has fared somewhat better with the brilliant campaign of Sea the Stars bringing up comparisons to some of the all-time greats. As with any comparison of sporting champions from different ages, the inability to directly compare the competition makes it very hard to come up with an objective measurement. Sea the Stars' unbeaten 3 year old campaign included some of the very top races in Europe, but did not have the durability and range of Giant's Causeway's 3 year old campaign. Nor did Sea the Stars win by many lengths like Dubai Millenium.

I am glad that the connections of Sea the Stars did not try to run him in the Breeders' Cup Classic. When you have an unbeaten horse, it's much better to keep that mystique than to risk it on an unknown surface. I thought the most impressive thing about his unbeaten campaign was that the 6 group 1 wins were all in races that I would consider true top level European group 1s, including the Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe, which is generally considered the toughest race in Europe. I have one problem with the Arc race though. To get a weight-for-age allowance for an October 3 year old at its peak is kind of ridiculous. Three year olds have dominated the race since Sea the Stars' dam Urban Sea won it in 1993.

For me, the test for the ultimate racehorse would be if it could win both the Arc and then the Japan Cup. The Japan Cup is one of the hardest races in the world to win as it is. The ground is solidly firm, the fanning out of horses on the home turn is tough to deal with, the Japanese horses are usually very high quality, and there is also the travelling. It's even harder considering that usually by the Arc the horse will have peaked from a long summer season. The closest I've ever seen was Montjeu's 4th back in 1999.

This Year's Triple Crown (horseracing)

I didn't write anything about the Kentucky Derby because there was no dominant horse going into the race. There was no Curlin and no Big Brown. The dominant horse, Rachel Alexandra, ran in the Oaks instead. Luckily, Jess Jackson (owner of Curlin) bought the horse and supplemented her for the Preakness.

I'm mixed in my feelings about this race. If Rachel Alexandra was the wonder filly they proclaimed her to be, she should have won by 6 lengths the way the race went when she lengthened into the straight. The jockey Calvin Borel, however, did admit that the horse struggled on this ground, so it's possible that what we saw today was nowhere near her best. My other problem is that this race was set up for her perfectly. All the Derby runners ran harder races two weeks ago, and noone rests a horse to target the Preakness (while that frequently happens for the Belmont). In fact, I thought Mine That Bird was the most impressive runner, and unless the ground really was a huge factor, I'd rate the runner-up to be a better horse at 10 furlongs for now. It's still impressive for a filly to lead throughout from the outside post against male horses, but I wouldn't start comparing her to Zarkava just yet.

Before the race, there was a lot of talk about the owners of the two other main contenders trying to supplement additional horses to shut Rachel Alexandra out of the field. In the end, one of the other owners said that she'd drop out of the race with her horse just to make sure Rachel Alexandra makes the field. Upon hearing that, the two owners abandoned their plan. This is something that I think Hong Kong does a great job of in ensuring the true sport of racing horses. In other racing jurisdictions, owners can enter multiple horses easily, usually a rabbit to ensure a true pace for their stayer or backmarker. Hong Kong does not allow this, and sometimes smaller fields may result. However, one can be assured that every horse entered is trying to achieve the best possible placing for its connections.

HKIR Recap (Horseracing)

Another year has passed and the Hong Kong International Races have come and gone. Just a few thoughts on the results.

The Vase
Another close second for Purple Moon while Doctor Dino repeats as the Vase winner. Jaguar Mail ran pretty well and he should improve considerably from having had Kinane ride him hard in a race at this level. Packing Winner got the run of the race up front but considering how he was not anywhere near his peak he will prove to be very dangerous to Viva Pataca in the Champions and Chater again later this season.

The Sprint

While this didn't turn out to be the race of the century I was hoping for, the appearances of Apache Cat and Marchand D'or validated this race as a true global Group 1 sprint. Inspiration, the lowest rated horse in the race, came out of nowhere to take the race as a big underdog. This horse had only won a domestic class 2 earlier in the year and I don't think anyone could have predicted this victory. My pick for the race had been Green Birdie (because a quality miler coming back in distance will usually still beat a quality sprinter), who came through with a solid second placing. Apache Cat's run was hard to decipher because it looked like he ran out of gas but then picked up again towards the finish. Another hometown quinella and while Inspiration won't be crowned world's top sprinter any time soon, Hong Kong's dominance in this event has been quite amazing.

The Mile

A dominant performance by Good Ba Ba with Soumillon running a hell of a race. Knowing Good Ba Ba's tendency to ease up in the lead, he saved him till very late for one huge spurt and got clear separation from the pack in course record time. Again showing Asia's milers as being superior to those in the Western hemisphere, I'm curious how Good Ba Ba will be rated on this performance. Kip Deville did not run up to par as he clearly had trouble negotiating the right-handed turn. I wouldn't be surprised if they ranked Good Ba Ba slightly behind Goldikova, but both have an amazing turn of foot and I personally wouldn't be able to separate the two right now.

The Cup

Mike de Kock does it again, this time with Eagle Mountain. A great ride by Kevin Shea to get in front and put a bit of separation between his horse and the pack. Viva Pataca was completely blocked for a run but at this point how many more excuses can you make for the horse? Just can't seem to win the big one (best win was QEII in '07) against a true overseas field. John Moore has always given me the impression that the one thing he's really wanted to do is to take a Hong Kong horse and win the Cox Plate, but until he delivers a true global G1 win I'm not sure Stanley Ho will let him take the horse over there.

Epic horse race

The false start at the Prix de L'Abbaye on the L'Arc de Triomphe card was especially tragic because we missed the opportunity to watch what might have been a fantastic duel between Overdose, who ran a 54.5 in the cancelled race, and Marchand D'or, clearly the top European sprinter of the current campaign.

There is some good news to look foward to though as there is the possibility of an all-world field at the upcoming Hong Kong International Sprint. With likely confirmations from Sleepless Night (Japanese Sprinters' Stakes winner) and Apache Cat (winner of 5 consecutive Group 1's in Australia), the possible addition of Marchand D'or and Overdose, and hopefully a fully recovered Sacred Kingdom (world champion sprinter last year), this might be the best and most well-represented (globally) field in horseracing history.

Sure, there are many world championship events every year, but how many of them actually feature top quality champions from so many different jurisdictions? While the Dubai World Cup meet probably does the best job, and the Breeders' Cup the worst, in attracting world-class talent from around the world, this might actually top them all if all of these possible entrants show up. The last race to my recollection that had this much quality from around the world was the 1999 Japan Cup, where Japanese champion Special Week took down Hong Kong's best in Indigenous, with High Rise (Epsom Derby winner) and Montjeu (L'Arc winner) in third and fourth.

Everyone who bet on Big Brown

... got what they deserved. To bet a horse with a possible injury situation that has never run a mile and a half and is racing for the third time in 5 weeks down to unbackable odds is just mind-boggling. 1-4? Lunacy.

If I had to guess, my guess is an irregular heartbeat. The horse certainly didn't bleed out, but I don't think it's internal bleeding either. From what Desormeaux said, there were a couple times early that the horse wanted to go, so my guess is it wasn't just the horse not wanting to run the race today. I'm sure there will be a full set of tests run and we'll hear about it on ESPN soon.

My only disappointment from this race was that had he won it, I would have been able to bet heavily against him the first time he ran against older horses. This crop of 3 year olds is just not that good. While his Derby win was indeed very impressive, he's definitely no Curlin.

Where are the big name jockeys?

Another expected romp delivered by Big Brown will set up a very intriguing Belmont Stakes, as there is a lot of hype over the Japanese horse Casino Drive, who put in a fantastic win in the Peter Pan Stakes. And no matter which horse comes out ahead in that last race of the Triple Crown, there should be even more amazing races to come when they tackle older horses and most notably Curlin later in the year. So there are still many big name horses. But where are the big name jockeys?

On the Preakness card, I recognized Desormeaux, Prado, Mike Smith, a couple others, but where are the big race Hall of Fame jockeys? I'm not talking about Corey Nakatani, I'm talking about jockeys of the caliber of Jerry Bailey, Chris McCarron, and Gary Stevens. Even guys whose names weren't as well known like Pat Day and Eddie Delahoussaye. It just seems to me that the old guard isn't dominating while at the same time none of the younger jockeys have really stood out. I must say that I don't follow American racing that extensively so I could be missing someone.

So let's look at world turf racing then. Here's an entirely different story. Besides the whirlwind that has been Christophe Soumillon, it seems to me that every big race and every leaderboard is filled with jockeys whose names I've recognized from a lot of years of watching horseracing. Most of these guys range from 38 (Frankie Dettori) to 49! (Michael Kinane). This leads me to one question that I haven't been able to find an answer for on the web. How strict (if at all) are performance enhancing substance policies for jockeys? I know every jurisdiction takes great care in figuring out what drugs are or are not allowed on the horses, but I wonder about the oversight on jockeys. I mean, to be a world class athlete at those ages is really tough, even in this modern day of medicine. No jockey would really take anything to bulk up, but things like HGH which improve recovery time could change the landscape of racing for these aging jockeys.

Hong Kong International Races

A big day with big names from all across the horse racing industry, the Hong Kong Jockey Club really outdid themselves this year in terms of overall racing quality. The following are a few personal thoughts and insights from this year's Hong Kong international races.

1. Sacred Kingdom is scary good. It gave a shellacking to a horse that gave a shellacking to last year's best sprinters and a horse that set the course and distance record. There were plenty of excuses for Miss Andretti but in the words of The Rock, "IT DOESN'T MATTER" if Miss Andretti had gotten a better run with the performance Sacred Kingdom put in. Pretty much the same as last year when Takeover Target couldn't run but Absolute Champion's dismissal of that field made it clear who was going to win anyway.

2. A horse that is specifically prepped for a race will always run better than those that weren't. In this year's case Dr. Dino was specifically prepped for the Vase and put in a brilliant performance, while Dylan Thomas only made the trip here as a last chance to get a race in before retiring to stud. When Dylan Thomas put in that poor performance in the BC Turf it was clear that he had topped off in the Arc, which was exactly the race that Aiden O'Brien specifically prepped him for.

3. European mile form is incredibly useless. Like I said when previewing the BC Mile, asian sprinter-milers are the best and Good Ba Ba won an excellent race with Excellent Art nowhere to be found. You could make a case for saying that both the runner ups were European horses but their forms were Classic forms, with their mile form at the 1000 and 2000 Guineas races. All I'm saying is that the form from European G1 sprint or mile races don't tend to hold up very well.

4. Frankie Dettori is still the best turf jockey in the world. The run on Creachadoir from the outside draw to end up on the inside of Good Ba Ba was brilliant and the fight he put in the horse after it got headed by Good Ba Ba resulted in one of the better duels I've seen in a HKIR finish in a while. There was also a spectacular run on Ramonti in the Cup where Dettori gave up the rail to make sure he had a nice run with a horse to follow for cover as Ramonti started out very keen. Which brings us to...

5. Mick Kinane is still the most frustrating jockey to watch in the world. He is still one of the very best big race jockeys and I wouldn't want anyone else on if I had a backmarker horse and a long straight like at Longchamp. But Kinane gets into trouble more than any other big race rider I've ever seen. I remember greats like Rock of Gibraltar and Giants' Causeway that would rumble home down the straight but end up just a little shy because it was sitting in the box for so long.

6. Not that I think it would have made a difference to the result, however. With Ramonti having the initiative and the final 400m run in 22.7, there's not much that can be done to chase down a world class horse. Anywhere else in the world the owner or trainer of Viva Pataca would put in another horse (a rabbit) to make sure it was a truly run race and really test Ramonti's stamina. But Hong Kong has a really really big thing against collusion and corruption and the like so even simple tactics like that are essentially not allowed.

Final words on Hong Kong hopefuls:

Sacred Kingdom is clearly the best sprinter in the world and I hope Ricky Yiu takes it abroad to throw the gauntlet down. Ricky's a trainer who's had two of Hong Kong's best horses (Fairy King Prawn and Electric Unicorn) taken from him while he was still winning with them! He's got to keep proving himself I guess.

Another possibility is that Absolute Champion travels the world if Sacred Kingdom stays put. It'll be a carbon copy of when Cape of Good Hope travelled the world winning G1s because Silent Witness was too strong and wouldn't leave Hong Kong.

Vengeance of Rain might be done at the very top world class level. The horse had achieved a lot, even before the Dubai Sheema win, so it's natural that the horse is past its prime.

Could it be that Viva Pataca is now at its best over a mile and a half? I believe if you have a horse that can perform at that level at the Classic distance you take him around the world to the very best races (Japan Cup, L'Arc, Diamond Stakes, etc.). However, John Moore seems to have this infatuation with the Cox Plate and I'd be very disappointed if that is the big race he preps Viva Pataca for next year.

No idea what will happen with Good Ba Ba. It's tough with a horse that is not ultra-consistent (Good Ba Ba seems to either win or not be in it) and a horse that is not even a clear lock to win all the domestic mile races (Armada might come back, and in general there are a lot of genuine top level milers in Hong Kong). But with that turn of foot I do hope Good Ba Ba gets taken abroad, and I don't count the Yasuda Kinen because that is probably the toughest turf mile race right now in the world and yet doesn't get the deserved recognition.

The Breeders' Cup

And now time for one of my favorite sports, horse racing.

I'm usually not too excited about the Breeders' Cup because I'm more a fan of international horse racing and it seems to me that only in the Americas do they primarily race on dirt. That being said, the Classic looks to be an intriguing race this year with a bunch of smart 3 year olds from this year's Triple Crown season all contending. With regards to looking to make a bet however, I usually look to the Mile or the Turf.

The reason is simple. The turf horses in the US suck. It's not even close. I thought it was fascinating when I watched the US odds for US horses in the turf races on the Dubai World Cup card earlier in the year. Obviously most US punters don't know any better, but the result was pretty clear when all their favorite horses ended up at the rear of their respective fields. So while Ouija Board last year was a clear bet as the best horse in the filly and mare turf field by far, she ended up with good value on the US tote.

Whether that will be the case this year with Dylan Thomas in the BC Turf I'm not sure. I've heard starting quotes ranging from 7-5 to 4-5 at different books, and I can only imagine that the odds will get worse as we approach post time. Not only did Dylan Thomas win the L'Arc de Triomphe, but he has been a very consistent horse, going either first or second in his last 5 races. This is a true world class group 1 turf horse, while the US contenders (Red Rocks, Better Talk Now, English Channel, etc.) all seem to be within 2 lengths of each other and I'm not even sure any one of them could win a second tier group 1 race like the Baden Baden, let alone come close to an Arc winner.

The BC mile is more interesting because while the European horses still tend to be better than the US horses, they're not that much better. The best turf sprinter-milers in the world are in Australasia and I'm pretty sure the third or fourth best miler from either Hong Kong or Japan would be able to win this race. Japanese horses are probably some of the best in the world, but the prizemoney in Japan is so lucrative they rarely venture out to conquer the world. When they do, the results have tended to be good, but probably not as dominant as they should be. The reason is simple. Japanese jockeys absolutely suck. Not even close. Yutaka Take, who's been heralded as Japan's best jockey, is no better than perhaps the second or third best Hong Kong jockey (I think Eddie WM Lai is comparable). Japanese jockeys have no judge of pace, and just don't ride hard to the line down the stretch. For example, you can take a look at that abysmal ride he gave Deep Impact in last year's Arc, or any other clips of Japan's G1 races (I think there are links to video clips at www.jair.jrao.ne.jp which is a great source of up-to-date information about Japanese horseracing). My favorite Japanese jockey is actually Masayoshi Ebina, who rode El Condor Pasa some years back.

That being said, I'd still go with the two European horses, Excellent Art and Jeremy, and of the US bunch I like Trippi's Storm as a longshot pick. The horse has come a long way since losing a $32k maiden claimer race in January, but I love good horses who can race at middle distances coming back to a mile. In horse racing, if horses have similar accomplishments at different distances, the horses who are successful at the middle to classic distances tend to be better horses.

One last note since I rarely talk about horse racing. Back in April in the US telecast of the Dubai World Cup, there was one female reporter (I guess the horse racing version of the sideline reporter) who went up to Sheik Mohammed (ruler of Dubai) and asked him if he had any side bet with his brother on the outcome of the Dubai World Cup (they each owned the favorite and second favorite of the race). When the Sheik said no the reporter actually asked again, saying, "not even just a little?" You moron, muslims don't (or at least shouldn't) gamble. I know sideline reporters pretty much know nothing, but this was ridiculous.