Cup Chatter: BC Classic (Part 1) EveryJoe

As expected, Zenyatta has been pre-entered in both the Ladies’ Classic and against males in the $5 million Classic. Everyone would love to see her take on the gents, and I have a feeling she will do just that.

The Shirreffs trainee has won all thirteen of her lifetime starts, and it would be great if she could go out on top in the toughest challenge of her career. 7-time grade one winner is 4 for 4 at Santa Anita.

Breeders' Cup Classic is Zenyatta's first preference

Overseas invaders dominated the 2008 Classic, with Raven’s Pass (John Gosden) and Henrythenavigator (Aidan O’Brien) leading the way. O’Brien is back for more, and he has possible favorite Rip Van Winkle.

The 3yo son of Galileo lost his first three starts this year to Arc winner Sea The Stars, and he promptly won his last two group one outings after fleeing that rival.

O’Brien also has Mastercraftsman. He pre-entered for the Classic, but it is his 2nd preference behind the Dirt Mile. The 4-time group one winner is a contender in either spot.

Quality Road has the raw talent to threaten in the Classic, but ten furlongs is a bit out of his comfort range, and he has never tried synthetic ground. This is his first preference over the crowded Dirt Mile.

The ’09 Classic drew sixteen pre-entries, and I’ll be back later today to talk about the next four players.

We have the 2009 Breeders Cup thoroughly covered on Horse Racing Nation. I am pleased to announce that we have launched the BC Dashboard!

Over 90 video replays. Fields and morning lines for all 14 races. Handicapping race outlook. Historical Race Profiles. Find it all at the BC Dashboard.

Results and video from all past Breeders’ Cup Classic races can be found here.

Image: Newscom

Medlocke

The Breeders Cup Classic is a difficult race to handicap. Given that most of the really good turf horses generally run well on synthetics, that make’s Rip Van Winkle and likely Gio Ponti real threats in the race. Already proven horses on the surface, who run’s synthetic tracks, and most particularly Santa Anita race course any better than Zenyatta? No one, that’s who. Einstein has performed well at Santa Anita as well, winning the “Big Cap” there earlier in the year. Colonel John and Richard’s Kid have both had some recent success on the pro-ride surface with Richard’s Kid winning the Pacific Classic and finishing 3rd to Colonel John’s 2nd in the Oct. Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita. I think both will find this list of contender’s a bit more than they can handle though. The question mark’s to me in the race are Summer Bird and Quality Road. Both are talented 3yr.olds, but have raced exclusively on conventional dirt making it difficult to know if they’ll both fire on the synthetic track. If they do take to the surface, both could be players in the race. I think, if he does respond to the Santa Anita surface that Quality Road may be sitting on a big race, having been bogged down in the mud in his last two starts but still being talented enough to get up for a 3rd and 2nd place finish in both. With so many “what if” factors to figure out, that’s what make’s the Classic a difficult race to handicap.
Jarrod Horak

The Classic is definitely a challenging handicapping puzzle. One longshot to consider is Richard’s Kid. He defeated Einstein in the Pacific Classic and was only beaten a length in the Goodwood last time. Improving 4yo is working well for the big dance and is worth including in the exotics at nice odds.