Breeders' Cup Wrap Up

Favorites won two of eight races at Breeders' Cup 2005 - the first, the Juvenile Fillies, and the last, the Classic. In between long shots ran rampant. This is not an unusual situation. So many great runners, who have never met before, run in each race, that great betting opportunities abound. The betting public, who creates the favorites in pari-mutual wagering, is inclined to wager on horses they know and sometimes create false favorites.

The chalk players (people who bet on favorites. The term goes back to a time when bookies were legal at race meetings. The more people who bet on a particular horse the more often the odds would change on that horse, causing erasures on the black board and the use of chalk to write the new lowering odds.) had their way in the first Breeders' Cup race the Juvenile Fillies. Folklore, at 2 1/2 - 1, owned by Bob and Beverly Lewis, ridden by Edgar Prado, and trained by D. Wayne Lukas, prevailed by a length and a half over Wild Fit. (Folklore is pictured at the right leaving the Saratoga paddock before the Spinaway. In that race she was ridden by Cornelio Velazquez.) This was Lukas' 18th victory in a Breeders' Cup race and his 5th in the Juvenile Fillies.

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Stevie Wonder Boy, from California and owned by the Merv Griffin Ranch Co., triumphed in the Juvenile, at 4 1/2 - 1, over the two eastern heros Hennie Hughes and First Samurai. The latter had gone off as nearly even money favorite.

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The string of double diget winners began in the Filly and Mare Turf, when Intercontinental, trained by Bobby Frankel, and owned by Juddmonte Farm went off at 15-1 and beat last year's winner of this race, the popular Ouija Board, owned by Lord Darby, by 1 1/4 lenghts. Considering that Intercontinental's trainer is the second leading trainer country-wide, in the USA, in money won, this was quite a price for a horse trained by him.

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Next came Silver Train, in the Sprint, at nearly 12 - 1. The unbeated Lost in the Fog, favored at odds on (10 - 7), in the words of the Chart Callers, ". . . was bounced around between horses at the start, rushed up from outside, stalked four wide for nearly a half, took the lead at the quarter pole, continued on the front into midstretch then faltered in the final eighth," to finish seventh. (Lost In The Fog is pictured at the left above, going to the post at Saratoga last August.)

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Artie Schiller, owned in part by Mrs. Thomas J. Walsh, of Southern Pines, NC, and Timber Bay Farm, won the Mile on the Turf. He went off at 5 1/2 - 1 as second favorite. Artie Schiller had finished 12th in the 2004 Mile. Leroidesanimaux, the Brazilian bred favorite placed second beaten 3/4 of a length.

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The Phipps Stable's Pleasant Home, trained by Shug McGuaghey, was coming off second place finishes in the Spinster, at Keeneland, and the Ballerina, at Saratoga, and was let to get away at a huge 30 - 1, a longer shot than all but two others in the field of thirteen. She won by 9 1/4 lengths, " . . . took command in midstretch and drew away with authority under steady right hand encouragement,." as only the Chart Callers can phrase it. The favorite here, Ashado, finished a well beaten third.

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The Turf, at 1 1/2 miles featured four European runners finishing in the first four positions. Shirocco, bred in Germany, owned by Baron Georg Von Ullmann, and prepared by the great French trainer Andre Fabre, placed first ahead of Ace, bred in Ireland and trained by Ireland's hugely successful Aiden O'Brien. Azamour, bred in Ireland, finished third. The French bred Bago, the 2004 Arc de Triomphe winner and third in the Arc this year, finished fourth to take home $129,960. Incidentally, Shirocco's share of the $2,090,760 purse was $1,185,600. Shirocco was ridden by France's young champion jockey Christophe Soumillon, who was ecstatic with his win the second Breeders' Cup ride of his career. He had ridden Luas Line in this year's Filly and Mare Turf four races previously.

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The chalk players were on the ropes by the time Saint Liam, at 2 1/2 - 1, came along in the Classic to rescue those who had any money left to bet on him, after the string of six long shot winners. Saint Liam, who was coming off a win in the Woodward; a second place finish in the Whitney, at Saratoga; and a win in the Stephen Foster, at Churchill Downs, bested the 3 year old Flower Alley, this years' Travers winner at Saratoga, by one length. Saint Liam will very likely be named Horse of the Year.

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The 2006 Breeders' Cup races will be held at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Kentucky.