Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Let Him Eat Crow
Los Angeles, October 28, 2008--This wasn't a perfect Breeders' Cup, or even the best, but I'm being fed large helpings of crow today because of so many things that I misjudged regarding the two-day extravaganza at Santa Anita.
No better place to start than "Filly Friday." I hated the name, and despised the concept. I thought it was insulting to the female horses, using them as batting practice for the Saturday card, and in particular I thought it was an affront to Zenyatta, who's no off-Broadway filly. I refused to call Zenyatta's race the Ladies Classic, after it had been run 24 times as the Distaff. Well, Zenyatta's epic win deserved stand-alone status, and it wouldn't have gotten that had her race been mixed in with all the wonderful races that were run and stories that were generated on Saturday. "Filly Friday" was a success even though it was run on a workday, and despite the fact that the Breeders' Cup mercenaries labeled the Friday tickets the same price as Saturday's.
I said that the defection of Big Brown would seriously dilute the Breeders' Cup Classic. It did, but because the English won and the Irish ran second, this was a Classic like no other, and Curlin's defeat wasn't the U.S. downer that it might have been. Trainer John Gosden and jockey Frankie Dettori re-emerging at Santa Anita (Dettori rode there before he became an institution in Europe) was a touchy-feely consolation prize. I said before the day that only Curlin vs. Zenyatta would have revived the Big Brown-less Classic, but now we do have Curlin vs. Zenyatta. At the ballot box.
I have been skeptical of artificial surfaces, I've felt that the California Horse Racing Board rushed into the ultimatum it gave the tracks, and I feared that the first Breeders' Cup not run on dirt would be a travesty. I could see how Eclipse Awards voters might penalize the winners on Pro-Ride and cheapen their accomplishments, but now I don't think that will be the case. Maybe Midshipman will turn out to be a dud when he's exposed to dirt surfaces, but I don't think so, and that will be part of the intrigue if he runs in some of the Kentucky Derby preps outside of California.
Even before this year, there was something about running the Breeders' Cup over two days that rubbed me the wrong way. I thought 11 races in two days at Monmouth and then 14 on Friday-Saturday at Santa Anita were wrong-headed overkill, but it's really only the writing stiffs like me who complain. "This is a perfect program," said John Gosden, who trained two of Saturday's winners, Donativum and Raven's Pass. "Filly Friday was out of this world, and Saturday was a great encore. There's something for everybody. You've got races for fillies and colts, short distances and long, on every surface."
The Breeders' Cup going to Santa Anita for a second straight year is not sounding so outlandish now. Somebody stuck a thermometer into Pro-Ride midway through the Saturday card, and the reading was 147 degrees. Only the horses will complain, and their union isn't a strong one. Trainers from the East Coast, who won one race on the main track and two on grass on Friday, were shut out on Saturday, when five European horses prevailed and the other four winners were trained by California-based horsemen. But the three previous Breeders' Cups at Santa Anita, when the track consisted of the old-fashioned loam, also had a distinct California-Euro flavor. Of course, the ultimate compliment for Pro-Ride this time was that there were few if any serious injuries, and no fatalities. Sadly, top-level racing in the U.S. has come to this. It's not whether you win or lose, but the number of starters that come back.
Written by Bill Christine
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