2009 BREEDERS CUP CLASSIC TOP 3 ANTEPOST PICKS

November 7th at Santa Anita just can't come soon enough! The 2009 Breeders Cup Classic is the next major day on the racing calendar, and while there is plenty of other exciting races happening at the festival, this year' Classic is setting up to be a very intriguing race. In order to gauge the proper opinions, we'll be taking a look at the most competitive ante post market in the world- Betfair. As it currently stands, the most-backed horse is (unsurprisingly) a European runner. AP O'Brien's Rip Van Winkle has been dominating the ante post market for several weeks now and he's been hovering around 2.8-3.2 for the past little while. I think he's a quality horse who will likely be a pace-setter, but I have question marks here that I still haven't received any plausible answers for. First and foremost, that price is ridiculous. This is the result of over-zealous Europeans throwing their blinders on and just assuming that they have the quality to win. I think victories on a synthetic surface in the UK doesn't mean nearly as much as consistent victories on Santa Anita' Pro-Ride surface. Rip has pace and distance sorted out, but I don't think he'll be familiar to style in which the race will be run. Zenyatta is shaping up to the US punter's choice here with the undefeated filly being the veritable definition of a west-coast synthetic specialist. The surface and the pace are playing to Zenyatta's style, but I have my question marks over the quality of competition. Zenyatta just squeaked her last victory in the Lady's Secret Stakes at Santa Anita. The step-up in competition could be her undoing- she has never run against boys and may not be able to hold off a late close from my selection for the Breeders Cup Classic. Zenyatta is trading at around 7.0 at the moment. Summer Bird has been described as the forgotten horse in this race. Tim Ice's first-rate runner comes into the race with a formidable partnership developing with jockey Kent Desmormeaux. With KD on top, Summer Bird has gone 1-2-1-1 in Grade 1 competition- that's Classic-winning form if I've ever seen it and the style in which Summer Bird has won gives me even further confidence. He tends to do well in longer races and can close very hard. Harder, in fact, than any other horse in this race barring half-brother Mine That Bird. Summer Bird is trading at around 9.2 at the moment.