2010 Breeders Cup Saturday Preview Part One

We’re back with more insight and analysis for the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic, and you can bank on Saturday being an absolutely historic day in the world of racing no matter how things shape up.

We’ll be taking a look at four of the smaller races kicking off on November six, including the Juvenile Turf, the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, the Turf Sprint and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Juvenile Turf

We’ve got a fairly compact field ahead of us here in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and the strong betting favourite is the up-and-coming MASTER OF HOUNDS (Kingmambo). After pulling off a maiden score at Tipperary on his fourth try when sent off at 1/7, he make the massive jump to Group 1 action and put in a solid third-place performance to Casamento (Shamardal).

The AP O’Brien charge will get the addition of Lasix here and should be a very serious contender. He lost a maiden race to the talented Roderic O’Connor (Galileo) who has gone on to acquit himself very well in his next two. This field isn’t particularly deep and we have a lot of contenders progressing off the allowance circuit and maiden special weight races- if Master gets the right trip he’s golden.

Sprint

The 2010 Breeders’ Cup Sprint is looking like a fascinating affair and this one has several contenders with a reasonable chance of a score. Big Drama (Montbrook) and Girolamo (A.P. Indy) look to be dueling in the betting markets with the Godolphin runner getting a slim edge here after taking the Grade 1 Vosburgh Stakes. Big Drama is still yet to score at Grade 1 level while Girolamo is a multiple Graded winner.

We’ve got a lot of west coast talent here and it will be interesting to see how they deal with the surface at Churchill Downs. We’ll be backing the globetrotting KINSDALE KING (Yankee Victor) and we’ll also be disregarding his last race where he put in a fairly poor shift at Newmarket, finishing well off the board to Starspangledbanner (Choisir). He took the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen against some of the world’s top sprinters and he’s got a great partnership with Garrett Gomez. A Kinsdale King/Girolamo each-way exacta looks the play in this one for those not feeling especially adventurous.   

Turf Sprint

The Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint is probably one of the most difficult races to gauge over the two day contest and the lowest-priced contenders are trading at 5/1. There isn’t a major betting favourite but Todd Pletcher’s ROSE CATHERINE (Speightstown) could be the choice after conquering three non-graded stakes in a row.

She was bumped in two of those races and still recovered to win and the three year-old clearly hasn’t been pushed as far as she can go. There’s a solid reference here as she finished second to Tapitsfly (Tapit) in last year’s juvenile fillies turf. A 9/1 price with Bet365 looks solid. If you’re looking for an outside bet, try Canadian Ballet (City Zip) who just missed on the line in her last race after getting things 99% right. 

Juvenile

Next year’s classic contenders are lining up for a rehearsal at Churchill and this one could go down as one of the most exciting races of the two day event. Boys At Toscanova (Officer) and Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie) both come into this one fresh off Grade 1 scores and they’re both competing hard for position as the betting favourite.

Neither of these two has really been challenged since they moved up off the maiden circuit though Boys was beaten his first time out. While JP’s Gusto (Successful Appeal) merits some consideration, we’re going to jumping aboard Godolphin’s BIONDETTI (Bernardini) due to the incredible amount of references he has going in. Mahmood Al Zarooni’s charge just captured the Group 1 Gran Criterium at San Siro- the same race that Vale of York (Invincible Spirit) finished second in last year before topping Lookin At Lucky (Smart Strike) in last year’s Juvenile.

He’ll have the same jockey aboard in Ahmed Ajtebi and he’s likely going to be bet up pretty hard as he’s priced around 16/1 in Europe now and probably won’t see much support from the state-side punters. He’ll get Lasix here and looks especially dangerous. This is one of our strongest tips of the two-day event.