ZENYATTA CONFIRMED FOR BREEDERS CUP CLASSIC

America's second favourite filly has finally had a confirmation that she will indeed run against colts for the first time in what many are calling a career-defining race at the 2009 Breeders Cup Classic. The unbeaten filly, a specialist on left-coast tracks, has officially been entered in the 2009 Breeders Cup Classic. She has also registered for the Ladies Classic, which she won in style last year, but virtually everybody expects her to line up for the feature against the likes of Rip Van Winkle and Summer Bird. Those three are your top contenders and post numbers will factor into things a little bit. I like Summer Bird coming in from out wide, as I think that the distance and the surface suit him. I think he has much more going in his favour than Rip Van Winkle does and I think, in the Betfair market at least, that Rip Van Winkle is dramatically underpriced. While he may have won one of the classics and had a few goes against Sea the Stars, I don't think that elevates him to any position above Summer Bird, or even Gio Ponti for that matter. Personally, I think the forgotten horse here is Mine That Bird. I'm planning on backing a cheeky all-Bird reverse forecast simply because I think Chip Woolley has a few tricks up his sleeve for the Kentucky Derby winner. Zenyatta will be attracting plenty of attention and I think that she will likely dominate the media build-up to this race. 2009 has really been America's year of the filly and this would bookend things nicely should she pull off the victory. I still have questions about Zenyatta though, I think that they've waited too long before running her against colts and older colts, to boot. Rachel Alexandra has made short work of more or less every horse in this race and it may come down to whether you think Zenyatta is as good, or better, than Rachel. This is more or less the meme in American racing at the moment. I'm going above all that and continuing to preach the benefits of Summer Bird. I'm going to be keeping my eye on Gio Ponti and Mine that Bird and I will side with Zenyatta over Rip any day of the week.