Breeders' Cup Spotlight: $5 million Classic
BREEDERS’ CUP SPOTLIGHT: CLASSIC
Date: Saturday, Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
Purse: $5 million.
Division: 3-year-olds & up
Distance: 1 1/4 miles
TV: NBC
Radio/livestreaming: Horse Racing Radio Network, including 93.9-FM in Louisville and horseracingradio.net.
The favorite: Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, just based off being the most famous horse on the planet as the first horse to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes in 37 years and now the first of such stature to compete in the Breeders' Cup.
One to beat: The 5-year-old mare Beholder destroyed the California boys in winning the Pacific Classic by 8 ¼ lengths at Del Mar. Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens has never sounded as confident on a horse, and that’s saying a lot. Rivals will point out that she’s never won outside of California, but that’s misleading. She lost the Kentucky Oaks by a half-length after melting down beforehand and then was fourth by a total of a length in last year’s Ogden Phipps at Belmont when a horse stepped on her and fileted her hind leg. Beholder would be the first horse to win three different Breeders' Cup events, taking the 2012 Juvenile Fillies and 2013 Distaff. She would join Zenyatta as the only females to win the Classic and the first on dirt.
Other leading contenders:Keen Ice, in the Travers, became the first horse in a year to defeat American Pharoah. He can prove his victory at Saratoga was not a fluke. Honor Code was most impressive taking the Metropolitan Mile and Saratoga’s Whitney, but is a question at 1 ¼ miles. Tonalist is the two-time Jockey Club Gold Cup winner but must show he can win outside New York. If Pennsylvania Derby winner Frosted wins at 20-1, people will suddenly remember that he was third in the Travers after being, with a late-minute rider replacement, completely taken out of his game plan in dogging American Pharoah on the lead. Who knows how good the 4-year-old Smooth Roller – who never raced until this year and won Santa Anita’s Grade I Awesome Again in his graded-stakes debut and only fourth lifetime start – might be. Then again, his dominance in that race could be a sign of the weakness of the California males.
X-factor:Gleneagles, a four-time Group 1 winner in Europe, is the latest Irish standout turf miler to try the Classic.
Worth knowing: The 1 ¼-mile Classic distance is rarely run at Keeneland. It will start at the top of the stretch just out of the far turn, with the same 30-foot run from the gate until timing begins that occurs in six- and seven-furlong and 1 1/16-mile and 1 1/8-mile races. Crushing The Cup notes that ten 3-year-olds have won the Classic, and only Sunday Silence and A.P. Indy paid less than $10 to win. The Classic has the second-highest median payoff ($15.20) of any Breeders’ Cup race, second only to the Sprint ($17.80).