Breeders' Cup Spotlight: $1 million Dirt Mile

Breeders’ Cup Spotlight: Dirt Mile

Essentials – Date: Friday, Oct. 30 at Keeneland. Purse: $1 million. Distance: two-turn mile on dirt. Division: 3-year-olds & up.

Favorite -- Liam’s Map, Saratoga’s Woodward winner who lost the Whitney in a photo, could have gone in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. But he has never run 1 ¼ miles, and his connections preferred to play the percentages by going in a race in which he’s probably a strong favorite.

Liam’s Map is 3-for-3 at a mile around one turn. But trainer Todd Pletcher says the two-turn configuration at Keeneland might even be better for Liam’s Map. That’s because where the gate will be positioned for the Dirt Mile – at a distance virtually never used at Keeneland because of the short run into the first turn of the 1 1/16-mile track – effectively makes the race a little longer. Note: As with 1 1/16-mile races, the first finish line will be used.

Leading contenders: Tapiture, last year’s Dirt Mile runner-up at age 3 to two-time winner Goldencents, appears back in top form after taking Churchill Downs’ Grade III Ack Ack at a mile. He had an excellent workout at Keeneland over the weekend, and trainer Steve Asmussen won the 2012 Dirt Mile with another son of Tapit in Tapizar.

Appealing Tale (trained by Peter Miller) has three wins and three seconds in his last six races, including winning Del Mar’s seven-furlong Pat O’Brien and upsetting Classic contender Honor Code in Belmont’s Kelso Handicap at a mile in his last two. He’s also 5 for 9 at a mile. Wicked Strong looks like he can’t quite beat the best horses in New York. But he’s an honest horse for whom this year’s Dirt Mile configuration, and a different surface might produce his best. His trainer, Jimmy Jerkens, won the inaugural Dirt Mile at Monmouth Park in 2007 with Corinthian.

Value -- The Eddie Kenneally-trained Bradester (12-1 in the DRF odds) won two graded stakes this summer, was second in a 1 ⅛-mile stakes in Monmouth Park’s Iselin in his last start. The Bob Baffert-trained Gimme Da Lute (30-1), winner of four straight.

Worth knowing --  Goldencents last year was the first favorite to win, the average Dirt Mile payoff being $32.30 and the median being $15.10. The winners of every Dirt Mile held on real dirt lost their prior race. Crushing the Cup, the bible for dissecting Breeders’ Cup races, points out some patterns: All the winners ran in a Grade I or II race (which would seem to eliminate Tapiture) and all but one (Albertus Maximus over Santa Anita’s Polytrack in a weak 2008 field) was a graded-stakes winner.

• Jennie Rees