By Thomas Chambers
Now we wait.
It’s four weekends until the 25th Breeders’ Cup World Championships, hosted by the Oak Tree Meet at Santa Anita.
This is where you tend to a few things you need to do around the house, keep an eye on the Daily Racing Form and other publications, and swear to yourself you’re not going to over-handicap the races.
And it’s not too early to plan your Cup venue. I’m shying away from the OTB after not being able to muster much interest from what’s left of the old Jackson St. (I know it’s a boulevard, but that’s what they named it) OTB gang in reserving a private room. But thinking back, those guys never stayed until the end at the old place, never got worked up like me about the Breeders’ Cup.
I both chuckled and shook my head when I asked the manager of my favorite restaurant/watering hole if he’d be showing the Breeders’ Cup. I figured I’d go there, eat better food and play the races through the magic of phone wagering. He took on a blank look and muttered “college football.”
You know college football. Where every game is big and every week has a big, big game, watched by thirtysomethings and beyond who just can’t let go of university life. An occasional bet on a game is about the only time I care about football. Plus, I’m pretty sure the old alma mater UW-Oshkosh’s conference tilt with Whitewater that day won’t be on TV, not even ESPN19.
I can’t be surprised, because while I contort over a big outside move at the three-quarters pole, people there look at me, then look at the TV, and I can tell they don’t give a damn about horse racing. Sheep.
So it’s looking more and more like home, in full control of the eats and the drinks, in front of the HD big screen with the iMac fired up and giving me constant, real-time odds, something you find hard to get on the ESPN/ABC coverage.
So where do we stand? Who’s looking to run? You could melt the Beachwood server with all of the horses and combinations, so let’s run down the winners of the major American races of 2009:
* Kentucky Derby Winner Mine That Bird, although finishing a decent second in the Preakness, has not shown the late-closing dazzle he did in the Derby and finished a struggling fifth in last weekend’s Goodwood at Santa Anita. That’s not a good omen for the Breeders’ Cup, where he’s pointed to the Classic.
* Kentucky Oaks, Preakness and Woodward winner Rachel Alexandra is taking the rest of the year off and will sit out Cup day.
* Belmont winner Summer Bird parlayed that victory into wins in the Travers and the Jockey Club Gold Cup, becoming the first horse to record that triple since Easy Goer in 1989. He also finished a nice second to Rachel in the Haskell. He’ll appear in the Classic. Win or lose, he should be 3-year-old of the year.
* Whitney Handicap winner Bullsbay had to pull out of the Goodwood after stepping on something and suffering an abscess. His connections say he should be ready for the Breeders’ Cup, with options as to which race he runs in.
* Pacific Classic winner Richard’s Kid remains big on the wiseguys’ lists, especially after finishing a strong third in the Goodwood. He looks to be going to the Classic, which will be a very big step up in class.
* Goodwood upsetter Gitano Hernando already has Americans worried about a Euro stealing the Classic. We’ll see.
* Turf wonder Gio Ponti, winner of the Arlington Million, will go in the Classic instead of the Turf. Don’t know the wisdom of that decision, but her connections must think synthetic is the same as turf, so why not?
* Beldame winner Music Note is slated for the Ladies Classic.
* Zenyatta turned in just the kind of win her connections wanted in the Lady’s Secret last week, loping along, turning it on wide coming into the stretch and then dialing it down a notch for her 13th straight win with no losses. She tied the great Personal Ensign, who went 13-0 for her entire career. Daily Racing Form oddsmaker Mike Watchmaker has her 6-5 in the Ladies Classic and 4-1 in the Classic. We don’t know yet where she’ll run, but her connections seem willing to join the boys in the Classic.
* For what it’s worth, Watchmaker has European runner Rip Van Winkle on top of his Classic odds at 7-2.
Keep in mind, if you start looking at the Breeders’ Cup, that the thousands of pundits out there, including the large crew at the Racing Form, BloodHorse and right up to the prognosticators on the telecast, tend to boil all of these selections down until they pick the same three or four or five horses in each race. Or they pick “name” horses, runners who were once hyped for whatever reason but haven’t really done too much or throw in a horse that won a big race eight months ago.
Big buzz lines you’ll hear this year are “Zenyatta in the Classic: Can She Win?”; “Will the Euros Clean Up Again This Year?”; “Summer Bird: Yes or Too Tired?”; and “Can (Any Mid-Distance Horse Here) Get the Distance?”
Beware the experts.
Illinois Online
You’ve no doubt heard all of the local media coverage about how online/phone wagering is now legal and available in Illinois. Of course, the coverage was incomplete.
In order to conduct gambling in Illinois, an entity has to be specifically licensed in Illinois. The three new licensees are YouBet, TVG (Television Games, owned by BetFair in England),and TwinSpires, part of the corporate empire of Churchill Downs, Inc.
YouBet and TwinSpires have been operating through Oregon hubs in Illinois for years. TwinSpires acquired WinTicket, where I had an account several years ago, and now uses its platform. TVG chose not to operate in Illinois because it did not want to risk becoming or getting involved in a legal test case.
YouBet and TwinSpires got in early in the online wagering game and were allowed to operate in Illinois simply because the state looked the other way. Illinois was called a gray state.
This is merely a way for the state to get its hooks into the handle and take its cut.
The industry fear is that this will cut further into live attendance at the tracks and perhaps even at the OTBs. I figure it’s always more fun to go to the track or OTB, but for those stuck on a farmette in the middle of a soybean field, this is good news.
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Thomas Chambers is the Beachwood’s man on the rail. He brings you Track Notes every Friday. He welcomes your comments.
Posted on October 16, 2009