Breeders Cup Comments

As predicted here, Curlin did win the Classic ... and in even more impressive fashion than expected. He certainly has my vote for horse of the year. I have also been impressed all year with Hard Spun (who finished 2nd) and even though he was put away by Curlin he was clearly the best of the rest. One has to admire his front running “catch me if you can” style which he has maintained in a number of impressive outings through the Triple Crown races and then into the Classic to end it. I haven't heard whether or not Curlin and Hard Spun will be running next year or retiring, but I hope they will be back to show us how good they can become. Unfortunately, the connections for Street Sense have prematurely decided to retire him. Congratulations too to all the other winners who gave it there all and came up biggest when they needed to.

Many thanks to those of you who took the time to email your comments on our Breeders Cup Day(s) selections and ratings, and how you were able to use them to your advantage. As it turned out our FTS ratings and analysis did do fairly well, so I hope some of you were able to benefit. Those of you inclined to throw out the European invaders probably did even better. They seem to have come over a little unprepared compared to other years. Apparently Dylan Thomas was shipped across the Atlantic on Tuesday for the Classic to be run on Saturday. That does seem to be expecting a little much from a horse even as great he is.

As one of our emailers noted, in hindsight taking the top 3 analyst selections (after allowing for scratches) for each race and rolling Pick 3s through the Breeders Cup Races on Saturday would have been successful for all six Pick 3s. At $1 per wager that costs $27 per race and the return would have been $1,592.80 ... but as he noted hindsight handicapping is always easier than making the decision ahead of time. Others did well with some exactas and others had some reasonably priced winners.

For those wanting to review our ratings, selections and results links to our pages and links to the results provided by Brisnet are below. -- October 28, 2023