Pre-entries have been announced for the 40th annual Breeders’ Cup, which will be held Nov. 3-4 at picturesque Santa Anita Park. This will be a record 11th time that the Great Race Place is the Breeders’ Cup venue.
This country’s richest race, the $6 million BC Classic, has attracted 18 pre-entries, including four on the also-eligible list.
Below is an early horse-by-horse look at the horses pre-entered in the 1 1/4-mile BC Classic, listed in alphabetical order, followed by the four also eligibles in order of preference to get into the race:
ARABIAN KNIGHT
Plus Side: Game in his Pacific Classic victory, training like a beast
Negative Side: Lost lone time not in front early, this race has other zip
ARCANGELO
Plus Side: Belmont, Travers winner has class and super Beyer pattern
Negative Side: First stakes start vs. older will be his toughest test yet
BRIGHT FUTURE
Plus Side: Son of BC Classic winner Curlin improving as he gets older
Negative Side: Probably needs to run better than ever before to win this
CHARGE IT
Plus Side: A 111 Beyer in 2022 Dwyer shows what he can do
Negative Side: Well-beaten 4th recently in Whitney and Woodward
DERMA SOTOGAKE
Plus Side: Took 5 1/2-length UAE Derby win into Kentucky Derby
Negative Side: Hasn’t raced since finishing 6th in Run for the Roses
GEAUX ROCKET RIDE
Plus Side: Mandella won multiple BC races at SA in 1993, 2003
Negative Side: Spiked temperature recently and missed a workout
KING OF STEEL
Plus Side: Won Group I Champion Stakes on soft turf Oct. 21
Negative Side: Expected to run in BC Turf if he gets on plane
MAGE
Plus Side: Came storming from far back to win Kentucky Derby
Negative Side: Winless in 3 starts since being draped in roses
PROXY
Plus Side: Narrowly lost Big ’Cap on Santa Anita’s main track
Negative Side: Possesses talent but not the easiest horse to ride
SAUDI CROWN
Plus Side: Better Beyers than Arabian Knight, Geaux Rocket Ride
Negative Side: Plenty of other early speed, never gone this far
SENOR BUSCADOR
Plus Side: Stretch-runner hits board at long odds?
Negative Side: Hard to see this being his first win at G1 level
USHBA TESORO
Plus Side: 6-race win streak on dirt includes Dubai World Cup
Negative Side: No real knocks other than this first U.S. start
WHITE ABARRIO
Plus Side: Big chance to win if he runs like he did in Whitney
Negative Side: Training at Santa Anita has not gone ideally
ZANDON
Plus Side: Daylight Woodward win ended 8-race losing streak
Negative Side: Faces by far a stronger field than in Woodward
ALSO ELIGIBLES LISTED BELOW IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE TO GET INTO RACE:
CLAPTON
Plus Side: Lukas Classic winner likely to get in from also-eligible list
Negative Side: Difficult to picture him winning with this resume
SKIPPYLONGSTOCKING
Plus Side: Comes off 5-length win in Charles Town Classic
Negatative: Skippylongstocking is certainly no Skip Away
DREAMLIKE
Plus Side: Best Beyer yet of 104 when 2nd in Pennsylvania Derby
Negative Side: The 104 Beyer came when running on a wet track
MISSED THE CUT
Plus Side: First U.S. triumph in Santa Anita’s Tokyo City Cup
Negative Side: As 4th preference on A-E list it’s doubtful he runs
PREVIOUS WINNING BC CLASSIC BEYERS
What kind of a Beyer Speed Figure will it take to win this year’s BC Classic?
I’d say you have a better chance of buying the only winning ticket in Powerball than the 2023 BC Classic winner comes anywhere close to the Beyer registered by the fabulous Flightline in the 2022 BC Classic. Flightline won by 8 1/4 lengths (largest margin of victory in the race’s history) and was credited with a 121 Beyer.
Is Flightline’s 121 the highest winning Beyer Speed Figure in BC Classic history? No, there have been three bigger victorious Beyers in the BC Classic. Sunday Silence recorded a 124 in 1989. Ghostzapper duplicated that figure in 2004. Alysheba got a 122 in 1988.
The all-time top Beyer by a Breeders’ Cup winner is Precisionist’s 125 in the 1985 Sprint.
Flightline, who was impeccably trained by John Sadler, won all six of his career starts by a combined 71 lengths (a gaudy average of 11.8 lengths per race).
Another indication of Flightline’s greatness is he posted a 126 Beyer Speed Figure when he won Del Mar’s Pacific Classic by a record 19 1/4 lengths prior to the BC Classic.
To put Flightline’s 126 Beyer Speed Figure in the Pacific Classic into perspective, it is higher than the winning Beyer in all 388 Breeders’ Cup races from 1984 through 2022.
The winning Beyers in all 39 BC Classics are listed below:
2022 Flightline (121)
2021 Knicks Go (112)
2020 Authentic (111)
2019 Vino Rosso (111)
2018 Accelerate (105)
2017 Gun Runner (117)
2016 Arrogate (120)
2015 American Pharoah (120)
2014 Bayern (113)
2013 Mucho Macho Man (112)
2012 Fort Larned (117)
2011 Drosselmeyer (104)
2010 Blame (111)
2009 Zenyatta (112)*
2008 Raven’s Pass (110)*
2007 Curlin (119)
2006 Invasor (116)
2005 Saint Liam (112)
2004 Ghostzapper (124)
2003 Pleasantly Perfect (119)
2002 Volponi (116)
2001 Tiznow (117)
2000 Tiznow (116)
1999 Cat Thief (118)
1998 Awesome Again (116)
1997 Skip Away (120)
1996 Alphabet Soup (115)
1995 Cigar (117)
1994 Concern (115)
1993 Arcangues (114)
1992 A.P. Indy (114)
1991 Black Tie Affair (120)
1990 Unbridled (116)
1989 Sunday Silence (124)
1988 Alysheba (122)
1987 Ferdinand (117)
1986 Skywalker(118)
1985 Proud Truth (120)
1984 Wild Again (113)
*Run on a synthetic surface
LAST YEAR’S WINNING BC BEYERS AT KEENELAND
Beyer Race (Winner)
121 Flightline (Classic)
107 Rebel’s Romance (Turf)
102 Malathaat (Distaff)
104 Modern Games (Mile)
100 Elite Power (Sprint)
105 Tuesday (Filly & Mare Turf)
106 Cody’s Wish (Dirt Mile)
107 Caravel (Turf Sprint)
101 Goodnight Olive (Filly & Mare Sprint)
86 Victoria Rod (Juvenile Turf)
100 Forte (Juvenile)
89 Meditate (Juvenile Fillies Turf)
83 Wonder Wheel (Juvenile Fillies)
89 Mischief Magic (Juvenile Turf Sprint)
WINNING BC BEYERS AT SANTA ANITA 2019
111 Vino Rosso (Classic)
104 Bricks and Mortar (Turf)
103 Blue Prize (Distaff)
106 Uni (Mile)
112 Mitole (Sprint)
105 Iridessa (Filly & Mare Turf)
109 Spun to Run (Dirt Mile)
107 Belvoir Bay (Turf Sprint)
106 Covfefe (Filly & Mare Sprint)
87 Storm the Court (Juvenile)
86 Sharing (Juvenile Fillies Turf)
79 British Idiom (Juvenile Fillies)
79 Structor (Juvenile Turf)
86 Four Wheel Drive (Juvenile Turf Sprint)
HIGHEST BEYERS AMONG ALL BC WINNERS
Below are all of the Beyer Speed Figures of 120 or higher by a Breeders’ Cup winner from 1984 through 2022:
Beyer Winner (BC Race, Track)
125 Precisionist (1985 Sprint at Aqueduct)
124 Sunday Silence (1989 Classic at Gulfstream Park)
124 Artax (1999 Sprint at Gulfstream Park)
124 Ghostzapper (2004 Classic at Lone Star Park)
122 Alysheba (1988 Classic at Churchill Downs)
121 Very Subtle* (1987 Sprint at Hollywood Park)
121 Flightline (2022 Classic at Keeneland)
120 Princess Rooney* (1984 Distaff at Hollywood Park)
120 Proud Truth (1985 Classic at Aqueduct)
120 Black Tie Affair (1991 Classic at Churchill Downs)
120 Skip Away (1997 Classic at Hollywood Park)
120 Cajun Beat (2003 Sprint at Santa Anita Park)
120 American Pharoah (2015 Classic at Keeneland)
120 Arrogate (2017 Classic at Santa Anita)
*Filly
BC SELECTIONS NEXT WEEK
My selections and “nice price dangers” for all 14 Breeders’ Cup races will be posted on the Xpressbet.com website next week.
I also will be disclosing my choice as the “most probable winner” at this year’s Breeders’ Cup. My most probable Breeders’ Cup winner has won in 14 of the 19 last years.
Who to make most probable winner at the 2021 Breeders’ Cup was the easiest of decisions. It was the aforementioned Flightline.
Below is a list of my most probable Breeders’ Cup winner for each year going back to 2004:
2022 Flightline in the Classic (won)
2021 Gamine in the Filly & Mare Sprint (finished third)
2020 Golden Pal in the Juvenile Turf Sprint (won)
2019 Midnight Bisou (finished second)
2018 Newspaperofrecord in the Juvenile Fillies Turf (won)
2017 Bolt d’Oro in the Juvenile (finished third)
2016 Dortmund in the Dirt Mile (finished fourth)
2015 Songbird in the Juvenile Fillies (won)
2014 Goldencents in the Dirt Mile (won)
2013 Wise Dan in the Mile (won)
2012 Groupie Doll in the Filly & Mare Sprint (won)
2011 Goldikova in the Mile (won)
2010 Goldikova in the Mile (won)
2009 Zenyatta in the Classic (won)
2008 Zenyatta in the Ladies’ Classic (won)
2007 Midnight Lute in the Sprint (won)
2006 Ouija Board in the Filly & Mare Turf (won)
2005 Ouija Board in the Filly & Mare Turf (finished second)
2004 Ouija Board in the Filly & Mare Turf (won)
SECRETARIAT’S TRIPLE CROWN, FINAL RACE RECALLED
It was 50 years ago this week that the legendary Secretariat started for the 21st and final time in Woodbine’s Canadian International.
I will never forget watching that race on television. I did so with a tinge of sadness. That’s because after the Canadian International, the incredibly talented equine athlete would be retired to stud at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky.
Secretariat meant a lot to me. On March 22, 1973, I wrote the following in my sports column in the Lewis and Clark Journal, my high school newspaper: “Going out on a limb and living dangerously, I dare say that 1973 will be a historic year as Secretariat will become the first Triple Crown winner since the great Citation in 1948.”
After Secretariat finished third to Angle Light and Sham in the Wood Memorial just two weeks before the Kentucky Derby, my Triple Crown prediction appeared in peril.
Despite Secretariat being upset in the Wood, I still put him right on top when I listed my Kentucky Derby picks in the April 25 edition of my school paper. (How many other high school newspapers have ever had as much horse racing coverage as the Lewis and Clark Journal did in 1973?)
Owned and bred by Meadow Stable and trained by Lucien Laurin, Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby by 2 1/2 lengths in 1:59 2/5 to break the track record by three-fifths of a second. The following Monday at school, I was receiving congratulations from fellow students all day long for picking Secretariat to win the Kentucky Derby.
Especially memorable for me was what happened that day at the beginning of my history class. The teacher got up from his desk, walked over to the chalk board and, just before he started to write, he turned around and said, “Before we start class today, I think we all should congratulate Jon for his great pick of Secretariat in the Kentucky Derby.”
Secretariat went on to win the Preakness Stakes, also by 2 1/2-length, followed by his spectacular 31-length Belmont Stakes victory. His final time of 2:24 flat in the Belmont obliterated Gallant Man’s track record by 2 3/5 seconds. It remains the fastest 1 1/2 miles ever run by a horse on dirt.
Just this week, I came across a 1973 Longacres edition of the Daily Racing Form that I have saved all these years. It included the post-Belmont Stakes column in which Charles Hatton, who, to me, is the greatest turf writer of all time, proclaimed Secretariat to be the Horse of the Century, superior even to mighty Man o’ War.
Secretariat “not only won the Triple Crown, he eclipsed the Derby and Belmont records and, as far as we are concerned, the Preakness record as well, since he was timed privately in 1:53 2/5 by Daily Racing Form,” Hatton wrote.
Inasmuch as the electronic timer at Pimlico malfunctioned, it had Secretariat’s final time in the Preakness as 1:55, which was not close to being accurate. The official final time then became 1:54 2/5, which was E.T. McClean’s hand clocking of the race. McClean was the racing official in charge of timing Pimlico’s races by hand.
Daily Racing Form, in its chart of the 1973 Preakness, noted its disagreement with McClean’s official time of 1:54 2/5, as alluded to by Hatton in his column. In a rarity, along with the official final time, the Preakness chart included Daily Racing Form’s clocking of 1:53 2/5, which would have broken Canonero II’s track record of 1:54.
In 2012, the Maryland Racing Commission held a hearing as to whether Secretariat’s official final Preakness time of 1:54 2/5 should be changed.
At the time of the 1973 Preakness and for many years afterward, the racing commission did not have the authority to change McClean’s official time. That’s because Maryland racing rules at the time stated that only the hand clocking from the person employed as the official timer could be used as a backup to the electronic timer. However, that particular rule eventually was changed to permit an adjustment to be made if compelling evidence was presented. The changing of the rule led to the 2012 hearing concerning Secretariat’s final time in the Preakness.
For more than two hours in 2012, Maryland racing commissioners heard testimony, backed by modern technology, seeking to prove that Secretariat’s final time in the Preakness actually was faster than 1:54 2/5. It turned out that the evidence demonstrated that Secretariat’s final time not only was faster than the official 1:54 clocking, it was even faster than Daily Racing Form’s 1:53 2/5.
In fact, the evidence was so compelling that the commissioners deliberated for only about 10 minutes before announcing that they had voted 7-0 to change Secretariat’s official Preakness time to 1:53, making it the fastest Preakness to this day.
After the commission changed the final time for the 1973 Preakness to 1:53, I wrote for Xpressbet.com: “How great was Secretariat? He died in 1989, yet broke the stakes record for the Preakness in 2012.”
The timing snafu in the Preakness was why regular rider Ron Turcotte did not ease up on Secretariat toward the end of the Belmont Stakes after they had opened a gigantic lead. When I interviewed Turcotte years later, I asked him if it was in his mind during the Belmont Stakes that Secretariat had been denied a track record in the Preakness. Turcotte said it was. He told me that he did not want to take any chances of Secretariat “being robbed” of another track record.
“I did knuckle down on him a little bit the last 70 yards,” said Turcotte, who was inducted into this country’s Hall of Fame in 1979. “But I never did use my stick or tap him or anything. He just did it all on his own.”
I asked Turcotte if, at any time during the final furlong of the Belmont, he was looking at the timer in the infield.
“Oh, I was,” he said. “I was definitely looking at the timer. I was looking at the teletimer because I was not racing against any horse. All I was racing against was the clock at that point.”
In Hatton’s column after Secretariat’s iconic tour de force in the Belmont Stakes, the writer revealed how fast the superstar son of Bold Ruler was still going after the finish when being pulled up by Turcotte.
“Knowing that Secretariat often overruns the finish and Turcotte is careful not to risk injury pulling him up too sharply, clocker Sonny Taylor kept his watch on Secretariat another furlong Saturday,” Hatton wrote. “He ran a mile and five furlongs in 2:37 3/5. The world record for a mile and five furlongs is 2:38 1/5, but then, this is not the first time Secretariat has gone faster pulling up than others run on purpose.”
Hatton wrote that when Secretariat won the one-mile Gotham Stakes earlier in 1973, he “overran the finish a mile and a quarter in 1:59 2/5.” That subsequently would be exactly how fast Secretariat raced 1 1/4 miles when he won the Run the Roses.
“Time is by no means the only element in a horse’s quality, but it is a measurable one,” Hatton continued. “The surface here [at Belmont Park] is perhaps a second faster nowadays. And yet:
“Based on comparative times for the Belmont, Secretariat was beating Citation 21 lengths, Count Fleet 21 lengths, War Admiral 23 lengths, Assault 34 lengths, Omaha 33 lengths, Whirlaway 35 lengths and Gallant Fox 38 lengths.
“The track is not all that much faster. Secretariat is faster.”
Secretariat was indeed much faster than his 11 opponents in Woodbine’s Canadian International at 1 5/8 miles on turf. He was coming off a ridiculously easy five-length victory when making his grass debut in Belmont Park’s Man o’ War Stakes at 1 1/2 miles with Turcotte in the saddle.
“Secretariat was a better horse on the turf,” Turcotte said when I interviewed him years later. “As great as he was on the dirt, he was an even better horse on the grass. His action was great on the dirt, but it was even greater on the grass.”
It turned out that Turcotte was not able to ride Secretariat in the Canadian International because he had been grounded for a riding infraction in New York.
“That was definitely the biggest disappointment of my career,” Turcotte told me. “You know, I was really looking forward to showing the big boy off in front of the home folks. It was a great disappointment. I was sick about it.”
Turcotte said that, looking back, he felt that he probably should have appealed the suspension.
“But at the time, I always thought that there should be some kind of authority over the racetracks,” he said, “and I didn’t feel that we should be taking that authority away [from the stewards]. But I don’t feel that I deserved the days. I was riding a 2-year-old filly on the grass. When I went by the odds board, I was in the lead and she ducked from the lights on the odds board. [Braulio] Baeza had to check his horse.
“Disqualifying my horse was the proper thing to do because I did interfere. But punishing me for it or suspending me for it, I couldn’t see. I thought they should have taken into consideration that I grabbed my horse as quick as I could. I mean, if I appeal it, I’m sure I win it, and now I regret not doing it. But at the time, my principles stood in front of that. I didn’t think it was proper to take away authority from the stewards.”
Eddie Maple pinch-hit for Turcotte on Secretariat in the Canadian International.
“I will say that as disappointed as I was that I didn’t ride Secretariat in his final race, I’m glad that a good friend of mine did get a chance to ride him,” Turcotte told me.
Maple (enshrined in this country’s Hall of Fame in 2009) had been aboard Riva Ridge for Meadow Stable and Laurin when the champion colt ran second to Secretariat in the inaugural Marlboro Cup at Belmont Park in 1973.
As for the Canadian International, Secretariat’s odds were 2-5 on the morning line. He was 1-5 at race time.
“The weather was horrible that day,” Maple recalled when I interviewed him in 1980. “The temperature was in the 30s. It was half-raining and half-snowing and foggy.”
Maple was “in a no-win situation” in the Canadian International, Bill Finley wrote earlier this month in a Thoroughbred Daily News article. “If he won, it would be because anybody could have been aboard one of the greatest horses ever. If he lost, it only could have been because Maple screwed it up. But he said he was confident he was up for the job.”
Maple told Finley: “I really didn’t feel a lot of pressure. I was always meant to handle that kind of stuff. I’m not saying I wasn’t excited and I didn’t get some goosebumps in the time leading up to the race. I already had ridden in a couple of Kentucky Derbies. I just felt I didn’t have to be the greatest jockey in the world to give this horse a good ride because he was that good.’
Well, actually, Maple had ridden in one Kentucky Derby, not “a couple,” prior to 1973. He finished fourth with Eastern Fleet in 1971.
I find it interesting that when I interviewed Maple in 1980, he told me a quite a different story than he told Finley many years later in terms of how much pressure Maple felt with regard to riding Secretariat in the Canadian International.
“There was a lot of pressure on me on that day -- I don’t mind saying it -- because it was Secretariat’s last race,” Maple said in 1980. “He had just whipped them on the turf in the Man o’ War, but now he was running on a turf course he’d never run on before. And I had never been on him before. I had never even breezed him. So I was worried. I thought to myself, what if I happen to fall off him? I thought that if that happened, no matter what I ever did, what big races I ever won during my riding career, I would always be remembered the most for being the rider who fell off Secretariat in his last race.”
In the Canadian International, Maple did stay aboard Secretariat. Looking something like a locomotive with steam blowing from his nostrils in the raw, chilly weather, Secretariat opened a commanding 12-length lead with a furlong to go before sauntering home to win by 6 1/2 lengths.
You can watch Secretariat’s Canadian International on YouTube (the late Daryl Wells has the call): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liIKeOINhXw
“Secretariat just annihilated those horses in Canada with so much ease,” Maple told me. “Everything that a really good racehorse could do, he just seemed to do it much easier. He was a great horse.”
How great? “He’s the greatest horse I’ve ever seen,” Hatton said in the definitive book on Secretariat written by William Nack. “He’s the greatest horse that anyone has seen. Don’t let anyone kid you. He could do anything, and he could do it better than any horse I ever saw. No question about it in my mind. He should have never been beaten.”
Hatton’s opinion of Secretariat does merit much respect in view of the writer’s impact on this country’s Triple Crown.
In 1919, Sir Barton won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes before the three races were known as the Triple Crown. In the early 1920s, some journalists were using the term “Triple Crown” when writing about these three races collectively. But it’s Hatton who has been widely credited as being the person most responsible for establishing the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont as America’s Triple Crown.
TOP 10 IN THIS WEEK’S NTRA TOP THOROUGHBRED POLL
Rank Points Horse (First-Place Votes)
1. 240 Arcangelo (17)
2. 229 Cody’s Wish (5)
3. 182 Up to the Mark (2)
4. 162 Elite Power (1)
5. 150 White Abarrio (2)
6. 117 Arabian Knight
7. 89 Idiomatic
8. 79 Geaux Rocket Ride
9. 61 Echo Zulu (1)
10. 44 Casa Creed
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