BC Pre-Entries Announced

- I’ve posted some links over in the sidebar to help you (and me) navigate through all the Breeders’ Cup information, and I'll update them as we go along to the big day. I'm trying to conslidate links to everything you (and I) need to know in one place, because with eight championship races, it’s impossible for little ol’ me to keep up with every story and every workout. In fact, I think that’s one of the problems with the Breeders’ Cup concept, and why it hasn’t caught on like the Derby. For those of us who follow this every day, we probably know who we like, or at least have an idea, without even looking at the pp’s. But for the casual or prospective fans, I imagine it’s all very overwhelming – a lot of horses they’ve never heard of running on a single day. Vic Zast in Bloodhorse proposes that there be three World Championship days spaced throughout the year, with one in midsummer concentrating on three year-olds. The obvious problem with that is that you can’t really have a “championship” day in the beginning or middle of the year.

But all the action compressed into one day can seem a bit much even for you and me. I see that Patrick over at Pulling Hair is going to concentrate on the Filly & Mare Turf (hey, I like that race too!), so perhaps I’ll also pick out a race or two to really focus on, though I’ll be sure to try and pick all of them at some point so you have some horses to throw out.

Anyway, over in the sidebar, I’ll put general content on top, and I’ve created separate sections for each of the races with links to each of the three major racing trades - each one of them has something different to offer. The pre-entries are in, and you can find them here. The announcement of the order of the races turned out to be a non-event to me; who cares, really. Four of the races are oversubscribed, and the major news there is that Shake the Bank, intended to be a rabbit for Better Talk Now, is left out for now, so Graham Motion's charge could be on his own. Also, we’ll be spared seeing A.P. Arrow run up the track in the Classic if we’re lucky.

- Jerry Bailey says that the only question in his mind about Shakespeare is the possibility of a soft turf. "He has never run over that, but he's not a huge heavy horse..." [Bloodhorse] Others, such as Megahertz, could be adversely effected as well. The Breeders’ Cup is of course trivial compared to the potential destruction posed by Hurrican Wilma, but Ruben Bailey at Avg Horseplayer points out that the storm could possibly have a profound effect on the proceedings here on the 29th if it follows the usual path up the coast.

- In an interview with the Saratogian, NYRA chief Charles Hayward once again raised the ugly spectre of the eventual closing of Aqueduct, at least for racing. Damn, I thought we were past that. 'Put a luxury hotel there….Let somebody build and develop that. You don't need two tracks.'

Yeah, a luxury hotel in the middle of Ozone Park, that should work. There has been some preliminary work done in the past to try and winterize Belmont, but anyone who’s there for October 29 will know that you don’t want to be there on January 29. It’s mostly an open air track, and it's fucking cold there, period. And there is zero sun for the railbirds during the winter due to the direction the grandstand faces. If NYRA is serious about this, that’s reason in itself for me to oppose them being re-franchised. I love Aqueduct, and I’m not going to take this lightly!! Save the Big A!!!!