Several of the details related to Breeders’ Cup’s Championship Friday program have received criticism from various corners of the Turf world over the past two years.
Some feel there are too many races; others have lamented a return to Santa Anita Park and its synthetic main track surface for a second consecutive year; and others did not like moving the Distaff to Friday and renaming it the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic (G1).
Those criticisms will be discussed in the aftermath of this year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships, but as far as November 6 at Santa Anita went, the horse racing excitement that permeated the Arcadia, California, facility could not have been any better and is rivaled only by Kentucky Oaks (G1) day on the Friday before the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1).
Attendance totaled 37,651 on a picturesque day at the track, a 20.45% increase versus last year and 35.42% more than the inaugural Friday card in 2007 at Monmouth.
Hopefully the trend will continue on Championship Saturday, but without a doubt, Friday’s card was a live racing event I will remember for a very long time.
Friday, November 6, 2009
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I thought of all the Friday Breeders Cup races, the two performances that stand out in my mind the most are 1. Informed Decision winning the F&M Sprint. At no time during that race did Julien Leperouix and Informed Decision exude anything but absolute confidence that the race was their's from start to finish. 2. Life is Sweet's marvelous run in the Ladies Classic. All week long with all the talk being about Careless Jewel and Music Note I felt this filly was being completely overlooked as a contender. This filly has never been worse than 4th in her whole career and rarely ever finished out of the money, even getting up for a 3rd place finish against the boys in the 09' Hollywood Gold Cup.
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