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Breeders Cup Picks 2010

The Breeders Cup is two of the best days of racing all year long. The quality of the horses is as high as you will find any place. This years championship races will witness Zenyatta try to close out her career a perfect 20 wins from 20 starts with a repeat win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Let’s start are discussion about this year’s races by taking a look at the champion mare.

Zenyatta enters this year’s Classic with 5 races. She obviously won all 5, among them the Apple Blossom, Vanity, Clement L Hirsch, and LAdy’s SECret. More than once it looked as if her quest for perfection would come up short. Zenyatta has a knack for getting to first place just in the nick of time. She doesn’t exert more energy than is necessary.

Queen Zenyatta as her fans have grown accustomed to calling her is a big, hulking mare that stands over 17 hands tall and her stride is incredibly long. She is the one the others will have to hold off in the stretch at odds of around even money. Let’s not forget the Patriot’s lost the Super Bowl as an undefeated team. SECretariat, Citation, Seabiscuit, Man O’ War, Spectacular Bid, and countless other greats have lost races. Zenyatta holds a big hand, but she is far from unstoppable.

The most likely horses to win the Classic other than Zenyatta are Blame, Lookin At LUcky, and Quality Road. All three pose unique challenges for the mare. Quality Road is a speedster with wins from 8 to 10 furlongs this year. He ran away in the Donn Handicap at 10 furlongs and that has led trainer Todd Pletcher to believe he can go 2 more panels. Blame is a grinding type of closer who gallops horses down. His move isn’t big or flashy, but he gets to the winners circle more often than not. Blame won the Whitney Handicap this year. Lookin At LUcky is a late blooming three-year-old for Bob Baffert. He won the Preakness Stakes earlier this year. He should get to the front before Zenyatta or Blame. Can he repel them once he has made the lead? We wouldn’t be surprised. 

The Breeders Cup Turf will precede the Classic. Arc de Triomphe winner Workforce will be shipping across the pond to try and take the $3 million race. European turf runners are very superior to Our American turf horses, but Arc winners have a bad record in the Turf. In fact, an Arc winner has never won the Breeders’ Cup Turf! Workforce has had just 5 starts and is something of a boy wonder at this point. If he repeats his run in the Arc he will certainly win, but there have been better Arc winners than him that failed to do so.

Other horses to consider in the Turf are Al Khali, Behkabad, Debussy, and Winchester. The latter is a hard knocking five-year-old son of Theatrical with two Grade 1 wins this year. Debussy is a European runner who won the Arlington Million this year before finishing third behind top class horse Twice Over last out. Al Khali is rapidly improving and is the definition of a “now” horse. It is likely that his run in this race will be the best he has ever put together and that makes him very dangerous. In his last race, the Pattison International, he had a horrid trip and was only beaten ¾ length for the $2 mill purse. Trainer Bill Mott and jockey Kent Desormeaux are master of the turf. He’s got a big shot.

Here are some assorted picks for the Breeders Cup!

Breeders Cup Juvenile: Boys at Tosconova

Breeders Cup Classic: Blame