I'm not going to say I remember ALL of the Breeders Cups, but I do remember most of them. I didn't really get into the sport until 1987, so the three Cups prior to that are pretty much relived through press clippins and the actual Breeders Cup website. However, 1987 was quite the year to delve into the sport, with athletic uber-performances such as Alysheba winning the Derby, literally off his knees and then his narrow defeat at the hands of the mighty Ferdinand later in the year.
I really don't think many of the Cups have matched the excitement produced by the the last three Cups of the '80's, when stars like the aforementioned Alysheba, Ferdinand, and then Personal Ensign, Miesque, Sunday Silence, Easy Goer, Bayakoa, Gulch, etc etc took center stage. But, I must admit that my heart was pounding a bit more because of Curlin. I did not bet Curlin, in fact, I threw him out of all my wagers, but I was still rooting for him. That's how important he was to this event and this game, in general. For that reason alone, he would get my vote for Horse of the Year.
*** If they had a handicapper Hall of Fame, I'd cast my first ballot to our very own DerbyAl. A handful of days prior to the Cup, he texted me with a warning to not leave DESERT CODE off of my tickets. At first, I did not pay much attention, because the Turf Sprint was the one race I despised the most on the card. Upon further review, the selection made sense. The horse had back class and was dead on the morning line at 30-1. I'm glad I received that text, because I eventually used him my early pick 4, that returned $6,200.
But, a man's resume is not built upon one race alone. This is the same guy that tipped me on Pleasant Home in the 2006(?) Distaff. Except, this time, he touted this filly on the same day she finished strongly in Keeneland's Spinster. He never got off the filly. All who listened would be wealthy three weeks later at Belmont as Pleasant Home crashed the mutuels at 30-1. I was one who DID NOT listen, thus missing on a handsome payday.
As they say, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I will never be caught with my pants down again. When Al gives me a 30-1 shot, I ALWAYS listen.
***I thought ESPN's coverage of the races was done very well. I could have done with less Hank Goldberg and more of the beautiful Jessica Pacheco. And that whole interview with Michael Iavarone about his death threat was just completely weird. We could probably use less Iavarone and more people like Jess Jackson, in the sport.
Although, watching the Cup in HD (for me) was excellent, I wish they would go back to just a handful of camera angles. I am an experienced racegoer, but they had ME confused at times. I felt like I was watching a movie sometimes, rather than a sporting event.
***Rick Dutrow is an idiot.
***Its hard to imagine that there are probably some Euros that are even better than the ones we saw Saturday that decided to stay home. How much more would we have been dominated if the likes of Darjina, New Approach, Zarkava, Youmzain and others decided to come over and fight us.
My most expensive BC experience, though it took two days to make it happen.
And honestly, the winners were all sensible and playable. I just didn't get it right. Even stayed away from the pik 3s and pik 4s because of the new surface.
I credit everyone here who did well last weekend, and keep playing the ponies. I can't/won't devote the time necessary to play it all properly now, so will downscale to only the TC and BC races. Sports wagering now works much better for me, though I just had my first bad run of this football season.
This is a seriously good group of handicappers who seem to mesh and help each other get it right. That is not as common as it should be, so this is truely a special place.