Venue for October 26 - Thoughts

[JolyB]

With the countdown clock at the Breeders Cup website reading 11 Days, 2 hours and 23 minutes (and counting), many of us are already thinking ahead and awaiting the announcement of the BC pre-entries on Wednesday.
That makes selecting a venue of this Saturday's contest somewhat challenging.

I think that we have several possible choices, and would welcome your thoughts as to which might be more appealing to you. None of the entries for these races are available yet.

1. Return to Belmont, where the card includes 3 stakes races, including the Grade 3 Bold Ruler.

2. Visit beautiful Keeneland for the closing day of its Fall meeting for a card that includes the Grade 2 Fayette.

3. Visit not as beautiful Youngstown, Ohio to play Mahoning Valley Race Track. They have a card which they call "The Best of Ohio", including 5 $150,000 stakes races for Ohio breds.

4. Go to Santa Anita for a card that includes the Grade 3 Autumn Miss and a chance to have a day of races over the track before the BC begins. I concede that many would say that this approach is highly overrated.

5. (?) Go somewhere else entirely (other than Kamloops thank you very much) not because it has important races worth handicapping, but just because it would be a fun thing to do on a Saturday that doesn't have a lot of exceptional alternatives.

I don't plan to make a final call until entries come out late Wednesday, but would welcome any thoughts or preferences you might have. Thank you very much.

[RUFFIAN]

Frisky Feline Votes ===> SANTA ANITA

[Roamin42]

Frisky Feline Votes ===> SANTA ANITA

Santa Anita sounds good, get into SA mode, I agree with the Fabulous Ruffian

[cal828]

Short priced favorites and scratches seemed to take their toll at Belmont so I would hate to see that repeated, if we decided to go there again. I'm ok with Keeneland or Santa Anita. Probably best to wait and see what the fields look like.

[Real Quiet]

I'll cast my line in the water for the short Meadowlands all turf card weather permitting.

[JolyB]

None of the entries for the relevant tracks have been posted for Saturday's races yet. I'm sure that the Racing Secretary's office at Santa Anita is going to be very busy, first announcing the pre-entries for all 14 BC races, starting at 11:30 Eastern, before getting around to drawing Saturday's card. It may be a while before those entries are available.

To respond to your post RQ, the long range weather forecast for the Northeast suggests that races at the Meadowlands will probably remain on the turf.

I have several commitments to fulfill this afternoon, but I'll try my best to have a venue announcement by sometime this evening.