Breeder's Cup WrapUp Thoughts

[TheSpyder]

Well, it's over...Two grueling days, a lot of races, so what did you think?

My thoughts..

Got to start out by saying the ATR show all week was exceptional and if there was some award for horse racing coverage, it should win something. The insight and opinions helped put me on several winners.

The ProRide surface; I have to say I had no problem with it and think it played fair. I think the best horses won except when a jockey made the wrong move. You could say that it cost Curlin the win, but you could also say he was moved way too soon leaving nothing for the finish. We'll never know.

I'm interested now about the different artificial surfaces. ProRide is 87% regular dirt/sand. What are the others? It appears that not all these are the same so you can make a claim that there are now 4,5 or 6 different surfaces. Someone made the comment that the Keeneland surface is very different. This makes it difficult to cap. Still, I had no problem with the ProRide and as I did very well over the weekend, I guess I'm an artifical capper. The horses seemed to like it too as no injuries I heard.

The TV coverage was poor. I wish these guys would watch an English TV coverage. The stars calling the jocks "riders up" was the low point. Also, having 10 different announcers was as mind spinning as the camera angles and would put anyone on dramamine. My head is still spinning.

The number of races was too much. Maybe I'll get use to it but the addition of all those races made it a seemed watered down. Certainly it made it a challenge for owner/trainers to decide which race was best to enter.

The horse and match ups were the highlight. Euro's vs. US horses, East Coast/West Coast, dirt horses/artifical horses, distance horses/speed horses all made each race very interesting and a heck of a lot of fun to cap. All in all, the races were fantastic. You can make a claim that here were horses that didn't belong in a Breeder's Cup, but looking at some of the winners (Desert Code for example), it appears that the day found the best horses.