Breeders Cup, Best and Worst-
 

Best-
Uncle Moe
Todd Pletcher
Goldikova
Unrivaled Belle
Blame
Zenyatta
Morning Line

Worst-
Quality Road
Al Khali
2yr old Euros, UGH
Bob Baffert all weekend, not just in BC races- 2 of his might have been up against a big inside bias though, still 0 for whatever....
AZ Warrior
Midday
Harmonious
Breakdowns and deaths...

This is some list...

Add to it... Douglas.

Best -
Justin Dew
The Art of Redboarding
Goldikova's stretch kick
Uncle FreddyMo
Angry toothless jockeys
Joel Rosario
Overhead camera angles
Zenyatta's paddock walk and post parade


Worst -
The disgraceful retirement of Rachel Alexandra
The Breeders Cup Turf
Sir Mike Stoute's scratch of Workforce from the BC Turf
The "performance" of Life At Ten
The final time of the BC Classic

By the way - Rachel Alexandra made two starts at Churchill this year - Unrivaled Belle edged her by a head in the first ... that race was her 2nd start off of the layoff, she carried 4 pounds more than UB that day.. I realize almost insignifcant factors - but the margin was just a head and the final time was great.

In RA's other start at Churchill - she won a 9f stakes by 11 lengths - her final time was slightly faster than Blame's in the Stephen Foster at the same distance on that same card.

She won the Ky Oaks by 20 lengths over this track the year prior with Hal Wiggins training her ... and they retire sound?

HORSES

BEST
Uncle Mo
Goldikova
Blame
Zenyatta

WORST
Here Comes Ben
Quality Road
Al Khali (and it pains me to say that)
Atta Boy Roy (another heartbreaker, but thank God he's okay)
Mine That Bird
Girolamo

PEOPLE

WORST

Javier Castellano
Calvin Borel
Todd Pletcher
Johnny V.

BEST

Goldikova's groom
Jerry Bailey
Martin Garcia

What did Martin Garcia do other than manage to not fall off of a horse?

I'd say it was a pretty typical week for him in that regard.

Edgar Prado actually had a brilliant ride to upset the F and M Turf.

He lost on a bunch of the goats horses....

MG kept a cool head while others were wigging out of theirs.

And, it's my GD list - deal with it.

Like I said - typical week.

Plumania heads my worst list, unless she bled or tied up in the race, that was a pretty dreadful performance Fri.

She was like 8-1. Harmonious was horrible and bet hard, tvg guys singled her in the pick 4. Um Winter Memories was also pretty flat IMO.

Maraghs ride on Tizway was pathetic.

:tro::tro:

Well she was my only bet on Fri, so I will wear the goat's horns for that one, brutal pick..luckily my best one today(posted, no redboard) came through. All in all I would say the Euro's were somewhat disappointing this yr. Even with 2 wins to their credit.

Of all the jocks this weekend, I can tell you about Gomez and Velazquez and all those guys but the guy that impressed me the most was Rosario. He's come a long way. Rosario rode a great race on Hamazing Destiny for 2nd in the Sprint, not panicking after a bit of a sluggish break that has really compromised that colt in the past, and really rode him well to get 2nd money in the sprint. Then after that he found a way to get Dakota Phone into the winners circle, and rode a pretty heady and smart race on Champ Pegasus. Rosario was very good today.

This just popped into my head, Calvin Bo-Rail was a worst. Without the rail being an advantage like it has been as it was in the last BC, derbies...ect. He was outridden by a journeyman jock that would qualify as a best of...Jamie Theriot. You have to wonder was this communicated by the BC admin to the track super prior to Fri, just throwing that out there. As far as I can remember CD and the rail has always been the place to be.

How was Borel a worst? Did you see his mounts? Other than the Marathon and Juv Fillies - They stunk. And he was hardly riding Caddy's in those two.

Best:

Uncle Mo
Goldikova
Awesome Feather
Todd Pletcher
Zenyatta and Blame
My pick of Shared Account (not the horse herself)
My bankroll
Cool ESPN camera angles (hey, I like most of 'em)
Big Drama

Worst:

Randy Moss and Joe Tessitore's frequent speaking errors
Injuries
Michigan-Illinois
45-minute delay in posting Pick 6 payoff (literally zero websites had this)
Todd Pletcher using the non-word "irregardless" (at least I'm pretty sure he said it)

I kinda liked Attaboyroy also, he knew the rail was dead and that really took away his MO, that has made him the CD jock legend he is, without it he didn't even try to make a difference.

just a couple off the top of my head.
Best
The Classic
Uncle Mo
Goldikova
Big Drama and the ride by Coa
Gomez
Theriot

Worst
Breakdown of rough sailing
The whole Life at Ten fiasco
Not so much the fight, but ESPN continuous loop of it trying to get some people to keep watching
Quality Road
Maragh (he could have stayed at Aqueduct and gave rides like that)

:tro:

Best:
- Zenyatta not winning
- Uncle Mo
- Goldikova

Worst:
- Tessitore fawning over "Queen Z" more than any person has fawned over a horse since.....Tessitore fawned over Curlin two years ago.
- Lookin at Lucky's last furlong
- The BCTurf

Best
- Back on dirt

Worst
- Some really funky race riding, especially w/the deal rail

BEST:

Doreen's reply....i might use it the next time grocery shopping with the wife.....it's MY GD list, deal with it!!

Best

TV Coverage - other than sweating out the end of the Ill-Mich game
so we could see the Juvy race live.
The Fight
Churchill Downs
Real Dirt
Uncle Mo
Unrivaled Bell
My Friday Bankroll
The Shot of the track under the lights..pretty cool

Worst

Midday not getting up and costing me a huge triple
Not putting shared account on top of Midday for a few bucks
My Saturday bankroll
Leaving Big Drama out of my pick 3
Not betting either one of Pletcher's More than Ready horses

Gomez made a difference yesterday, I know alot of people will say Jockies don't win races but try telling that to the connections of Pluck and Blame today. Imagine if Rajiv Maragh or Jose Lezcano riding these 2, they don't sniff the winner's circle if Gomez wasn't on them.

best:

dvr'ing the races, coming home and zipping thru the nonsense and just watching the good stuff.
getting home in time to see the classic live.
blame, who i'd picked way back when, winning.
goldikova three-peating. an awesome horse.
dakota phone's win-love seeing an older horse triumph like that, repaying his connections for keeping him in racing.

worst:
having a horse break down.
them only showing zenyatta the whole time, with nary a glimpse of the rest of the classic field.
the mosses asking fans to be quiet.

Best
Rolling Pick 3's
Uncle Mo
Blame and Zenyetta
Chamberlain Bridge and Big Drama beating the bias
Goldikova's explosive move
Dangerous Midge rerallying

Worst
Still seeing Zenyatta haters after that gutsy performance
Jaycito not showing up
Forevertogether showing up (enough already quit embarassing her)
All Euro non turf horses
Musket Man not hitting the board
Me fat fingering 1,6 instead of my intended 1,5 in the last leg of the Pick 6 that cost me 1200 bucks in the 5 of 6:zz:
Me for not having Dakota Phone in above Pick 6 yet having him in a winning P3

Oh Jesus.

Watch it or I'll bet the Jets on the Money line today.

:tro:

I never got Musket Man... I said on this website, at least a year ago that he would never win a race. They might be able to find a Grade 3 for him, but they have yet to do that. I had 5 friends say, I like this Musket Man a little. I said why? They all said because Serling likes him. No one could give one reasson why to like this slug.

Musket Man likely would've won the Dirt Mile.

It would have been another toss out for me, that I would have lost $ on.

I didn't think he would win however he is a battler and always finds a way to hit the board. The kind that you can key off of in a tri.

It does not always work. I thought the same about Warriors Reward... Yes I thought he could win, but he was lock city to run 2-3 in my mind...

The horse just sucks. And I'm not rubbing it in, he's burned a good amount of my money this year as well.

Unfortunately me too and I also didn't include my original pick Big Drama in my pick 4 becuase of his post.

he should have run there. but i thought the same about quality road. would have been one hell of a race.