where do you rank this past b cup?

[Danzig]

actually, i missed a lot of it. left the house to do my honey do's a little later than i planned. long day, got back in time to see english channel had won. and of course the dish dvr DIED two days beforehand (replacement of course came YESTERDAY) so no way to record.
can't remember the last time i didn't watch from start to finish.
so, where to rank it. not as good as last year for sure. not as bad as some others.
just an odd day.

[tiznowthegreat]

I guess I would be in the minority, but the BC is always my favorite day of the year. The day the advance edition comes out I buy it and look over it every night. I take off Friday from work and wake up at 6 am on Sat like a little kid at Christmas. I'm surprised to see how many people didn't watch it or just casually watched it. I can say I watched every minute of it and rewatched most of it Sunday.

[philcski]

It was in the bottom 20% for me, not because I did poorly (I did) or the facility (I love Monmouth Park and hope they go back) but because of the weather and the loss of George Washington. All the months of preparing ruined by the rain...

[Danzig]

i'm sure some of us are more up for some super bowls over others as well. i don't think it's an indication of lack of interest.
strange tho that some of us were out of it when we had the best showing of top three year old talent in some time. guess maybe it doesn't matter as much as some thought...

[ELA]

I had a great day -- a great week for that matter. The BC has a way of getting you charged up. Sure, the weather was bad, but I don't/didn't even think about that, nor would I dwell on it. I think Monmouth did a fantasic job and they will probably be in the running again in the future. They may move the dates a bit, or change some of the logistics, make it part of a larger meet, etc. That could all depend on where NJ racing is going vis a vis the Meadowlands, Monmouth, VLT's, and so on.

I've always enjoyed Monmouth, the facililty, racing, etc. and having the BC there was great. And, I got to see a super performance by the soon to be named Horse Of The Year. Hope everyone had a great day.

Eric

[booner]

This was only the 4th Breeder's Cup I've watched, as I didn't get attached to horse racing until early in '04. Last year at Churchill was the first I attended, and made the trip to Monmouth this year.

Monmouth is a beautiful track. The weather didn't cooperate, but I liked the setup nonetheless. I am making plans to head back there in the summer to see it w/o the bleachers set up. I know I won't be dissappointed.

I think they did a good job of hosting BC. Everything went smooth for me the entire time I was there. The track conditions did affect my handicapping; I know I would have had a better 2 days at the windows if the rain would've stayed away.

The one thing I enjoyed the most was being around true, die-hard horseplayers for 3 days. I haven't found too many in Kentucky, and most of the horseplayers I meet constantly want to bitch and moan about jockeys and trainers. In Jersey, I actually got to talk to several people about the horses themselves. On more than one occasion my wife saw the look in my eyes and told me, "No, I don't want to move up here".

Overall, my experience was great. The people I met and places I went were well above par. I can't wait to do it again!

[NoLuvForPletch]

The first one I really remember getting pumped up for was 1991, though I'm sure I watched before that. I've been to the BC in 2001 and 2005 at BEL and was supposed to go to this one at MTH. The reasons for my feelings of this being the worst for me:

Weather - obviously nothing can be done about the weather but what made it worse this year is that it was 2 days worth of racing (so I'm even more pumped up) but the weather ruined it. I went on Friday for 2 races and had to leave. We didn't go at all on Saturday. It's tough to pull this off in the NorthEast, but I'm sure they'll be back at BEL and I'm sure I'll go.

Venue - when they first announced that it was going to be at Monmouth, we said there was no way we would go because it is too small, and what if it rains? Well excitement superceeded sanity and we applied for seats. Not cheap seats and both days, so our expectations were that we would end up with good to decent seats. Well, whether this is Breeders Cup or Monmouth we took it up the a$$ when it came to our seats. We applied for seats ranging from the most expensive to the seats located on the apron. I believe the prices ranged from $250 - $160. We ended up with apron seats for both days, and the worst apron seats you could find. On Friday our seats were tolerable, inside the 1/8 pole about 1/4 of the way to the 1/16 pole (Section 801). Somehow our seats for Saturday were in section 811, which was at the top of the stretch (basically near the playground for you regular Monmouth goers) 4th row from the rail. So not only were we as far away from the finish line as you could be, but we were at ground level. What kind of moron made the decision to have 15 rows of folding chairs at ground level before starting the risers? You couldn't see the finish line with binocuars. So, after 2 races in a downpour on Friday and knowing that we'd be watching 99% of each race on the big screen in front of us Saturday, we bagged it. Ended up eating $765 worth of tickets, two days worth for 4 and a parking pass (which really annoys me because I've got a parking sticker). I really feel as though some of the seats were misrepresented when the initial maps went out. You can't have 15 rows of seats on the ground costing more than the temp bleacher seats behind them.

Wagering - one abbreviation, NJBETS. What a disgrace. So after all of the above I spent 75% of the day trying to get bets in to this joke of a system, some of which I didn't get in, instead of being able to just relax and enjoy what I could with the small party I had at my house. Of course my friend had no trouble at all betting on his NYCOTB account, which I have as well, but thought I'd be a good NJ resident and abide by the law. Probably cost me money, but can't really swear to it. I know I missed out on the Midnight Lute/Idiot Proof exacta, which I would've had pretty good.

So, all of the above combined makes this even worse than the day when we got into a car accident on the way to my friends house to watch the races. Some idiot made a left turn right into my truck. If it wasn't bad enough that it was my Wife's birthday, the accident took away any chance we had to talk about the pick 6. I put in the bet, from the side of the road. After the police officer drove us home to get our other car we headed into manhattan. We got there for the Sprint and my Wife says I like Reraise bet him across the board for me. Well, I've got Kona Gold, Affirmed Success and someone else in the Pk6, but no Reraise. The rest is history and I go home with 5 out of 6. Now imagine this past BC being worse than that.

Thanks for the opportunity to vent. I'm sure everyone else enjoyed their day more than I.

[Storm Cadet]

Originally Posted by ELA

I had a great day -- a great week for that matter. The BC has a way of getting you charged up. Sure, the weather was bad, but I don't/didn't even think about that, nor would I dwell on it. I think Monmouth did a fantasic job and they will probably be in the running again in the future. They may move the dates a bit, or change some of the logistics, make it part of a larger meet, etc. That could all depend on where NJ racing is going vis a vis the Meadowlands, Monmouth, VLT's, and so on.

I've always enjoyed Monmouth, the facililty, racing, etc. and having the BC there was great. And, I got to see a super performance by the soon to be named Horse Of The Year. Hope everyone had a great day.

Eric

I agree with all stated above...and I didn't go there live for the races. I thought it was a great day of racing.