- MONMOUTH CUP O.K. BY ME
CUP CRITICISMS UNWARRANTED: It's been hard to understand the assortment of criticisms leveled at Monmouth Park and Breeders' Cup officials since the October 26-27 event which was plagued by impossible weather. Attacks that smaller venues are inappropriate for the Cup; that Monmouth was ill-equipped for the undertaking; that betting lines were unmanageable and even that Aramark's foodservice efforts were lacking, all seem petty and unfair given the circumstances.
The reality is that anyone who paid for outdoor seating was likely doomed had the Cup been anywhere else in the East. Does anyone think it didn't rain 30 miles north at Belmont all Friday and Saturday? A 2007 Breeders' Cup at Churchill, which now apparently doesn't care to be bothered with the World Championships any longer, might just as easily been inundated with the inclement as well. And wasn't there a freak snowstorm in Louisville in the early Cup years? Santa Anita, which will host the 2008 edition, was surrounded by raging brush fires the week of the Cup. If the choice of plagues is fire or rain, I'm happy to get a little wet.
Monmouth not only was ready to host the multi-day festival, they were relishing the visits of racing's elite and most ardent fans after working 6 years towards the 48 hour window. The scenario was dealt with by Bob Kulina of Monmouth, Jim Gluckson of NTRA-BCL, and their staffs, as well as could be expected under the conditions. It's part of what you have to accept with a game played outdoors. I don't recall any condemnations of the NFL for their preparedness when last year's Super Bowl was nearly flooded-out by South Florida torential rains.
Jay Hovdey's (DRF 10/29, "Horses Put Needlessly at Risk") contention that television coverage locked Breeders' Cup Limited into running the Saturday races without consideration of a postponement is in fact inaccurate. BCL officials were readily prepared Friday evening and Saturday morning to lose the exposure and millions of dollars by running Sunday, had the jockeys or Monmouth management deemed the racetrack unsafe. And his suggesting that George Washington's breakdown was directly attributable to the muddy oval is also impossible to prove.
In the famed 1957 Trenton Handicap Round Table was drowned by Bold Ruler and Gallant Man, and the sloppy 1958 Woodward saw the great Champion finish 17 lengths behind Clem. Did those 2 sub-par efforts diminish Round Table's seasons or career achievements? Running in the mud is one more test among the plethora of challenges that horses face. On 'At the Races' on the eve of the Cup, Carl Nafzger readily admitted exactly that; "You have to face challenges of all kinds and the track condition is just one more.." And when got to the end of the weekend, the Classic found the best horse in racing this year further confirm his rather remarkable set of aptitudes.
As for long betting lines and foodservice issues, I saw neither, but that may have been a function of where I ventured throughout the track. As it happens, many patrons I spoke with were quite content with the reduced attendance from the weather, specifically citing the ease of wagering and comfortable space a non-capacity crowd at Monmouth allowed them. From my own perspective, and this was my 9th Cup, Monmouth was as pleasant in the scenario as it developed, as any of the four other venues (BEL, CD, GP, SA) at which I've enjoyed racing's biggest day. Running the Breeders' Cup at smaller venues continues to be a viable alternative to the 'palaces', rewarding the Monmouths, Lone Stars and Arlingtons, and their regular visitors, for their contributions to the game.
I look forward to a return to Arcadia in 2008, provided I don't have to cross a fire line to get there, and I'd love to return to Oceanport down the road for another Cup as well. One proviso on venue decisions: Should Turfway ever be considered as a site, make sure it's not during a 17 year cicada season. We've had fire and rain... let's try to avoid locusts.
PRECISIONIST/GHOSTZAPPER REDUX: Bob Baffert enjoyed a banner Cup winning a pair, and certainly Midnight Lute's stunning win was one of the weekend's highlights. This dominance-delayed Real Quiet son was always known to be equipped for greatness, but the correction to his breathing issues has delivered the goods in his back-to-back demolition of the game's biggest dashes. He is now poised for a return to stretchouts that should make him the obvious frontrunner as next year's top older horse whether Curlin returns in '08 or not. A campaign that results in a successful Breeders' Cup Classic visit next year would place Midnight Lute in the company of Precisionist or Ghostzapper: modern horses that were able to utilize their speed to smashing success in sprints or classic distance events. He'll be a welcome star attraction, and Baffert is the perfect barker to champion this year's Sprinting Champion.
PLETCHER'S 'BAD' DAY? While no one was looking, I thought Todd Pletcher had a pretty damn good Breeders' Cup. Mired in a pronounced slump, for him, since Saratoga, Pletcher earned career-ending BC Turf honors and an Eclipse for Jim Scatourchio's charming English Channel, and seconds with Octave and Honey Ryder. Boy, there's a bad afternoon if I ever saw one. Octave, the object of a controversy in the Fasig-Tipton sales ring a week later, may have turned in the Cup's gamest effort as the sole off the pace route runner to reach leaders on the impossible track surface at Monmouth. She ends her career having never finished off the board in 13 starts (4-7-2), with her 4 length loss to Rags to Riches in this years' Kentucky Oaks the 'worst' beat she was ever handed.
Pletcher sent out 10 starters in the Cup, and while the performances of Lawyer Ron and Any Given Saturday have specifically been dwelled upon, it didn't look to me like anyone was winning that Classic other than the colt that did. The Leopard was 7th as the 7th choice in the Juvenile Turf; Host and Icy Atlantic weren't really serious candidates for Mile valor; Unbridled Belle and Indian Vale may have done their best running earlier this year, or struggled with the conditions. Pletcher was criticized for scratching Wait a While due to the turf course situation, yet no one questioned John Shirreffs doing the same thing with After Market.
I've been as critical of Team Todd as anyone, but like so many 'coaches', Pletcher gets too much credit when he's doing great, and far too much grief when he doesn't...
JUST A SQUIRREL LOOKIN' FOR A NUT: The wagering on the weekend was a mixed bag with plenty of winners identified but not enough of their exotic co-stars. Grabbing Maryfield on Friday got the weekend off to a great start. But while hitting ordinary exactas much of Saturday was OK, interruptions in rolling P3's and the P4's by Lahudood and Ginger Punch, as well as Cosmonaut blocking Nobiz from a Mile trifecta, doomed the Cup for me.
Having chased the usual monster Cup exotics unsuccessfully, I felt by Saturday's end like the crazed squirrel that many encountered before the Mile in the Monmouth paddock. Diving from one of the giant trees that provided shelter from the rain, the grey invader scurried at the feet of startled visitors, ran back up the tree and fell to the ground again, and then ran through the assembled setting off freaky dance moves by all. It was one of the week's memorable moments and kind of a bookend of furry creature encounters for me, having met up with a suburban raccoon earlier in the week outside the condo where I stayed.