Good morning from Monmouth Park in New Jersey, the home of the 24th Breeders' Cup, where the significant news is that, for the moment at least, it has stopped raining. It may be too late to save the punters though. Yesterday's rain was not just heavy but relentless - at times you felt like you were an extra in "Seven". On the coach from the hotel this morning, the favoured prediction among the American journalists was that day will be a "crap shoot". So when the champions are crowned, will that mean that they are crap champions? We can only hope not.
The track is sloppy, the turf is soft, and the punters are looking nervous. Monmouth has never hosted a Breeders' Cup before, and has put up 28,000 uncovered seats in temporary stands all along the short home stretch. Doing your dough is one thing, but doing your dough while several inches of rain works its way into every nook and cranny is adding insult to injury. The betting "handle" is a crucial indicator of the success of a Breeders' Cup, and if a couple of rank outsiders go in early and knock everyone out of the Pick Six, some of them at least may well head for the parking lot.
Here in the press room, the pre-Cup routine for the British journalists is the same as ever: keeping up with the football scores - Brighton, Watford, Derby and even Manchester City have followers - and putting the finishing touches to an immense Pick Six perm. There is a guaranteed pool of $3 million, so if it ever comes up, most of what used to be known as Fleet Street will need a new racing correspondent on Sunday morning. Sadly, four out of six at Arlington 2002 - when a dividend was declared to five - is as close as we've been. Colin Mackenzie of the Mail - who is shortly to retire anyway - remains undaunted. "How much do think an upgrade costs on Virgin?", he asks, all of two hours before the first race of the Six is due to be run.
Proceedings started this morning with the singing of the national anthem, belted out with great gusto by Uncle Junior from The Sopranos. Everyone is requested to remove their hats, stand up and listen in silence.
When they played the anthem on Thursday, John McCririck was in the middle of an interview with a slick American TV journalist. While everyone else fell silent, McCririck ploughed on at typical volume, even to the point of suggesting that the Cup was all about "stuffing the Yanks", just as they got to the twilight's last gleaming. The excruciating embarrassment of the reporter, who was all too aware of the evil looks being sent in his direction but did not want to miss his moment, was something to behold.
The Cup races start with the Juvenile Fillies' at 5.30pm British time, but the first race on the card has already been run and the dirt looks almost unraceable. There were just five runners, but they looked to be shuffling around the bends. In the big fields later on, it could get very messy.
After Market, one of the leading American fancies for the Mile, is a late non-runner, which boosts the chance of Excellent Art from his graveyard draw, and Sir Michael Stoute's Jeremy. Dylan Thomas, though, is out to 7-4 on Betfair for the Turf due to the easing ground, and Henry Cecil's Passage Of Time, in the Filly & Mare Turf, may be one of the few visitors whose chance will actually improve on the soft.
And the very latest news? It's raining again.
12.05pmThe first two races went with the pace - the track is so wet that they are going straight through the dirt and effectively running on the hard base underneath, or "wet fast" ground as they say here. The view takes hold that the speed horses will be favoured. But then Garrett Gomez comes from a different county on Cobalt Blue to grab the Select Stakes on the line, so there goes that theory.
12.15pm They are going into the paddock for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at 12.30, the first of the eight Breeders' Cup races, though some of these young fillies look a little reluctant to step out of the saddling boxes and into the New Jersey rain. Gomez looks to be on the favourite here, as Bob Baffert's Indian Blessing opens 3-1, just ahead of Izarra and Smart Deb, who is trained by Doris Harwood. She is, we are assured, no relation of Guy and Amanda.
"The rain is easing just a little," says one of the tv presenters rather plaintively. It is the first triumph of hope over experience today, but you can be sure it will not be the last.
12.29pm ESPN has a reporter on horseback out on the track, who reports that the track is "not quite as splashy" as it was yesterday. This may be because a good deal of it has simply floated away.
12.35pm The money was all for Indian Blessing before the race and the punters are on good terms with themselves after she blows the field away. Soon ahead from stall four, only A To The Croft goes with her down the back stretch, and after an opening quarter in 23.2 and a half in 46.2, she is well clear turning for home. She ties up a little in the final 100 yards as Proud Spell closes from off the pace, but Gomez, riding his third straight winner today, has already done the hard part.
Result 1. Indian Blessing 2. Proud Spell. 3. Backseat Rhythm. Winner returns $5.40 for a $2 stake - a fraction under 7-4 in old money. Trainer: Bob Baffert. Jockey: Garrett Gomez.
Now it's on to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in which Slew's Tiznow and Dixie Chatter are both scratched. Nick Zito's War Pass opens at 5-2 and is unlikely to get much bigger as the punters play up their winnings from the fillies' race. Pyro (trained by Steve Asmussen, brother of Cash) and Tale Of Ekati (Barclay Tagg) are next in the betting as they look for a successor to Street Sense, who bolted up in this last year and went on to become the first Juvenile winner to take the Kentucky Derby.
12.53pm Gomez is in the interview room and gets his priorities right. "I'd like to start," he says, "by thanking Grey Goose Vodka for sponsoring this race." A crate of the sponsor's finest is probably in the post already.
Bob Baffert brings some Californian warmth to the proceedings with his tan and sunglasses. "This filly is incredible," he says, "She takes her speed and she runs them into the ground. She's built like a sprinter but when they're that good, you can't run them down, they just keep going."
1.04pm Have just remembered that Garrett Gomez had problems with drink and drugs earlier in his career, so Grey Goose will have to send him something else.
War Pass is now down to 2-1, and only Pyro is maintaining any opposition in the market.
As for Dylan Thomas, he has so much in hand of the field on the ratings that half a stone below his best would probably be good enough to win. It will be worth seeing how the track rides in the Filly & Mare, coming up after the Juvenile, before taking a definite view.
1.12pm Doris Harwood, whose runner was fifth in the Juvenile Fillies, has had a good day. "We got some money and we had some fun," she says. "What's two-and-a-half per cent? [It's $50,000] We'll take it."
1.16pm The pace wins again. War Pass takes the lead in the first strides and does not see another horse on his way to an emphatic success. Pyro comes through to complete an exacta for the market leaders, the rain has stopped, and the punters are on very good terms with themselves.
Result 1. War Pass 2. Pyro 3. Kodiak Kowboy. Winner paid $6.40, or around 9-4.
Now it's off to the paddock to see Henry Cecil and Passage Of Time. It will be one of the great racing moments if the master of Warren Place can win his first Breeders' Cup race. Wait A While is a scratching due to the ground.
1.44pm Henry is smoking a super-sized cigarette as he gives instructions to Ramon Dominguez. Passage Of Time looks well though her winter coat is well advanced, but not nearly so well as Aidan O'Brien's All My Loving. Her coat would not gleam any more brightly if Aidan buffed it up with shoe polish.
She is not in the press room Pick Six, however, which has plenty of depth later on but has taken a bit of a view on this race and relies on Passage Of Time, Argentina and Honey Ryder.
1.49 Six minutes to post in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf and Cecil's filly is just favoured by the punters at around 5-2. Nashoba's Key, the main local hope, is 7-2 with Todd Pletcher's Hony Ryder at 5-1.
2.00Drama in the first half of the race as Simply Perfect pulls her way to the lead with Johnny Murtagh at the top of the straight first time, and then loses control completely on the next turn, taking out Arravale and Precious Kitten in the process. She is running along the far rail on the back stretch by the time an outrider helps him to pull up. "Must have been looking for the better ground," someone says.
Up front, Passage Of Time is going well as Argentina takes them and closes ominously at the far turn, but she cannot find a turn of foot as Lahudood hits the front and runs on to beat Honey Ryder, with Passage Of Time only third.
Lahudood was *cough* tipped up by your correspondent in The Guardian this morning, and rewards backers at just over 11-1. She did not feature in our Pick Six, however, so it's back to work tomorrow and no upgrade for Colin.
Result 1. Lahudood 2. Honey Ryder 3. Passage Of Time. Winner returns $25.40, or about 11 1/2-1.
2.16pm What does this mean for Dylan Thomas in the Turf? The positives are that the fillies did not finish strung out, and it looked a bit loose rather than bottomless. They also went a steady pace, and there is no obvious front-runner in the Turf, which will hopefully mean that he does not have a great deal of ground to make up in the stretch. Class will out, and a slow-run race could play into his hands, and if he reaches 2-1 I'd be tempted to play.
2.23pm "She didn't quicken, did she?", Henry Cecil says. "Everything went right for her in the race but from going well she seemed to struggle a bit at the end." Dominguez agrees. "She handled the course all right but didn't quicken in the last part of the race. I thought I had more horse under me than I actually ended up having."
Noseda is reluctant to say anything at all. "I've no idea what happened," he says. "I've never seen her do that before."
2.25pm So onto the Sprint, and the question of whether a racing journalist with who is wedded to the form book and rational analysis should back a horse on the basis of its name. The first horse I saw at the track on Tuesday morning was Greg's Gold, and he seems to be everywhere I look this week. I can't help but feel someone up there is trying to tell me something.
2.35pm Midnight Lute is the favourite at 5-2, with Greg's Gold at 5-1 along with Idiot Proof.
2.41pm It's a double on the afternoon for Baffert as Midnight Lute storms down the middle of the track to collar Idiot Proof, who helped to set a furious pace and looked to have shaken them off a furlong from home. Talent Search is back in third, while Greg's Gold is never going and beats only three home. Some was indeed trying to tell me something, and the message was: you have to be soft in the head to back horses because of their name.
2.44pm"Hold all tickets" says the Tannoy announcer, as there is an inquiry and objection. It will not affect the winner, though: Ryan Fogelsonger, on Talent Search, has objected to David Flores, who rode Idiot Proof.
2.47pmObjection overruled. Result: 1. MIdnight Lute 2. Idiot Proof 3. Talent Search. Winner paid $7, or 5-2. It is another winner for
2.55pmSnippets floating around include the fact that the connections of War Pass had a huge offer for their colt a couple of days before the race. Now who would have a chequebook that large? Gomez, meanwhile, could be having a career day, with two winners already and fancied horses Octave, in the Distaff, and Any Given Saturday, in the Classic, still to come.
3.00pm John McCririck is on the track television, suggesting that a European blank, a 6-1 chance yesterday, is looking much more likely now. However, the punters do not seem to agree, and Excellent Art is currently a 2-1 chance for the Breeders' Cup Mile with 20 minutes to post. Murtagh, who suffered such an awful passage in the Filly & Mare Turf, will need to produce a minute and a half of brilliance to weave his way through from stall 13, and Nobiz Like Shobiz, at 3-1, is close behind him in the betting from stall nine.
3.07pm Time for a Dawg, as they say here. The future always looks that little bit brighter when you have a Dawg in your hand.
3.14pmExcellent Art is still a scarcely-credible 2-1 for the Mile. Jeremy, Sir Michael Stoute's runner, is a 7-1 chance. Murtagh has already had to pull up once tonight, and if he blows the start here, he might just as well pull up again.
3.28pm It was the script that everyone was writing after he drew 13 and so it came to pass. Excellent Art got a fair position going into the first turn, well off the pace but at least only two wide of the rail. He picked up some ground going down the pack, but simply had too much to do turning in, having to come wide as Kip Deville, a rail-hugging, close-up fourth for much of the race, quickened into the lead. Excellent Art must be the most unfortunate horse in training: unlucky in the French Guineas, and the runner-up in three Group Ones since, all three of which he might well have won with more luck in running.
Result: 1. Kip Deville. 2. Excellent Art. 3. Cosmonaut. The winner paid $18.40, or just over 8-1.
3.26pm Kip Deville's win means that Cornelio Velasquez, who won on War Pass, now has a double on the night too. The European challenge now has just two races to go to avoid a blank, as we have no runners in the Distaff, the next race up on the dirt. A lot of hopes will be riding on the broad shoulders of Dylan Thomas, whose namesake was born 93 years ago today.
3.51pm It's a very open market for the Distaff with 14 minutes to post. Lear's Princess is the narrow favourite at 4-1, with Ginger Punch and Lady Joanne both on 5-1 .Unbridled Belle is 6-1, Octave a 7s chance to give Gomez a treble, and its 9-1 bar. Indian Vale, a 3-1 chance on the morning line, is 9-1 now.
3.58pm Todd Pletcher has three runners in this one - Octave, Indian Vale and Unbridled Belle - but as he is interviewed on ESPN, the caption offers the interesting information that the most successful trainer in America by far this year in terms of prize-money is 2 for 45 at the Breeders' Cup and his current losing streak is 31. However cold the fans in the bleachers may be feeling, Pletcher is colder.
4.01pm Aidan O'Brien has been talking about Excellent Art's run in the MIle. "He was drawn very badly but he ran a great race. Johnny gave him a very good ride, but he was drawn outside, so he had to let the race unfold, but he was closing, closing closing at the end." Excellent Art may now head for a race in Hong Kong where, if his current run of luck continues, he will hit the front a furlong out and then get stopped for speeding by a traffic cop.
4.10pmGinger Punch shows huge courage for Rafael Bejarano to edge out Hysterical Lady after a brilliant duel up the stretch. Eddie Castro gives Hysterical Lady a beating that would see him investigated by the RSPCA in Britain, and he bumps Ginger Punch, on his inside, as he goes a head up, but Ginger Punch battles back to get her head in front a few strides from the line. An inquiry is called by the result is quickly confirmed, with Octave the best of Pletcher's runners in third place.
The winner is trained by Bobby Frankel, another man whose fortunes at this meeting have been decidedly mixed.
4.17pm Cancel that, the stewards are still considering the placings, although Ginger Punch is walking around the winner's enclosure with a very large garland of flowers around her neck, which suggests they won't be throwing her out.
4.20pmThey say the turf track drains very quickly here, and the rain, which stopped about half an hour ago, has given way to a bright New Jersey evening. Aidan O'Brien, who leaves nothing to chance, may well tell Johnny Murtagh to take Dylan Thomas to post very .... very .... slowly......
4.21pm It's official now. Result: 1. Ginger Punch 2. Hysterical Lady 3. Octave. Winner paid $11, or 9-2.
Dylan Thomas is evens in the early exchanges on the pari-mutuel.
4.42pm Red Rocks is sweating up in the saddling boxes and Shamdinan is in a lather too, but Dylan Thomas looks magnificent. He has gone odds-on at 4-5 on the pari-mutuel, but can still be backed at better than 5-4 on Betfair.
4.47pmCondition and form suggest Dylan Thomas should be 2s on here. It all comes down to whether he handles the ground, and the European challenge urgently needs a result here. Otherwise, we will be depending on George Washington in the Classic, and on this track, that is not a place where we want to be.
5.01pm Ugly. Very ugly. Coming down the straight for the first time, Dylan Thomas was not striding with any real fluency, and Murtagh had the whip out well over two furlongs out. He was never going to win from there, and in the end could not even make the frame in his final race. It was a sorry way to end a great career.
English Channel was the beneficiary, backed down to 3-1 before the off before taking over on the final turn and striding away down the straight. Shamdinan and Red Rocks - who beat English Channel in this race last year - took the minor honours.
Todd Pletcher has now improved his record to 3 for 49 at the Cup, having finally saddled his first winner at the meeting since he took the Sprint in 2004.
Result: 1. English Channel 2. Shamdinan 3. Red Rocks. Winner paid $8.00, or 3-1.
5.10pm Someone points out that there is a karaoke evening in the bar at the media hotel tonight - "and we'll all be up there singing Smiths songs after the way we've run today".
5.20pm And so to the Classic, the race that all the Americans have been waiting for. The windows are open and the early favourite of the punters is Street Sense, at 9-5, with Any Given Saturday, Curlin and Lawyer Ron on 4-1, 5-1 and 6-1 respectively. They may well be closer than that at the off, though. George Washington, the last remaining chance to avoid the first European blank since 1998 at Churchill Downs, is a 10-1 chance on the PMU.
5.31pm Aidan O'Brien is talking about Dylan Thomas. "He got the trip I expected, but he just laboured in the ground. I'd say the ground beat him, he's such a lovely-actioned horse that he like firmer ground. But we were here and I thought his owners were very sporting to let him run."
5.34pm Seven minutes to post for the Classic, and Street Sense remains a solid 2-1 chance with the punters. The last time Pletcher had a winner at the Breeders' Cup, though, he had a double, and Any Given Saturday could be the one to repeat the trick. It would be wonderful, though, to see George Washington cruising along just behind the lead with a couple of furlongs to run. It promises to be quite a race.
Johnny Murtagh says that it "was not turf racing, he was spinning his wheels out there He even hated the warm-up, and this is a horse who loves his racing and everything about it. We had no chance."
5.52pm Horrible scenes at Monmouth Park. Horses of all abilities will sometimes lose their lives on the track, but the death of a horse like George Washington is an awful conclusion to the night.
5.55pm The track vet reports that George Washington suffered a "hopeless injury" when he broke his off-fore just 100 yards from the finishing line in the Classic. The punters who had backed Curlin, the winner, had just started to celebrate, but the stand went quiet as they looked back up the stretch and saw George Washington coming to a stop. Last year's 2,000 Guineas winner would not have been at Monmouth Park at all if he had not suffered fertility problems at stud earlier this year, and was a few seconds away from another attempt at a career as a stallion.
Some horses have a personality that makes them a favourite with the punters win or lose, and George Washington was certainly one of them. He refused to enter the winner's enclosure after winning the Guineas last year, had his much-publicised problems at stud, and was described by Aidan O'Brien as a horse whose ego was evident from the day he arrived at Ballydoyle. At least the end was quick when it came, and he waited patiently, in no obvious distress, as they put up the screens. However you look at it, though, it was a truly miserable way for him to end his days, and one that few who were there to see it will ever forget.
6.05pm For the record, the showpiece race of the meeting was won by Curlin, with Hard Spun second and Awesome Gem, one of the outsiders, in third. Street Sense, who started favourite and came with a trademark run on the inside under Calvin Borel faded in the straight to finish fourth.
Result: 1. Curlin 2. Hard Spun 3. Awesome Gem. The winner paid $10.80, or a fraction under 9-2.
6.12pm Suddenly the first European blank at this meeting for nine years seems an irrelevance. Losing is part of racing, something that we all learn to take, but the abiding image of the 2007 Breeders' Cup at Monmouth Park will be of George Washington waiting for a lethal injection.
If anything good is going to come out of it, then perhaps it will be a final realisation on the part of the Breeders' Cup organisers that dirt tracks are on the way out. The growing number of tracks installing artificial surfaces here are seeing their attrition rate in freefall, and next year's Cup will be on CushionTrack at Santa Anita. It will come too late for George Washington - whose ankle might, of course, have given way anyway - but Polytrack and the like could - and will - mean that other horses to race here in the future will stay sound and healthy, ready to keep racing and breeding.
Thanks for following the proceedings here and for your comments. This is Greg Wood signing off from Monmouth.
