Post your BC Classic selection here.

[streetbull]

Well...this is one of our biggest race of the year besides the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown races...It is at Churchill Downs and the distance is at a mile and a quarter and the race is on real dirt.    

Since this race is on dirt and at the same distance of the Derby and every entrant is at equal weights.  It must be handicapped the same way.  Since the winners of the Derby are almost always won by the best sustained prep moves.  It is no surprise to conclude with two logical winners of this race.  It will be either Quality Road or the Champion mare Zenyatta.

Quality Road has run the best energy race this year 4 lines back in the Donn Handicap and yes, even though he ran on the pace, QR ran the race sustained. I have to  conclude that TP has aimed Quality Road to peak for this race, period, after his race performance in the Donn Handicap.

As for Zenyatta, this is a Champion Mare and/or Horse!!! who has always ran just enough to just get up in every one of her races..There are no need for more comments. This year, all of her races are mediocre, performance-wise..So this is her one and biggest knock.....I only got her to qualify off her race last year in the BC Ladies Classic...All of her races are sub-par compared to this year\'s field in the BCup.

This race will be guarantee to have fast fractional splits with so many early runners but the one who should set the mile mark (1:35:4) should be QR.

Good Luck to all and especially when you are still alive with this leg to run in the Pick Six!!!!

[number5858]

ajkreider Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...
> Love to see QR win it, but has looked off his best
> for a while.  

QR is the one horse I see in the field who doesn\'t have to run his best to win. He can run less than his best and still crank out a -3 for the win. Can\'t ignore 12-1 if that holds as compared to 3/5 for Z and low odds for LAL.

[Rick B.]

If I am going to try to beat Zenyatta, I might as well go for all of it with Etched.

This horse is no Invasor (although his record is eerily similar coming into the race), but Kiaran has the leisure of picking only the very best spots for the Godolphin horses, and Etched has the tactical speed to lay close to the pace and run by late. Obviously, 10 panels is a huge question, but the odds will be enormous. I\'ve made worse bets.

TG said in the seminar that the last two races may have take a bunch out of him, but I see an older, lightly raced horse that has been managed very carefully. Absent specific information about injuries and problems, the normal assumption is that there must have been something wrong for this horse to be raced so sparingly -- but I have found that line of thinking to be deceptive when assessing horses owned by the Sheiks and Godolphin: they simply don\'t race their horses that much.

Finally, it would be delicious irony if A. Garcia were to bring in a big one for me after I ripped his ass royally here for his Canadian Int\'l ride on Al Khali last month.