Friday November 2

Future Stars Friday:  November 2

Today we started off with a delicious, full breakfast at the Culbertson Mansion.  Then the plan for the day was for the three boys to attack the races while the gals explored Louisville.  It was in the upper 40s as we began our day.

We had a long journey to the parking lot at the stadium because we set the GPS for the track, thinking it would take us right by the stadium.  But it didn't and then we discovered most of the streets were blocked to get back to the stadium.  As it turned out this was the ONLY "issue" of the day.  We were in the gate by 10 am and posed for the obligatory photos with the Breeders' Cup statute and with the iconic Twin Spires in the background.

We headed up to our reserved box seats, and WHAT a view!

But there were already two people in our box and it wasn't the most roomy so we spent the day wandering around and then found a spot at the end/top of the grandstand with a spectacular view of the horses coming off the turn.  I had gone back and forth on how to play the races over these two days.  First, I thought BOTH days the races in general were very competitive without solid favorites, and on a an everyday race day, I'd pass on a majority of these.  This was complicated by the fact that all the races today were for very young juvenile runners.  So, at one point I thought I should just bet the five or six runners I had a lot of confidence in and be an racing fan, just enjoying the world championships live and in color.  But then I thought, I paid all this money, and came all this way....and what if one of the horses I had picked WON without a bet?  So in the end I decided to try and structure my betting so that if ONLY the best bets won, I'd be a winner for the day and the weekend.  The first five races of the day I had four minimum bets and a "pass."  Had a second, but that was it.  We came to the fifth, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Filly Turf and I really liked Chad Brown's unbeaten filly, Newspaperofrecord.  I had originally decided to triple the bet, but as I looked at the betting I decided she was worthy of going "prime time."  In what most would agree was THE most impressive race of the day, she went right to the front and was NEVER asked, and NEVER threatened as she ran away from the rest of the fillies!  WHOOO HOOO!

I ran a strong second in the Juvenile Fillies in the next race - at a fair price - and then was off the board in the Juvenile Turf.  But what I'd termed my "best" of the Friday card came in the featured Juvenile where Bob Baffert had seemed to indicate his unbeaten colt, Game Winner had given every indication of being as talented as his three-year-old Triple Crown champion, Justify.  He sat a little farther off the pace set by his main challenger, Complexity heading into the far turn.  But I had thought that that one wouldn't last the full mile and a sixteenth, and at the top of the lane he faded as Game Winner made the decisive move and pulled away late to score!

Two-for-five in the Breeders' Cup races!  And BOTH wins were with the horses I'd liked a lot, so had I stuck with the conservative approach I'd have been 2-for-2 on the day.  But, I came out ahead for the day, hit with both of my best bets and I was happy. 

As we left all three of us were chilled to the bone, but the transportation to the parking lot was very quick and smooth.  And the trip home was easy, with a small detour to get around traffic.  We went out to Mag's Bar - which had been recommended to us - for some pizza; then down to the "speak easy" for a night cap and called it a day.  I thought alot about how to play Saturday's races, most especially about how much I liked my BET of the Weekend, Enable in tomorrow's turf....