I thought Ladies’ Day was supposed to be Friday! The girls – Goldikova and Zenyatta –
stole the show on Saturday as well. Two once-in-a-lifetime mares, and we, as racing fans, had the opportunity and pleasure of watching them perform just hours apart.
I’ve been coming to this racetrack since before I could walk, and I’ve never heard a Santa Anita crowd that loud and enthusiastic. Truly electric. While Zenyatta’s Classic performance will be and should be the lasting image of BC 2009, the weekend produced several other memorable moments. For now, we’ll stick to some of the Friday highlights.
Juvenile Fillies
The “cat man” strikes! Trainer Wayne Catalano earned his second juvenile filly title in four years with She Be Wild. He also saddled Dreaming of Anna to win the 2006 Juvenile Fillies. She Be Wild is the Maurice Jones-Drew of horse racing. What she may lack in size, she more than makes up for in grit and determination. Ironically, her win in the Juvenile Fillies occurred exactly six months to the day from the 2010 Kentucky Oaks. Will we see her at Churchill the first Friday in May? Only time will tell.
Filly and Mare Turf
America vs. Europe. The Europeans represented one-fifth of the horses, and yet they won two-fifths of the races! Going back to the 1993 Classic, the Europeans have won 15 of the last 37 Breeders’ Cup races held at Santa Anita. That’s over 40 percent . . . truly remarkable. As was Midday in the F/M Turf. The knock against her was the firm ground she would be running over. Imagine what she would have done to this field had the turf been on the soft side. This wound up being a mismatch of Islington or Ouija Board proportions. The Americans were simply outclassed.
Filly and Mare Sprint
The tote board said Ventura was a lock. Informed Decision had other ideas. Ventura dropped far back as she did a season ago, the only difference – she was facing a mare who wasn’t going to let her by had they gone around again. Informed Decision is literally unbeatable on any synthetic track, and her tactical speed played a major role in the outcome of this event. What a weekend for Julien Leparoux! Three Breeders’ Cup wins . . . second (for a single year) only to Garrett Gomez’s four victories in 2008. Of course, the expansion of the number of Breeders’ Cup races has a lot to do with those numbers.
Sentimentally, I would have liked to have seen Ventura win for Bobby Frankel. ESPN had reported earlier in the day that he had been checked into Cedars Sinai Medical Center where he would watch the races on television. We haven’t seen him at the track for several months as his battle with lymphoma which was first reported by ESPN earlier this fall continues. Bobby was at the hospital when I was born, and he was my first employer. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.
Ladies’ Classic
Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!
No matter what she did on the track, she was always going to be the “Jan Brady” of John Shirreffs’ stable. But on Breeders’ Cup Friday, Life is Sweet finally had her moment in the limelight. Zenyatta was nowhere in sight, nor was anybody else in the Ladies’ Classic for that matter. With an eight-wide move reminiscent of Zenyatta in last year’s Ladies’ Classic, Life is Sweet obliterated her competition, leaving little doubt regarding who the best older mare in the country is: The not named you-know-who!
More to come . . .
