This Breeder's Cup Classic could be one of the best ever for the following reasons:
1. Santa Anita
2. The California Chrome situation
Forget a casino in a Bond movie. Forget the top floor of a Las Vegas hotel. Forget a cruise ship. With a backdrop of mountains straight ahead and starlet legs all about, and perfect weather in the air, there's no better place to enjoy a wager than Santa Anita.
And what looked like a simple run around five months ago, the Classic suddenly seems like anybody's race as California Chrome came up rusty in its last race.
The Classic has become exciting a month out because of all the questions that have popped up like weeds in a clover field.
How could CC's jockey have gone from being one of the greatest to being a poor practitioner of strategy virtually overnight? The Mayberry R.F.D.-like stable has suggested that Victor Espinosa should have done something different at the Pennsylvania Derby when the race camera had to pan back to find the odds-on favorite as the field approached the finish -- should have moved the horse nearer the front sooner, perhaps. The jockey responded that in his opinion the horse was operating at approximately 60 to 70 percent of its capabilities in Pennsylvania. What this means is that the Triple Crown trail has sent another one to the breeding shed on a loss, or that CC simply needed a race after a layoff. It is left to the handicapper to predetermine when a horse is about to need a race. Were an owner or a trainer to imply that a horse needed a race before the race, he or she would be a crowd favorite.
The next question to concern backers who have been with Chrome since the 30-1 days of the first future's pool sighting is: Why in the world would somebody ship a horse from Los Alamitos to Pennsylvania for a freshener? From the owner's and trainer's perspective, the CC experience has pretty much been an Us Versus the World experiment from the beginning -- a California bred versus the Eastern Establishment of writers, scholars and others more attuned to the way things were. It was clear that the Triple Crown trail was like unplowed ground to the Chrome contingent that felt ambushed at the Belmont Stakes. Maybe the run back east was a stab at revenge. Or maybe it was simply a glorified workout.
California Chrome does retain its considerable home city advantage in the Breeders' Cup Classic.
The Classic has become exciting a month out because of all the questions that have popped up like weeds in a clover field.
And, when the owners and trainer and jockey and supporters and detractors have no idea what is apt to happen next, there's a wager for that. It's fine if you owe a horse a bet out of loyalty. It's okay if you bet against CC in the Derby and Preakness, yet still fear him and his hometown vibe. One way to deal with a horse with questions galore is to put him on top of some wagers, and then enjoy the scenery and then play more positive recent form. There can be great "value" to be had on a favorite as a single on a Pick 3 or Pick 4. Questionable horses tend to either win like a former champ or run flat like a has-been. I had a win-then- pitch wager on last year's BC Marathon winner that went into the race with many more questions than plusses and won, making my week.
And now here's something about horse racing's continuing nutty place in fiction.
There's a series on Showtime called "Ray Donovan."
This one is about a guy in Los Angeles who fixes messes in everything from show business to politics and, in doing so, turns his private life into a little piece of hades. The backstory, whatever that is, which is probably Hollywood talk that keeps a plot from being linear, as if there's something wrong with that, is about a family dealing with vicar trouble, and a crook for a father. Side-stories are about lying, cheating, mayhem and murder, your Sunday night staples on some pay cable channels.
Season two of "Ray Donovan" ended the other night, as though there would not be a season three: it was a murder-fest. Only Ray and his immediate family were not murdered. Given the market for murder for a cause on pay cable (Dexter), "Ray Donovan" has been renewed; and now a whole new slew of rats must be created to be bumped off next time around.
In season two's last show, the chief crook who helped to spawn all the junior crooks, the senior horse's backside played by the excellent Jon Voight, went to Santa Anita Park with twenty grand that he had stolen. While observing the horses for the next race, one of the animals spoke to him. That's right. Just like Mr. Ed. This ultra-serious drama ventured off into La-La Land and a horse named The Captain told Jon Voight, in perfectly understandable English, to bet me.
So the character played by Jon Voight bet the whole twenty grand on the talking horse that won at odds of 50-1 and paid $1,000,000, cash.
Maybe in season three somebody could try to explain how that math could work, how a horse in an average race on an average race day could take a $20,000 win bet and still go off at 50-1, unless it was a dream sequence.