Here are the highlights of the first Breeders' Cup day, 2014.
One of the hardest things to figure was the fuzzy stuff at the tops of the TV screens. It turned out those were clouds, not that often seen around Los Angeles.
There was a smart gate scratch, Lady ZuZu in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Any horse acting out in a gate should be immediately disqualified from the race. In the sticks and boondocks, you sometimes see rowdy horses taken from the gate and given a quick sponge bath and a few carrots and then stuffed back inside, which is dangerous.
Bo Derek continues to reverse the aging process and still looks like about a 9½.
In the Dirt Mile, there was an interesting celebratory scene as a crowd about the size of the community of LaHabra somehow got into the winner's circle.
How did I do with my picks? The picks published right here in black and white? The picks that pick one winner per race, one second, one third, one fourth? Those black-and-white, cold-cut picks? Thanks for wondering. And the only reason I would ever mention such a thing as how I did is because I hit everything. I had all four winners, including the $12 winner in the first and the cold-as-sparkling-ice trifecta in the Juvenile Fillies Turf that paid about $130. When you pick in public for a worldwide operation, the hardest part of it is hitting the first race, as visions of zero for the Cup trudge through your head, 0-for-13. Which is ridiculously easy to do. Once as a guest picker at a track that shall remain nameless, as some of the regulars are probably still after me, I went 0-for-20, missing odds-on, odds-out, missing photos galore, hitting only the road home. So by hitting everything plus a little exotic action, now the worst I can do is 4-9. Which is actually pretty decent. There's this cautionary note. The way I have been running lately at the Breeders' Cup is to hit everything-plus on Friday and then cool off Saturday. This is a good time to remind everyone of the code, which says you can't complain about any pick unless you have made a pick of your own, as these races are a lot harder to pick before they start.