A Guide To Every Single Damn Thing You Need To Know About Breeders Cup Saturday

This is the hands down the best two days in horse racing. The Breeders Cup. The best of the best, racing over two days. I wanted to put together a little guide like I've done in the past. Go over some races, make some picks and just shoot the shit about horse racing, a sport I'm very fond of. It's a little weird in horse racing because wait until late to put bets in, you're always tinkering with a pick-4, you might hedge a little, whatever reason. So we'll make picks for today and hope for the best. 

The Track

Beautiful, perfect, Keeneland. Had a buddy in college once say if heaven ain't as pretty as Keeneland don't send me there. I agree. A US National Historic Landmark built in 1936. I still need to get to Saratoga and the California tracks, but it's tough to beat Keeneland. It's just the perfect setup for horse racing. 

The conditions

Not as perfect as yesterday but still a decent day. Warm. Wind will be there but nothing extreme. Rain should hold off too. 

The races

This is the big day. A ton of Cup races. We'll try to throw in a little on each race. All odds and pictures are from our friends at Hollywood Races. Download the app here. 

Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (11:50 Eastern, Race 3)

CeCe won this race last year and comes in as one of the favorites again. If it wins it'll be just the second horse to ever win back-to-back in this race. People will likely know the names of Echo Zulu, Lady Rocket and Edgeway. The favorite is going to be Chad Brown and Irad on Goodnight Olive. 

Top Pick - 13. Echo Zulu

Use in exotics - 4. CeCe, 6. Chain of Love, 7. Obligatory, 8. Goodnight Olive

Breeders Cup Turf Sprint (Race 4, 12:29 Eastern)

One of the most fun races in horse racing. A quick, 5.5 furlong sprint. Now the power here is Golden Pal. We know all about this horse. It's a monster. Along with Cave Rock and Flightline this was one that many would single in horizontal betting. It's also the defending champ here. There's a good chance Golden Pal goes off at 4/5 or something like that. 

Top Pick - 8. Golden Pal

Use in exotics - 5. Go Bears Go, 6. Highfield Princess, 11. Casa Creed

Breeders Cup Dirt Mile (Race 5, 1:10 pm Eastern)

Two well known horses in Simplification and Cyberknife. A football guy in Three Technique. We've seen horses win this and really break out - most notably Knicks Go. Bing Bong. One thing to note here is 3-year olds have been the best in this race. Something to keep an eye on for betting. Laurel River scratching here really opens it up. 

Top Pick - 9. Cyberknife

Use in exotics - 7. Cody's Wish, 3. Pipeline, 2. Simplification

Breeders Cup Filly & Mare Turf (Race 6, 1:50 pm Eastern) 

I'm a big fan of what Moira has done. But the thing to note here, this race has been dominated by one of two backgrounds. Foreign horses with a history of winning and/or Chad Brown horses. Brown has won 4 of the last 10 of these races and has a damn good one in In Italian. Foreign horses have won the other 6 races. 

Top Pick - 10. Virginia Joy

Use in exotics - 3. Nashwa, 5. Tuesday, 11. In Italian, 12. Moira

Breeders Cup Sprint (Race 7, 2:30 pm Eastern) 

The horse everyone is going to talk about in this race is Jackie's Warrior. It's going to be a HEAVY favorite and in that category of Flightline, Golden Pal, etc. But there is some intrigue here. You could single Jackie's Warrior and it would make sense. Aloha West won this race in 2021. American Theorem has won two stakes races this year. There are challengers. 

Top Pick - 9. Jackies Warrior

Use in exotics - 4. American Theorem, 5. Aloha West

Breeders Cup Mile (Race 8, 3:10pm Eastern) 

Remember the name Modern Games? Yeah that's the horse that gave us the worst beat in the history of horse racing last year to close Friday's Breeders Cup. It is a good horse who is 2-for-2 in major races and won a Breeders Cup race last year. Charlie Appleby is a hell of a trainer who is the defending champ from a year ago as well. Pacesetters tend to not win this race as well.

Top Pick - 4. Modern Games

Use in exotics - 1. Pogo, 3. Dreamlooper, 13. Kinross, 14. Domestic Spending

Breeders Cup Distaff (Race 9, 3:55 pm Eastern) 

This race should be awesome because we have some loaded horses in this race. Nest is a damn near perfect horse. She even won at Keeneland back in April. Malathaat is 3-for-3 at Keeneland in her career. Clariere has been a rival to Malathaat forever and has two wins over. Again, a ton of intrigue in this race. 

Top Pick - 1. Malathaat

Use in exotics - 4. Clairere, 6. Nest

Breeders Cup Turf (Race 10, 4:40 pm Eastern)

Worth noting that since 2007 only three American horses have won this race. Tends to be a loaded race and foreigners have dominated it. Aiden O'Brien is a star in this race, winning six times. Dude just knows how to get horses ready for turf. The American star is War Like Goddess and it's an easy reason to see why. Also like having Joel on it. 

Top Pick - 3. Stone Age

Use in exotics - 2. War Like Goddess, 7. Nations Pride, 5. Rebels Romance, 11. Mishriff

Breeders Cup Classic (Race 11, 5:40 pm Eastern)

This is the big one. The biggest race on the card and we're going to have a heavy 

This is the big one. Biggest race of the weekend and we have a heavy favorite in Flightline. The horse is undefeated, 5-for-5 in its career and will likely go off around 3/5 or so. Even more absurd? The horse has won its five races by a combined 62 3/4 lengths. Absurd. Monster horse. Now who can beat it? Life is Good has three stake wins. Rich Strike was the huge underdog Derby winner. Hot Rod Charlie has always been a good horse and fan favorite. 

Top Pick - 4. Flightline

Use in exotics - 1. Taiba, 6. Epicenter

Betting

Okay, here are the picks. Like I said, I'm writing this a little early so I may tinker. What's beautiful about horse racing is you can bet any which way. I love betting horizontals - Pick 4/5. But if there's a race I like I'll throw in an exacta. If there's a horse I love I'll use it up top in a tri. We gave out a pick 4 winner yesterday that paid out $449 on a $54 bet. Not bad. Cave Rock winning would have meant we had all pick 5s and 4s home. Brutal. 

Consider these early builds. 

Early pick 4 - going to try and beat Jackie's Warrior and Golden Pal for cheap

Late pick 5 - Flightline singled

Late pick 4 - Flightline singled

Late pick 4 - beating Flightline