Betty's Critters - & History Views

 I can go to sleep happy tonight - a granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Sunday Silence (both bred in Japan) won their races today at Del Mar.  They were the first wins for any horse bred in Japan in a Breeders' Cup race.  (I still love Sunday Silence!)    Nine Breeders' Cup races were run today with $21 million in purses.  Yesterday was set aside for the 2-year-olds; today was for horses aged 3 years and up - and for some, it was their swan song before retirement for breeding purposes.  Only three of the races had full fields, an the Fillies and Mares Sprint race had the smallest field in the history of the Breeders' Cup races, with only five entries.     I'll be describing each race - name of the race, guaranteed purse, distance, the number of entries, the complete order of finish, with how much purse money that horse won - and then I'll list the betting payouts, each based on a  $2 bet .  If you wish to know the sexes and we...

 A little after noon (PDT) at Del Mar Racetrack in California, on Saturday, nine Breeders' Cup Races will begin, with a guaranteed total of $21 million in purses.  The races Saturday are for both sexes, aged three and up.  The oldest horse entered is Extravagant Kid, an 8-year-old gelding, bred in Florida.  He'll be starting from gate 12 - the widest post - in the 5 furlong Turf Sprint.  There are also several 7- and 6-year-olds racing on Saturday.       Due to differences in ages, and sometimes in sexes, there will be different weights for the horses to carry.  Fillies and mares are considered the weaker sex and carry less weight than their male counterparts; and 3-year-olds also get a weight allowance when running against older horses.  In the Turf, for instance, a 3-year-old filly will carry 119 pounds, while males aged 4 and up will carry 126 pounds.  That's called handicapping for sex and age...    As usual, when...

A few years back, when the Breeders' Cup decided to run all of the Juvenile races on Friday (instead of all the female races), they came up with the name "Future Stars Friday," since the two-year-olds running are supposed to be the "Stars of Tomorrow."  Some of the juveniles will have their best races this year, and as they mature will not be as superb as they were in 2021; others will continue to excel, and will, indeed, become stars of thoroughbred racing in the next handful of years.  No one can tell what the future will bring.   This year's Breeders' Cup is at Del Mar, the track that Bing Crosby and other rich racing fans built and opened in 1937 in California.  Trevor Denman is the usual track announcer at Del Mar, but he slipped on the stairs of his deck and badly injured his back.  Larry Collmus, who calls the races for NBC for the Triple Crown, and the Breeders' Cup, will cover for Trevor for the entire season at Del Mar.    As usual, when I ...