breeders cup intro pages ISSUE 31 new:Jerkins feature.qxd
19/8/10
16:01
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RACING
BREEDERS’ CUP SPECIAL
A
S the Breeders’ Cup World Championships return to Churchill Downs for two years beginning this autumn, we wanted to revisit some features published in North American Trainer to give our European readers insight into figures who are well-known at Churchill, and about whom you might be hearing a lot come Breeders’ Cup time. One of our articles is on long-time Churchill track superintendent Butch Lehr (first published in issue 12 of North American Trainer). We sat down with Lehr prior to the 2009 Kentucky Derby, which was the first after the tragedy of the filly Eight Belles, who had finished second in the race before breaking down in both of her front legs. It was a bad moment for racing, Churchill, and for Lehr personally, as was the 2006 Breeders’ Cup, which saw two unrelated breakdowns in the Distaff. Expect Lehr, who is a perfectionist when it comes to his track’s surfaces, to be on top of every detail come this November. The second profile is on Calvin Borel (first published in issue 17 of North American Trainer), who really knows his way around the track at Churchill. Rule number 1 at Churchill is: never underestimate a horse, no matter how long the odds, when C. Borel is aboard. Besides being a talented, and gutsy, jockey, Borel and his brother Cecil are among the hardest-working and nicest people you will ever come across on the backside of a racecourse. Finally, we reprint a surface debate in which Eoin Harty and Darrell Vienna participated (first published in issue 16 of North American Trainer). With talk on the table about whether or not the Breeders’ Cup is best suited by finding a permanent home on the synthetics in California, we thought it would be both interesting and pertinent to bring in the viewpoints of two California-based horsemen, 48 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 31
each of whom has won a Breeders’ Cup race – Harty with Tempera and Vienna with Gilded Time. Vienna is also a practicing lawyer. The European contingents have made successful Breeders’ Cup raids in the last two years, when the races were held on the all-weather surface at Santa Anita Park. However, they’ve also had some memorable Breeders’ Cup moments at Churchill: Miesque in 1988; Arazi, Miss Alleged, and Sheikh Albadou in 1991; Barathea and Tikkanen in 1994; Kalanisi in 2000; and Ouija Board and Red Rocks in 2006. On the other side of memorable was the 1998 Classic, in which Swain and Frankie Dettori took a detour to the outside rail to finish third. While the industry as a whole has suffered some major blows, Kentucky is at racing’s epicentre in North America and has thus taken the brunt of the losses. As Kentucky breeders began to find that local governments in other states appeared to be more concerned for their breeding and racing programmes than Kentucky’s own government, farms have been closing, crop sizes have diminished – though this is not necessarily a bad thing per se – and racing quality and quantity has diminished. Many Kentucky trainers have sought out-of-state races for their horses because prizemoney in states with alternate gaming, such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia, for example, is much more valuable. Hosting the Breeders’ Cup championships again is a great boost for the racing in Kentucky, and it will definitely be a highlight of the season along with the Kentucky Derby. Churchill installed lights during the winter of 2009, so the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic will be run under lights for the first time. Of course, when Alysheba won the Classic in 1988, it was under the cover of darkness. There’s a lot to look forward to this Breeders’ Cup, as it should be when the best horses convene to decide who is the best on the day.