A Big Racing Weekend Ahead

(Posted on Thursday, October 29, 2015)

It’s been a long while since my last post. As you know, every-day life takes priority, with kids to raise and businesses to run. Triple Crown Dreams is my passion, but sometimes passions need to take a back seat. In the meantime, I hope you’ve been following my Facebook page, as we post about others following their dreams and all things horses. Mostly we post about Thoroughbred racing, but you will have noticed some sidebars about therapeutic horses and horseshows. If your passion is horses, there is no shortage of opportunities to get involved with them. Now, back to “The Road” and the biggest weekend in Thoroughbred horse racing. This weekend, October 30 and 31, 2015, is the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. In Thoroughbred racing, the Breeders’ Cup is the culmination of the horseracing season worldwide. This year’s event is taking place at beautiful Keeneland racetrack in Lexington, Kentucky. The highlight of the two days of racing is Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. He will be running in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic — the biggest event of the international racing season. It will be his last race before retirement. We wish him luck, but my pick for the Classic is Beholder as she takes on the boys. I had the opportunity to see her when she was training for the Kentucky Oaks in 2013. (UPDATE: A few minutes after I posted this blog it was announced that Beholder would be scratched from running in the Classic. She had been dealing with an illness related to her travel to Keeneland and her connections made the prudent decision to not run her. She is expected to return in 2016). As these winners and their owners are fulfilling their dreams, some dreams are just beginning. The Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile is considered a preview of the Triple Crown hopefuls for the coming year. The race is restricted to 2-year-old males, with a purse of $2 million dollars. The equivalent for the fillies is the 14 Hands Winery Juvenile Fillies. The winners of the Juvenile races earn double the points in the Derby/Oaks point system. Will the next Kentucky Derby and Oaks winner come from one of these races? I encourage you to follow these hopefuls as they continue on their own “Road to the Kentucky Derby”. The owners, trainers, and teams surrounding these horses are hoping to fulfill their Triple Crown Dream. As for me, my pick for the boys is Swipe. He’s got super-star dancing jockey Victor Espinoza in the irons and is trained by Keith Desormeaux. For those of you who raised daughters watching Dora the Explorer, all that comes to my mind is “Swiper, no Swiping”. For the girls, I am going with Tap To It. She’s the lone grey in the field. Her daddy is Tapit, the leading North American sire, whose colt Frosted (my favorite in the 2015 Derby) is taking on American Pharoah in the Classic. As a mom, the name also reminds me of “get to it” – a phrase used often in our household, usually accompanied by the word “now!” Tune in Friday and Saturday on NBC Sports. You can follow the entire schedule for this exciting lineup of races by clicking on this link. I hope you enjoy the next two days of racing!

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