Breeders Cup Horse Race

The site of the 2009 Breeders' Cup will be announced today, and Santa Anita officials are confident their facility will get the nod. If that is the case, it would mean back-to-back Breeders' Cups for the Arcadia facility during the fall Oak Tree meeting there. "I think we're the leading candidate," said Allen Gutterman, the track's vice president of marketing. Sherwood "Chilli" Chillingworth, executive vice president and director of the Oak Tree Racing Assn.

NEW YORK -- In horse racing -- and life in general, for that matter -- there is rarely a foregone conclusion. That was proved once again when, despite trainer Rick Dutrow Jr.'s confident proclamations, Big Brown not only lost his bid to become horse racing's first Triple Crown winner in 30 years, he finished last in Saturday's Belmont Stakes after being pulled up by jockey Kent Desormeaux coming around the far turn.

We have another rock star in the city of bright lights. Welcome to Hollywood, Curlin. Given a little more time here, and maybe a sentence or two, this magnificent racehorse might become as big as Mr. Ed. Right now, Barn 27 at Santa Anita is the hot spot of the racing world. There's even extra security. "They have theirs," says Ron Charles, Santa Anita president and chief executive. "And we added some of ours." These are interesting days at the Arcadia race track.

Hold your horses, folks. Curlin versus Big Brown isn't going to happen. Monday was supposed to bring news and drama in horse racing. Little did we know. On a day when the final hurdle seemed to be cleared for the long-awaited showdown here, there was an unexpected stumble in an unexpected place.

Comparing his star horse to athletes such as Magic Johnson and Lance Armstrong, Jess Jackson on Tuesday committed Curlin to run in the $5-million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita a week from Saturday. The majority owner of the biggest money-winning horse ever in North America said his decision to go after a second straight Classic title was simple, once he and trainer Steve Asmussen determined Santa Anita's synthetic race surface was safe and competitive.

A full field of 14 horses will run in the Breeders' Cup Classic Oct. 25, and star filly Zenyatta will not be one of them. Zenyatta was a long shot possibility to race against the boys in the Classic. But the unbeaten 4-year-old, trained by John Shirreffs, will be the star of the show in the $2-million Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic next Friday. Zenyatta has won all eight of her starts, three of them Grade I races. Thursday was announcement day for pre-entries for the 14-race, $25.

Chantal Sutherland is the only female jockey racing in the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita. She'll ride Van Lear Rose in Friday's $2-million Juvenile Fillies, and Mine That Bird in Saturday's $2-million Juvenile. Win or lose, she'll emerge from her first Breeders' Cup experience a star. That's because she's one of six jockeys filming for a reality show that will air on Animal Planet and Discovery Channel beginning in February.

Today's beginning of the two-day Breeders' Cup extravaganza at Santa Anita is the first day of the rest of horse racing's life. But understand, this is a sport that goes through this four times a year now, every year. It didn't used to be that way. In its heyday, racing had little to prove to anybody. Famous horses raced other famous horses and huge crowds showed up. There were occasional Triple Crowns to celebrate. The masses loved it, patronized it.

Mike Smith does not have the most mounts in the Breeders' Cup, but the quality of four horses he'll ride today and Saturday has the Hall of Fame jockey thinking Grand Slam. "I wouldn't be shocked if they all won," he said. "I'd be surprised, but not shocked." Smith, 43, is one of 17 jockeys to have won two Breeders' Cup races during the same year. He has done it four times, more than anyone else. Nobody has won three.

There is little left to say about Curlin and today's Breeders' Cup Classic. He is the rock star and this is his stage. Attendance at Santa Anita's picturesque race track could reach as high as 45,000, and lots of those will be Curlin groupies. They stretched this year's Breeders' Cup to two days, 14 races and $25.5 million in purses. But all of that will take a back seat to the grand finale. At about 3:45 p.m.