Jeff Klenner discusses the impact of synthetic racing surfaces following last weekend's Breeders' Cup. (Photo provided by Klenner)

An exciting weekend of horse racing action in the Breeders’ Cup races at Santa Anita last weekend has left Jeff Klenner musing about the virtues of the synthetic racing surfaces now used at all three “major league” tracks in Southern California: Hollywood Park, Santa Anita Park, and Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.

First question about Synthetic Surfaces: Safer than traditional dirt tracks or not?

From what I understand, the evidence thus far is insufficient to support the assertion that synthetic tracks result in fewer catastrophic breakdowns. However, in the course of 14 Breeders’ Cup races over two days at Santa Anita this past weekend, I don’t recall seeing any horses pulled up nor any horse ambulances on the track the entire time. That’s an anecdotal observation rather than empirical evidence, but it’s nevertheless somewhat reassuring for a guy like me who still has emotional scars from Go For Wand’s horrific breakdown in the 1990 Distaff (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNltI2p_Mac but beware the gruesome scene). From my perspective, anything that shows promise in preventing catastrophic breakdowns is worth the investment — regardless of the typical grumblings of most handicappers and protests from some horse owners (like Jess Jackson, owner of Rachel Alexandra).

My hope is that scientific evidence will ultimately validate claims regarding synthetic surfaces being safer than traditional dirt tracks. That will help spur more tracks (which can afford to do so) to transition to such surfaces. As they become more common place, there is bound to be less resistance from reluctant neighsayers and so-called “traditionalists” — after all, what track has more embraced tradition throughout its history than Keeneland and, yet, they were one of the first tracks to install a synthetic surface. It’s true that the horse racing industry has some serious short term issues pertaining to its survival as a result of alternative gambling venues and other competition for the “entertainment dollar.” Yet, the racing industry’s long term sustainability is still threatened by the possibility of a public relations backlash as a result of further high profile tragedies like those which claimed Ruffian, Go for Wand, and Eight Belles. Heck, if I’m a dedicated, lifelong fan of the sport and still question my allegiance in the wake of such occurrences, what is the casual sports fan supposed to think?

Second question about Synthetic Surfaces: Promoting true International competition?

The fact that European stables won nearly half of the 14 Breeders’ Cup races surely demonstrates how competitive they have become at challenging American runners on our big championship days of racing. Conduit (Turf) and Goldikova (Turf Mile) both scored repeat wins in their events this year. By comparison, when is that last time a horse from the U.S. went and competed in the Prix de l’ Arc de Triomphe or other race of similar status in Europe? Ironically, prominent owner Jess Jackson supposedly flirted with the idea of sending Curlin to France for the “Arc” a couple of years ago, yet balked at sending Rachel Alexandra to California this year merely due to the synthetic surface at Santa Anita.

Given that two of the European wins in this year’s Breeders’ Cup were on the synthetic dirt surface rather than the turf course, all indications are that the trans-Atlantic shuttle is likely to continue. In my mind, that is a good thing. In fact, I would like to see more horses coming from places like Australia, Japan, and South America. When the racing surface proves to be less of a hindrance to that actually occurring, I consider that a positive development as well.

Third question about Synthetic Surfaces: What is the ultimate impact going to be on the breeding industry?

Since I am very much a Thoroughbred bloodline aficionado, I am fascinated by the possible long term homogeneity effect that standardized synthetic surfaces could render. There could eventually be less of a differentiation between “dirt sires” and “turf sires”, leaving distance proclivities as the single major factor to consider in planning matings. How would that impact the worldwide bloodstock market? How would the breed evolve? Would some prominent lines (like Mr. Prospector) give way to other lines that garner greater success on synthetic surfaces? Would the net effect result in greater or lesser overall soundness in the breed?

What are your opinions regarding these three stated issues? Let’s hear from folks via your comments or through submission of your own guest posts…

About Jeff Klenner:

Jeff started out as a hotwalker and groom at the Detroit-area Thoroughbred tracks (Detroit Race Course and Hazel Park) as a teenager in the 1970’s. He is a graduate of the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program and has worked in several capacities in the horse racing industry: as Director of Operations at The Downs at Albuquerque and The Downs at Santa Fe (both in NM); as General Manager of Payson Stud (KY) and Payson Park (FL); and as Projects Coordinator at The Association of Racing Commissioners International (KY), in which he was involved in developing the Model Rules of Racing. He has also been a professor of Organizational Management (at Midway College in KY) and has recently transitioned into the field of law by completing his Juris Doctor degree. He resides in a suburb of Detroit and remains a dedicated fan of the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry.

Jeff invites you to connect with him on Linked In ( http://www.linkedin.com/in/klenner ) and/or Twitter (@klenner).

This coming Sunday at Seoul Race Park, Baekgwang will seek to complete what was thought to be an impossible comeback when he lines up alongside the track’s top Korean bred horses in the President’s Cup. During his career, the six-year-old has spent a total of two years on the sidelines. He finally returned to the winner’s circle last month in his third race since returning from successful stem-cell treatment.

Now he will take on a strong field including three-year olds Nice Choice and Khanui Jeguk as well as old foe Baengnokjeong. Natural Nine, Triple Seven, Mighty Runner and Wontagui Gisa are also among the proven winners that will contest the Group 1 race over 2000 metres.

A week later another long overdue return will take place. And this time it’s Baekgwang’s little sister Baekpa, back in town following her summer in the United States, who heads the line-up in the Nonghyup Bank Cup. Korean racing fans were pained to see Baekpa in the US, running her heart out but being left behind by fields that could hardly be considered world-beating. How she recovers from that ordeal will become clear on Sunday 22 as she makes her first start back on Korean sand.

Currently thirteen other fillies and mares are entered for the Nonghyup race. An in-form Baekpa should have the beating of them all with the one interesting contender being the three-year old Love Cat.

Is she the same horse she was when she left? Can her brother beat the three-year olds a week earlier? Either way, racing fans here are just delighted to see the grey siblings back home racing where they belong.

Here’s Baekgwang in pre-injury days in 2007:

And Baekpa taking the Korean Oaks in the same year:

No sooner had the synthetic dust settled in the wake of Zenyatta’s dominating performance in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita then the flame igniting the “Horse of the Year” debate was rekindled anew. At question is how to properly award the top honor in U.S. racing when considering the miraculous campaigns of both Zenyatta and the 3-year-old filly sensation Rachel Alexandra. 

At this point in time, It’s become a question I’d really rather not address at all if it were not on the lips of nearly all I’ve spoken with these past few days. My personal feeling being that this is still Zenyatta’s moment and that at least one full week should pass before we begin doing what horseplayers do – arguing incessantly with one another over our respective levels of insanity. One can barely get so much as a word in about the Classic right now though without the issue coming up rather directly. Emotions seem to be running high on both sides of the isle as the immediacy of a supreme moment still actively courses through the furiously beating hearts of racing fans the world over. 

In many ways, the pendulum seems to have swung almost completely. Where once Rachel was considered (including by yours truly) a mortal lock to have already captured the honor as Horse of the Year by virtue of (most notably) her Preakness, Haskell, and Woodward victories, a new wind has begun to blow. The much whispered “backlash” against team Rachel for having not attended the Breeders’ Cup had been one element of this change. The true spark, however, is a bit more noble in nature and seems to stem from a desire to ensure that Zenyatta is properly awarded for the undefeated career she has blessed us with. 

As early as Saturday night, the battle lines were already being drawn. Attending a post-Classic dinner with folks from the TVG Community (the organizers for which I owe a great deal of thanks to for a wonderful weekend, along with those at both the NTRA and the Breeders’ Cup), I was asked for my opinion, and admittedly I balked a bit – attempting to play the classical Switzerland “neutrality defense.” Like many a smaller European nation state in the opening half the 20th century, I ultimately found myself being drawn, however unwittingly, into the great conflagration.

Not to be confused with the famous "French defense" in chess, the "Switzerland neutrality posture" in the great 2009 Horse of the Year debate is ultimately indefensible.

At the end of the day, I suppose someone does have to win the award, right?

So whom do we chose?

As much as I’ve tried to play the Switzerland defense, it’s probably rightly noted that I’m an ever-so-slightly bigger fan of Rachel Alexandra than I am of Zenyatta. I think that’s a fair assessment of my own emotional makeup. That’s not to say I don’t love Zenyatta with all my heart – always have and always will – but my record of pro-Rachel Alexandra coverage is something I cannot deny being consciously aware of.

That being said, I’ve loved Zenyatta since I spotted her profile prior to her maiden debut, noting “hey, that’s the same connections as Giacomo – I might take a shot with this girl!” In time she became my “slow cheetah” – a name and a song that will forever have a special meaning to me.

I care about these two fillies so deeply that I consider it the honor of a lifetime to have been there for the finer moments of each one’s 2009 campaign; Rachel in the Preakness and the Haskell, and Zenyatta in the Classic. 

Much like I had been calling for a dead heat had the two ever locked horns on the track, I find myself utterly divided over who I would select as Horse of the Year. I suppose to extract a full answer from me, one might have to subject me to brutal interrogation, straight out of the famed Russian Roulette scene in The Deer Hunter. Tying me to a chair, constantly slapping my face whilst shouting “Mao!” and demanding that I make a selection. I believe what follows is what my ultimate decision would be under such duress (apart from arising from said chair and declaring “3 bullets!!! We play with 3 bullets!” in classical De Niro fashion):

• Rachel Alexandra for 3-year-old filly champion
• Zenyatta for Horse of the Year

Mao! Robert De Niro in the famous Russian Roulette scene from The Deer Hunter

Truth be told, I actually do believe that Rachel Alexandra had the superior overall year (with “overall” being the operative term), however Zenyatta clearly won the superior race. 

Rachel’s year had more than one signature moment. She was the first filly in 85 years to win the Preakness. She was the 2nd filly in 42 years to win the Haskell. She nearly broke the track record in the Mother Goose, coming close to the exploits of Secretariat at the same distance. Then, of course, she became the first 3-year-old filly to defeat older males in a stakes race of more than a mile on dirt since the inception of graded stakes in the U.S.

Zenyatta’s overall campaign for 2009 was a bit less heralded – until her triumph in the Classic that is. I doubt strongly that anyone will think back to her earlier races in the year and point to them as having been signature – but she did remain undefeated, even when carrying ridiculous amounts of weight and when it seemed to all observing that her undefeated record was in it’s greatest peril at the hands of Anaaba’s Creation. Somehow, someway, she ALWAYS found a way to win.

So if Rachel’s campaign is the one I believe to be more accomplished, why make Zenyatta Horse of the Year?

Because at some level, even if it has not historically been the case, the Breeders’ Cup Classic should be the deciding moment. The quintessential test of an overall champion. Moreover, the career that Zenyatta rewarded us with is one that is deserving of top honors. And it’s not like she didn’t race in 2009. She just didn’t race a whole heckuva a lot of times, nor did she put herself in tremendously challenging positions where victory was assumed to be anything other than a foregone conclusion until her date with destiny in the Classic.

I know that technically it isn’t right to attach emotional sentiment to that which she accomplished in 2008 and then factor that into the equation, but how can one not help but do so? In all likelihood she left us with her career defining performance on the sports biggest stage (at least the biggest stage for true fans of racing, as opposed to the Warhol-esque 2 minutes of national attention associated with the annual running of the Kentucky Derby) – a perfect story book ending to a career that will from henceforth be the measuring stick for all older fillies and mares that attempt to follow in her hoofsteps.

Likewise, Rachel Alexandra will go down as the new barometer by which all subsequent 3-year-old fillies will be compared. Make no mistake about it, we’ll still invoke memories of Ruffian as well, who will continue to be the greatest of the great fillies, but my sense of things is that Rachel’s ability to both win a 3-year-old Classic (the Preakness) and then follow that up with repeat performances over 3-year-old males in the Haskell and then older males in the Woodward will cement her legacy for years (if not decades) to come.

The mere fact that Rachel is sometimes mentioned in the same breath as Ruffian speaks volumes for how lofty her star has risen. Just a year ago you probably would’ve been diagnosed as certifiably mad if you dared to publicly compare any filly to Ruffian. Now people do so without batting an eye. I’ve refrained from making any direct comparisons myself, as I think it wise to the let the historical greats stand alone, and if nothing else become larger than the legends they were in their own time rather than replaced by newcomers and diminished in legend, but certainly folks reading this have at least heard those comparisons elsewhere and know what I’m referring to. The point being not whether they are warranted or not, but merely an acknowledgement that such comparisons do exist.

For Rachel, there will be a 2010, and a chance to show she is capable of winning a Breeders’ Cup Classic of her own. For Zenyatta, the Classic was in all likelihood her swan song. 

What better way to send off a legend than to allow their final chapter to be an ultimate achievement? It just feels like the right thing to do.

As much as I love them both and am torn asunder in attempting to make a definitive statement one way or the other – I think the right thing to do is to send Zenyatta off to retirement as the 2009 Horse of the Year. After all, she started the year as the top older female in racing, and nobody was able to defeat her. Looking at things that way, and reducing the equation to it’s most simplistic component, it’s a bit hard to justify knocking her from her lofty perch – doubly so in the immediate aftermath of her finest hour. 

And you know what? At the end of the day it’s really just a silly award. What these two ladies accomplished on the track will be remembered for years regardless of whether an additional trophy is added to their respective cases.

Respect for each of them has been EARNED on the track, not GIVEN at some awards ceremony.

That’s how I see things at least. What say you? Who do you think ought to receive the Eclipse Award for 2009 Horse of the Year?

It’s been two weeks since it was revealed that a Seoul based jockey was under investigation for allegedly passing insider information to illegal betting operations. The case involving the jockey – who, although his identity was initially made public, can now only be identified by his initial “L” or “L-Mo” in Korean, could not have come at a worse time as the KRA battles to portray racing in a positive light in the face of an increasingly puritanical regulator.

Support – or at least indifference – from the majority of lawmakers is essential in resisting the recommendations of the National Gaming Control Commission, an organization that makes little secret of its aim to eliminate any form of gambling and has already succeeded in having the KRA close down its “KNetz” Internet betting service which ceased operations in July.

While the NGCC may not be able to grasp the concept, most lawmakers currently accept that the more restrictions there are placed upon legalized gambling, the more the many illegal ones thrive. To keep this support, however, the KRA has to be able to demonstrate that racing is clean. Bent jockeys will always pop up from time to time, but, however this case proceeds, its timing is terrible and has prompted speculation over the likely success of the next recommendations from the NGCC as outlined over the weekend by Korea Racing Journal editor Kim Mun Young.

The Electronic ID Card scheme raised its head again. Under this scheme, when trying to place a bet, a punter would be asked to produce an ID card that they have previously had to apply for and been issued. The card will have a chip that records all his gambling activity. While punters mutter darkly about essentially being put in the same category as sex-offenders by having to be on a register, it would also eliminate racing as an activity for all but those “on the register”.

On a summer’s day, the Seoul Race Park infield and track apron is packed with picnicking families and dating couples. If, in future they’re going to need to be on the government’s list of registered gamblers if they fancy a stroll to the windows to put 500 won each-way on the favourite, it’s likely they’ll spend their weekends elsewhere.

Of course, there was a very easy way of tracking punters’ expenditure. It was called KNetz and it was closed down this July. The ID card scheme, however, is a real possibility – not least because of the lucrative contracts that would need to be dished out for running it

Less likely is a reduction in the maximum bet amount although this is another NGCC proposal. Instead of the current 100,000 won per bet limit, a daily limit of the same amount be imposed. This would of course essentially close racing down and most observers agree that outside of the NGCC, there is little appetite for that due to the huge revenues it generates in both taxes and in support of agriculture.

Meanwhile, one grocery store chain is currently giving away national lottery tickets with all purchases over 10,000 won and the “Sports Toto” – where players predict the results of European football matches – can be gambled on from almost every convenience store on the peninsula. Racing feels picked upon but “Elmo” hasn’t helped its cause.

The moment Zenyatta crossed the wire and became the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic champion, things went hazy. I vaguely remember searching for people to hug, slapping high fives with everyone around, and letting loose a series of ”rebel yell” style roars that any native Alabamian would be proud of. Once that subsided, I began pondering whether everything we’d witnessed both in the immediacy of the Breeders’ Cup and from the entire year in general could possibly have been real, or if I was about to awake from some deep, REM filled dream? It seems so unimaginably unthinkable that one calendar year could have presented us with such unprecedented historical significance as to have rendered the completely opposite emotions experienced just 17 months ago an almost perfect contrast. And, of course, the ending was capped off in perfect story book fashion.

Close your eyes for one moment (albeit a brief one), and remember that awful, devastating, seemingly unconquerable feeling of grief and agony that cast a pall over all of racing following the 2008 Kentucky Derby. Now contrast that memory with the euphoria and outright elation experienced many times over this year as racing’s dream girls Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra conquered races and dominated the headlines of the sport in a manner never before seen, nor likely ever thought imaginable.

The “Year of the Filly” it most certainly was – and for racing it could not have come at a more opportune time. A veritable 180° turnaround. A phoenix rising from it’s own ashes. A reconstitution of passion, pride, belief, and affection. A reaffirmation of all that can and should be good about the sport we love.

Looking back to the previous year, I recall being plagued following the death of Eight Belles with the thought “where do we possibly go from here?”  The obvious follow-up to that question that was even more painful to consider being once we figured out “where” we would go, having to determine “how” we might go about getting there? It seemed a mountain that we might never be able to climb. A hole we might never dig ourselves from. After all, the sport was not exactly in a position of strength from which to deal with such a tragedy, especially having had the same type of nightmare play itself out in 2006 with Barbaro; again while the entire world watched in shock. It was doom and gloom; misery and pain; agony and heartache. 

As if on queue, the sports two biggest stars of 2008, Curlin and Big Brown, were defeated in their biggest moments of the season; Curlin failing to sustain his trademarked “giant strides” as Raven’s Pass and Henrythenavigator surged past him in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Big Brown being pulled up in the stretch of the 2008 Belmont and denied his quest for Triple Crown glory. The collective mood was rather somber. One could find themselves asking not what the morrow might bring, but rather cynically ”what could possibly go wrong next?”

Thankfully, as the old axiom holds, time heals all wounds. Tomorrow, no matter how high or low the previous day may have been, is always another day. 

The horse racing gods seemingly took mercy upon us and decided to give fans a little something special for their troubles to help ease the pain. At least that’s how I like to imagine it. Something we couldn’t have possibly conceived we would be blessed enough to behold was about to unfold in 2009, although it’s seeds were first sewn in 2008. As our eyes were largely focused elsewhere, a massive and lightly raced 4-year-old filly based in California was beginning to hit her stride, turning heads and causing people the world over to take notice. Out in Kentucky, a 2-year-old filly with a unique blaze would break her maiden within a month of the Eight Belles tragedy at a rather nondescript 12/1 price on the tote board. It’s hard to imagine that anyone realized what might lay ahead as these two began to lay the foundations for what would become two of the more memorable rides through North American thoroughbred racing history in recent memory.

By the time Zenyatta was being crowned 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic champion, the “Year of the Filly” had become the dominant story in racing for the better part of the year. Zenyatta becoming he first mare in history to win the Classic, finishing with a remarkable perfect record for her career. Meanwhile, the 3-year-old sensation Rachel Alexandra had achieved the distinction of being mentioned in the same breath as the legendary Ruffian by becoming the first filly in 8 decades to win the Preakness, the 2nd filly in 4 decades to win the Haskell, and the 1st 3-year-old filly to defeat older males on a dirt route race in New York since Lady Primrose in the 1887 Manhattan Hand.

Horse racing prints commemorating Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta from artist Fred Stone: http://www.fredstone.com

On a more personal level, the year was indescribably magical. Somehow I managed to be lucky enough to witness Rachel Alexandra’s victories against boys in the Preakness and Haskell as well as Zenyatta’s victory in the Classic LIVE. Talk about the Trifecta of a lifetime, eh? And that doesn’t even count the experience I shared with my wife on her birthday at Belmont as Rachel sped her way to a near track record in the Mother Goose. 

For a guy who had always assumed he was born about 3 decades too late to experience historically relevant moments in the annals of horse racing, 2009 has been a veritable feast of unprecedentia (note: I’m fairly certain I’ve just invented that word, but it sounds fitting enough to keep). In fact, the year as a whole has been a reaffirmation of everything that is great about the sport – even with the obvious remaining imperfections.

Searching through my mind for a fitting quote from the ether of the past, I was struck by a question that begins the memoirs from Private Sam Watkins of Company “Aytch” (H), 1st Tennessee Volunteers as he began to reflect in his middle ages about the experiences he had bore witness to in the Civil War as young man. Watkins had fought in nearly every major battle in the “Western” theater of the war from 1861 – 1865 and had somehow survived relatively unscathed. He had felt the sting of defeat, the rush of victory, the agony associated with the loss of loved ones, the salvation of ultimate survival and the experience of fatherhood that was denied so many of his generation, as well as the struggle to put into terms for others what had happened in his life.

“Were these things real…or are they but the vagaries of mine own imagination?”

Much like Watkins, I struggle with whether all that which I have seen has really happened, or been the figments of some fantastical dream. That somehow this has been too good to be true. That we couldn’t possibly be lucky enough to have witnessed all that we have seen in so short a period of time. The immenseness of it all being almost beyond comprehension.

To the tune of the full quote that was much abbreviated above from Sam Watkins:

Did my wife and I really have the honor of watching Rachel Alexandra become the first filly in 8 decades to win the Preakness at Pimlico? Did I shake with excitement, nearly yelling myself into cardiac arrest as she willed herself through the stretch? Had we shed mutual tears of joy and embraced anyone we could find in the shadows of the old clubhouse at Pimlico where so many of the all-time great 3-year-olds had stood over the years?

Were we really bestowed with the honor of being inside the paddock to see Rachel off to post in the Haskell at Monmouth Park? Had I truly been able to stand with my 5-year-old son and marvel at the majestic beauty before us moments away from her becoming “a Haskell legend?”

Did I watch as my beloved Zenyatta, forever my “Slow Cheetah”, paused in front of the Grandstand to “paw” at and “dance” upon the Santa Anita Pro Ride to the delightful roar of the crowd as she went to post in the Classic? Had I sprung to life in unison with nearly 60,000 other fans as she made her bid for greatness in the stretch? Had I celebrated with friends and strangers alike, faces flushed with joy, hearts spilling with the pride of parenthood and the innocent joy of childhood? Had I led my hotel shuttle from the park in a rousing rendition of “how ’bout that Zenyatta?!?!?!” as we left Santa Anita that magical day?

Surely this must be a dream. To call 2009 the “Year of the Filly” does not give the year proper justice. It was more than that – perhaps a year for all time. A year that we will no doubt struggle to explain as the grandchildren sit on our knees many years from now and inquire why grandpa is so continually fascinated by this peculiar (from their vantage point at least) sport. 

“Gather ’round, kids”, we’ll say, “let your grandpa tell you the story of the Year of the Filly way back in two thousand and nine.”

We’ll then reach for some dusty box of treasured keepsakes and begin to remove the momentos we’ve managed to keep (for me this would most likely be my $2 win tickets from the Preakness and Classic).

“Awe, man….do we have to hear that one again, Grandpa?” they will ask (children being honest to a fault at times).

If there’s enough magic remaining for us in this life, we just might be lucky enough to have one grandchild that “gets it” when we talk about horse racing.

“Shhhhhh!” that child might say. “Let him tell the story again. I want to hear about Zenyatta and Rachel.”

Yup, it’s been that kind of year. Treasure it, my friends. These kinds of years only come around once in a lifetime.

Before we look at the recaps, I just want to take a moment to note my victory in the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance Breeders’ Cup handicapping contest. The win was largely on the strength of Vale of York’s upset score in the Juvenile, which netted me a cool $100 on the leader board.

The contest was only for pride (or at least nobody filled me in on a grand prize), and I didn’t make it up to Mount Pleasant Meadows to place any bets, but the thrill of victory is sweet no matter how it is served. To check out the board and see how my picks compared to the rest of the blogosphere, click here.

I am also entered in a Breeders’ Cup handicapping contest sponsored by Darby Dan Farm where the top finishers receive a complimentary season to one of the farm’s stallions. The final numbers have not been tallied, but unless Vale Of York provides a ridiculous point total, my ground to make up is probably insurmountable. Stay tuned for the final results.

Anyway, 0n to the haikus…Feel free to overlook the fact that I went 0-4 picking winners in the races I covered…

Classic

Zenyatta dazzles
Her legend, Eclipse case, grows
Race for the ages

Sprint

Four-wide in the stretch
Longshots fill the exacta
Sa-wing and a miss

Ladies’ Classic

Silky Sweet stretch drive
Escapes Zenyatta’s shadow
By running like her

Filly & Mare Turf

Midday goes all day
Reeled in stablemate from rail
Score one for Europe