The 38th edition of the Breeders’ Cup will kick off two days of action Friday afternoon at Keeneland.
A lot of eyes will be on the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and with so many high-profile races in the mix, there are numerous opportunities to wager on horses that offer significant value.
Chris “The Bear” Fallica and Anita Marks give us their breakdowns.
Breeders’ Cup Friday
Juvenile Turf Sprint
Fallica: In a race full of front end speed, I will be looking to the closers on top. (2) Kaufymaker has the potential to be the longest priced of the Wesley Ward runners and that’s always a good thing. (10) Time to Party gets about the best connections you could have in California Turf sprints — Flavien Prat riding for Peter Miller. It’s is second start vs. winners and showed he could sit off the pace in his last start. (7) Armor looks like the best of the Euros to me. I’d be looking to use the latter two for sure in exotics and multi-race wagers.
Juvenile Fillies Turf
Fallica: (11) Haughty has run two great races from just off the pace, her first resulting in an unfortunate DQ, but she ran even better in her second start and with the other Chad Brown runner in the field and the Euros in the field, might get forgotten about in the wagering. (6) Hello You won for fun at 7 furlongs at Newmarket and should have no issue stretching out to a mile. (12) Malavath beat the boys last out and should be another sitting just off the leaders at a nice price.
Juvenile Favorite
Fallica: (1) Jack Christopher drew the rail and that’s probably not a good thing given he has to stretch out further than he’s run and will be on the lead. I get the feeling (10) Commandperformance will be the trendy upsetter so will tread carefully with him. (4) Pappacap could light the toteboard up. He’s run well at DMR, breaking his maiden here and again when drawing the rail in the Del Mar Futurity and then chased lone speed Corniche in the American Pharaoh.
Marks: The best 2-year-old males in the country compete in this race, and the winner becomes next year’s Kentucky Derby favorite. I like the (1) Jack Christopher to win. His is trainer is Chad Brown and jockey is Jose Ortiz, who is the perfect jockey, considering he drew the inside post. Jack Christopher has the distance and is my pick to win.
Plays: (1) Jack Christopher to win; Exacta Box (1/4/10)
Juvenile Turf
Fallica: I’d be very surprised if one of the Appleby runners (1) Modern Games or (2) Albahr didn’t win here. And the best part is you’re still looking at likely a few $10 winner here. (10) Portfolio Company should complete what appears to be a very formful race.
Breeders’ Cup Saturday
Turf Sprint
Fallica: (11) Fast Boat ran huge on Oaks Day and then again at Saratoga off the layoff. He was bet to less than 5-1 at Kentucky Downs and didn’t have a great trip at all that day. Drawn outside now, he should get clear sailing to make a late run. (5) Arrest Me Red might fall into a perfect spot sitting right off (3) Golden Pal and (4) Lieutenant Dan.
Dirt Mile
Fallica: If (5) Life is Good wins, I lose. The lone 3-year old in the field is stepping up big-time in class and despite a win vs. three badly overmatched opponents in the Kelso, he’s no bargain at 4-5. (3) Ginoibili should be with him ever step of the way and is coming off two huge wins over the track. If those two duel themselves into the ground, I’ll also use (7) Snapper Sinclair going turf to dirt and stretching out for trainer Steve Asmussen, who is coming off an unusually cold Keeneland meet.
Filly and Mare Turf
Fallica: (7) War Like Goddess is a vulnerable favorite here as I don’t see a huge speed duel to set up her awesome late closing kick. She’s the best horse, but the best horse doesn’t always win. There’s a very good chance (1) Going to Vegas is lone speed in here. After Flavien Prat, there isn’t another jockey I want on California turf than Umberto Rispoli. She may get brave and forget to stop. The other which I could see near the lead is (12) Audarya, who may need to send from post 12 to avoid a horror trip. If she breaks and sits second or third, I’d like her chances a whole lot. (4) Rougir would also be on any spread pick four or five tickets, as she is a stalking type.
Sprint
Fallica: (2) Jackie’s Warrior is entering the race off three straight career-tops and draws inside. He has to be a bet-against here. (3) C Z Rocket hasn’t won since April. but do you really want to leave a Peter Miller sprinter off your ticket at double-digit odds? The last two times (7) Lexitonian was 20-1 in a sprint race, he won the Vanderbilt and just missed on Derby Day in the Churchill Downs. Leave the versatile runner off your tickets at your own risk.
Marks: This race is 6 furlongs, on dirt. (2) Jackie’s Warrior is the one to beat, and I doubt anyone can, considering he is the fastest horse in this field. His only loss was due to a gate issue. I don’t necessarily like the draw, but I love his jockey, Joel Rosario, who will make up for the post spot.
Plays: (2) Jackie’s Warrior to win; Exacta Box (2/6/9)
Mile
Fallica: (3) Space Blues might be the best bet Saturday given he should be around 3-1 or so. I’ll definitely have press tickets in multi-race wagers with him singled.
Distaff
Fallica: (6) Letruska is another short-price I will attempt to beat. (2) Royal Flag has never finished out of the money, will get the benefit of a speed-duel and will be close to double-digits. She also just missed vs. Letruska at Saratoga in August. Another Chad Brown runner (11) Dunbar Road was 5th in this race last year, but her form is better entering this race and also just ran two very respectable races vs. the favorite. I’ll probably avoid the three-year olds (3) Malathaat and (5) Clairiere as I’m not sure they are going to offer close to true odds.
Marks: The Distaff is the championships race for the ladies. Whoever wins this race, will be crowned female horse of the year. The race is on dirt for a mile and an 8th. (6) Letruska is the favorite and with good reason, but there will be a ton of competition.
Pick: (6) Letruska to win; Exacta Box (6/2/3)
Turf
Fallica: (13) Tarnawa won this race last year at Keeneland at close to 5-1 and is a threat to pull the repeat, although 9-5 is a little short for my liking, especially with (3) Domestic Spending in the race. I wouldn’t be surprised if the latter brings Tarnawa’s price above 2-1. I usually am cool on Aidan O’Brien horses here, but (14) Japan will be on my ticket at 20-1. Ryan Moore probably got him beat off the plane in the race at Saratoga and then he was just flat in the second race in the U.S. Moore is back up and I would expect a peak effort here.
Classic
Fallica: If (8) Medina Spirit wins, I lose. There’s no way he’s getting a clear lead with faster horses like (5) Knicks Go to his inside. I want to like (6) Art Collector in here, but I just don’t know if Mike Smith can get him to sit. Anyone that’s around for the battle up front, likely won’t be there at the end. But I’ll be using. Sentimentally, I am rooting for (3) Hot Rod Charlie, but he’s adding blinkers and I’m not sure that’s going to allow him to relax. We’ll see. (4) Essential Quality hasn’t made it easy vs. 3-year olds, now he’s got to face elders. He’s probably too short to endorse. (1) Tripoli has a huge shot here at 15-1 for trainer John Sadler. Tripoli was just 5-2 or so vs. Medina Spirit at Santa Anita, had a parking lot trip from an outside post and gets a huge rider upgrade to Irad Ortiz. He won the Pacific Classic at DMR and just missed in the San Diego. He’s a must-use in my book.
Marks: The season all comes down to this. The ultimate championship race of the season. It won’t get more exciting than this $6 million race! Whoever wins is crowned horse of the year! Knicks Go is the favorite and will be the fastest horse in the race. Essential Quality will present a great challenge, after winning 8 of his last 9 races — his only loss was in the Derby. Hot Rod Charlie, is always in the mix, but has fallen short – could this be his day with jockey Flavien Pratt on the reins.
Plays: (4) Essential Quality to win; Exacta Box (4/3/5)
Thoroughbred racing suffered its most ignominious, industry-deflating moment 50 years ago today with the breakdown of Ruffian, an undefeated filly running against Foolish Pleasure in a highly promoted match race at Belmont Park. Her tragic end on July 6, 1975, was a catastrophe for the sport, and observers say racing has never truly recovered.
Two years earlier, during the rise of second-wave feminism, the nation had been mesmerized by a “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. King’s win became a rallying cry for women everywhere. The New York Racing Association, eager to boost daily racing crowds in the mid-1970s, proposed a competition similar to that of King and Riggs. They created a match race between Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure and Ruffian, the undefeated filly who had dominated all 10 of her starts, leading gate to wire.
“In any sport, human or equine, it’s really impossible to say who was the greatest,” said outgoing Jockey Club chairman Stuart Janney III, whose parents, Stuart and Barbara, owned Ruffian. “But I’m always comfortable thinking of Ruffian as being among the four to five greatest horses of all time.”
Ruffian, nearly jet black in color and massive, was the equine version of a Greek goddess. At the age of 2, her girth — the measurement of the strap that secures the saddle — was just over 75 inches. Comparatively, racing legend Secretariat, a male, had a 76-inch girth when he was fully developed at the age of 4.
Her name also added to the aura. “‘Ruffian’ was a little bit of a stretch because it tended to be what you’d name a colt, but it turned out to be an appropriate name,” Janney said.
On May 22, 1974, Ruffian equaled a Belmont Park track record, set by a male, in her debut at age 2, winning by 15 lengths. She set a stakes record later that summer at Saratoga in the Spinaway, the most prestigious race of the year for 2-year-old fillies. The next spring, she blew through races at longer distances, including the three races that made up the so-called Filly Triple Crown.
Some in the media speculated that she had run out of female competition.
Foolish Pleasure had meanwhile ripped through an undefeated 2-year-old season with championship year-end honors. However, after starting his sophomore campaign with a win, he finished third in the Florida Derby. He also had recovered from injuries to his front feet to win the Wood Memorial and then the Kentucky Derby.
Second-place finishes in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes left most observers with the idea that Foolish Pleasure was the best 3-year-old male in the business.
Following the Belmont Stakes, New York officials wanted to test the best filly against the best colt.
The original thought was to include the Preakness winner, Master Derby, in the Great Match Race, but the team of Foolish Pleasure’s owner, trainer and rider didn’t want a three-horse race. Since New York racing had guaranteed $50,000 to the last-place horse, they paid Master Derby’s connections $50,000 not to race. Thus, the stage was set for an equine morality play.
“[Ruffian’s] abilities gave her the advantage in the match race,” Janney said. “If she could do what she did in full fields [by getting the early lead], then it was probably going to be even more effective in a match.”
Several ballyhooed match races in sports history had captured the world’s attention without incident — Seabiscuit vs. Triple Crown winner War Admiral in 1938, Alsab vs. Triple Crown winner Whirlaway in 1942, and Nashua vs. Swaps in 1955. None of those races, though, had the gender divide “it” factor.
The Great Match Race attracted 50,000 live attendees and more than 18 million TV viewers on CBS, comparable to the Grammy Awards and a pair of NFL “Sunday Night Football” games in 2024.
Prominent New York sportswriter Dick Young wrote at the time that, for women, “Ruffian was a way of getting even.”
“I can remember driving up the New Jersey Turnpike, and the lady that took the toll in one of those booths was wearing a button that said, ‘I’m for her,’ meaning Ruffian,” Janney said.
As the day approached, Ruffian’s rider, Jacinto Vasquez, who also was the regular rider of Foolish Pleasure including at the Kentucky Derby, had to choose whom to ride for the match race.
“I had ridden Foolish Pleasure, and I knew what he could do,” Vasquez told ESPN. “But I didn’t think he could beat the filly. He didn’t have the speed or stamina.”
Braulio Baeza, who had ridden Foolish Pleasure to victory in the previous year’s premier 2-year-old race, Hopeful Stakes, was chosen to ride Foolish Pleasure.
“I had ridden Foolish Pleasure and ridden against Ruffian,” Baeza said, with language assistance from his wife, Janice Blake. “I thought Foolish Pleasure was better than Ruffian. She just needed [early race] pressure because no one had ever pressured her.”
The 1⅛ mile race began at the start of the Belmont Park backstretch in the chute. In an ESPN documentary from 2000, Jack Whitaker, who hosted the race telecast for CBS, noted that the atmosphere turned eerie with dark thunderclouds approaching before the race.
Ruffian hit the side of the gate when the doors opened but straightened herself out quickly and assumed the lead. “The whole world, including me, thought that Ruffian was going to run off the screen and add to her legacy,” said longtime New York trainer Gary Contessa, who was a teenager when Ruffian ruled the racing world.
However, about ⅛ of a mile into the race, the force of Ruffian’s mighty strides snapped two bones in her front right leg.
“When she broke her leg, it sounded like a broken stick,” Vasquez said. “She broke her leg between her foot and her ankle. When I pulled up, the bone was shattered above the ankle. She couldn’t use that leg at all.”
It took Ruffian a few moments to realize what had happened to her, so she continued to run. Vasquez eventually hopped off and kept his shoulder leaning against her for support.
“You see it, but you don’t want to believe it,” Janney said.
Baeza had no choice but to have Foolish Pleasure finish the race in what became a macabre paid workout. The TV cameras followed him, but the eyes of everyone at the track were on the filly, who looked frightened as she was taken back to the barn area.
“When Ruffian broke down, time stood still that day,” Contessa said. Yet time was of the essence in an attempt to save her life.
Janney said that Dr. Frank Stinchfield — who was the doctor for the New York Yankees then and was “ahead of his time in fixing people’s bones” — called racing officials to see whether there was anything he could do to help with Ruffian.
New York veterinarian Dr. Manny Gilman managed to sedate Ruffian, performed surgery on her leg and, with Stinchfield’s help, secured her leg in an inflatable cast. When Ruffian woke up in the middle of the night, though, she started fighting and shattered her bones irreparably. Her team had no choice but to euthanize her at approximately 2:20 a.m. on July 7.
“She was going full bore trying to get in front of [Foolish Pleasure] out of the gate,” Baeza said. “She gave everything there. She gave her life.”
Contessa described the time after as a “stilled hush over the world.”
“When we got the word that she had rebroken her leg, the whole world was crying,” Contessa said. “I can’t reproduce the feeling that I had the day after.”
The Janneys soon flew to Maine for the summer, and they received a round of applause when the pilot announced their presence. At the cottage, they were met by thousands of well-wishing letters.
“We all sat there, after dinner every night, and we wrote every one of them back,” Janney said. “It was pretty overwhelming, and that didn’t stop for a long time. I still get letters.”
Equine fatalities have been part of the business since its inception, like the Triple Crown races and Breeders’ Cup. Some have generated headlines by coming in clusters, such as Santa Anita in 2019 and Churchill Downs in 2023. However, breakdowns are not the only factor, and likely not the most influential one, in the gradual decline of horse racing’s popularity in this country.
But the impact from the day of Ruffian’s death, and that moment, has been ongoing for horse racing.
“There are people who witnessed the breakdown and never came back,” Contessa said.
Said Janney: “At about that time, racing started to disappear from the national consciousness. The average person knows about the Kentucky Derby, and that’s about it.”
Equine racing today is a safer sport now than it was 50 years ago. The Equine Injury Database, launched by the Jockey Club in 2008, says the fatality rate nationally in 2024 was just over half of what it was at its launch.
“We finally have protocols that probably should have been in effect far sooner than this,” Contessa said. “But the protocols have made this a safer game.”
Said Vasquez: “There are a lot of nice horses today, but to have a horse like Ruffian, it’s unbelievable. Nobody could compare to Ruffian.”
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — A blunder that typifies the current state of the New York Yankees, who find themselves in the midst of their second six-game losing streak in three weeks, happened in front of 41,401 fans at Citi Field on Saturday, and almost nobody noticed.
The Yankees were jogging off the field after securing the third out of the fourth inning of their 12-6 loss to the Mets when shortstop Anthony Volpe, as is standard for teams across baseball at the end of innings, threw the ball to right fielder Aaron Judge as he crossed into the infield from right field.
Only Judge wasn’t looking, and the ball nailed him in the head, knocking his sunglasses off and leaving a small cut near his right eye. The wound required a bandage to stop the bleeding, but Judge stayed in the game.
“Confusion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I didn’t know what happened initially. [It just] felt like something happened. Of course I was a little concerned.”
Avoiding an injury to the best player in baseball was on the Yankees’ very short list of positives in another sloppy, draining defeat to their crosstown rivals. With the loss, the Yankees, who held a three-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East standings entering June 30, find themselves tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for second place three games behind the Blue Jays heading into Sunday’s Subway Series finale.
The nosedive has been fueled by messy defense and a depleted pitching staff that has encountered a wall.
“It’s been a terrible week,” said Boone, who before the game announced starter Clarke Schmidt will likely undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery.
For the second straight day, the Mets capitalized on mistakes and cracked timely home runs. After slugging three homers in Friday’s series opener, the Mets hit three more Saturday — a grand slam in the first inning from Brandon Nimmo to take a 4-0 lead and two home runs from Pete Alonso to widen the gap.
Nimmo’s blast — his second grand slam in four days — came after Yankees left fielder Jasson Dominguez misplayed a ball hit by the Mets’ leadoff hitter in the first inning. On Friday, he misread Nimmo’s line drive and watched it sail over his head for a double. On Saturday, he was slow to react to Starling Marte’s flyball in the left-center field gap and braked without catching or stopping it, allowing Marte to advance to second for a double. Yankees starter Carlos Rodon then walked two batters to load the bases for Nimmo, who yanked a mistake, a 1-2 slider over the wall.
“That slider probably needs to be down,” said Rodon, who allowed seven runs (six earned) over five innings. “A lot of misses today and they punished them.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s throwing woes at third base — a position the Yankees have asked him to play to accommodate DJ LeMahieu at second base — continued in the second inning when he fielded Tyrone Taylor’s groundball and sailed a toss over first baseman Cody Bellinger’s head. Taylor was given second base and scored moments later on Marte’s RBI single.
The Yankees were charged with their second error in the Mets’ four-run seventh inning when center fielder Trent Grisham charged Francisco Lindor’s single up the middle and had it bounce off the heel of his glove.
The mistake allowed a run to score from second base without a throw, extending the Mets lead back to three runs after the Yankees had chipped their deficit, and allowed a heads-up Lindor to advance to second base. Lindor later scored on Alonso’s second home run, a three-run blast off left-hander Jayvien Sandridge in the pitcher’s major league debut.
“Just got to play better,” Judge said. “That’s what it comes down to. It’s fundamentals. Making a routine play, routine. It’s just the little things. That’s what it kind of comes down to. But every good team goes through a couple bumps in the road.”
This six-game losing skid has looked very different from the Yankees’ first. That rough patch, consisting of losses to the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels, was propelled by offensive troubles. The Yankees scored six runs in the six games and gave up just 16. This time, run prevention is the issue; the Yankees have scored 34 runs and surrendered 54 in four games against the Blue Jays in Toronto and two in Queens.
“The offense is starting to swing the bat, put some runs on the board,” Boone said. “The pitching, which has kind of carried us a lot this season, has really, really struggled this week. We haven’t caught the ball as well as I think we should.
“So, look, when you live it and you’re going through it, it sucks, it hurts. But you got to be able to handle it. You got to be able to deal with it. You got to be able to weather it and come out of this and grow.”
Bobby Jenks, a two-time All-Star pitcher for the Chicago White Sox who was on the roster when the franchise won the 2005 World Series, died Friday in Sintra, Portugal, the team announced.
Jenks, 44, who had been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer, this year, spent six seasons with the White Sox from 2005 to 2010 and also played for the Boston Red Sox in 2011. The reliever finished his major league career with a 16-20 record, 3.53 ERA and 173 saves.
“We have lost an iconic member of the White Sox family today,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “None of us will ever forget that ninth inning of Game 4 in Houston, all that Bobby did for the 2005 World Series champions and for the entire Sox organization during his time in Chicago. He and his family knew cancer would be his toughest battle, and he will be missed as a husband, father, friend and teammate. He will forever hold a special place in all our hearts.”
After Jenks moved to Portugal last year, he was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. That eventually spread into blood clots in his lungs, prompting further testing. He was later diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and began undergoing radiation.
In February, as Jenks was being treated for the illness, the White Sox posted “We stand with you, Bobby” on Instagram, adding in the post that the club was “thinking of Bobby as he is being treated.”
In 2005, as the White Sox ended an 88-year drought en route to the World Series title, Jenks appeared in six postseason games. Chicago went 11-1 in the playoffs, and he earned saves in series-clinching wins in Game 3 of the ALDS at Boston, and Game 4 of the World Series against the Houston Astros.
In 2006, Jenks saved 41 games, and the following year, he posted 40 saves. He also retired 41 consecutive batters in 2007, matching a record for a reliever.
“You play for the love of the game, the joy of it,” Jenks said in his last interview with SoxTV last year. “It’s what I love to do. I [was] playing to be a world champion, and that’s what I wanted to do from the time I picked up a baseball.”
A native of Mission Hills, California, Jenks appeared in 19 games for the Red Sox and was originally drafted by the then-Anaheim Angels in the fifth round of the 2000 draft.
Jenks is survived by his wife, Eleni Tzitzivacos, their two children, Zeno and Kate, and his four children from a prior marriage, Cuma, Nolan, Rylan and Jackson.