Breeders Cup Venue

[eye123]

Is it just me,or is anyone else getting tired of the Breeders Cup taking place in only California or Kentucky ?  This year will make the 12th that has seen it in just these two states.

 In the past we had a little New York,Florida,Canada,Illinois,New Jersey, and Texas in the mix.

Next year, back to Kentucky, the year after back to California. Making it 14 yrs in a row without visiting another venue. Becoming not so much an experience as a monotony.

From variety, to same old,same old. 

[phlierfreak]

crowd size

[spiderjohn]

Santa Anita, Del Mar, CD, Kee, Belmont--who else could handle it and be attractive to the patrons?

[1hooper]

Been to Breeders Cup's at Monmouth,CD,Gulfstream Belmont and Woodbine.
Woodbine was a fabulous weekend! I'd go again.
Hooper

[spanky]

I'll admit I'm partial to Santa Anita for a few reasons. One is seeing the Bad Actor. Two, is seeing the Pacific Ocean. Never been to Florida or Kentucky so maybe I'm missing out on some beautiful tracks but I have been to Del Mar and would love to go back for the BC. Going to Canada would be cool as well...

[dmmueller]

In the Midwest here I can only think of two that would qualify as Beautiful - Keeneland that looks like it's part of an Ivy league from the outside and Arlington in the Chicago area.

Probably the most beautiful track that is no longer with us was Hialeah. In its heyday - (Missing in here are pictures of the hundred pink Flamingos that called home to the infield.)

Hialeah - not so beautiful in 2008

[eye123]

The Hialeah videos are a little sad to watch. I remember better days there. Spectacular Bid winning the Flamingo.....one of my all time favorites.

[Badactor]

Spectacular Bid Romps
By Andrew Beyer
March 25, 1979

Spectacular Bid concluded his Florida campaign with a 12-length victory in the Flamingto Stakes at Hialeah today. Despite the imposing margin, the colt's performance was his least impressive of the winter.

Jockey Ron Franklin, under scrutiny after his embarrassing ride in the Florida Derby, was pushing Spectacular Bid all the way as he ran away from seven nonentities. Yet the colt's time, 1:48 2/5 for 1 1/8 miles, hardly was one of a superhorse. It may provide a glimmer of hope for potential challengers in the Kentucky Derby six weeks from today.

Before the Flamingo, the only uncertainties concerned Franklin, who had not won a single race since the Florida Derby. On the way to the post, the cheers for Spectacular Bid were mingled with catcalls for Franklin.

But after Spectacular Bid broke cleanly, the jockey rode an adequate if not artful race. He had his mount hung out four horses wide as the field hit the first turn, but as the field straigtened away into the back streatch he was sitting just outside pacesetting Gallant Serenade.

With Franklin pumping, Spectacular Bid moved past the leader, who began to stagger after his early exertions. With Gallant Serenade dropping back and nobody else rallying, Spectacular Bid suddenly found himself eight lengths in front on the turn, and the Flamingo was over.

Under such circumstances, almost any jockey alive would have put his mount under wraps and coasted to the wire. Not franklin. He cracked the horse once early in the switch, then switched the whip to his left hand and hit him five more times. "He was just breezing," the jockey explained. "Sometimes he tends to loaf a little on the lead. So I hit him to keep his mind on running."

This is all right with trainer Bud Delp, who likes to see Spectacular Bid do to his competition what top-10 foot-ball coaches like to do to theirs. "If the horse wants to strut a litte, it's all right if Ronnie helps him," the trainer said.

The urging from Franklin did enable Spectacular Bid to add a couple superfluous lengths to his margin over runner-up Strike The Main.But Spectacular Bid still did not ruz dazzlingly fast, as he has in all his previous starts this winter. His victory was the slowest of the last four runnings of the Flamingo, and the time was not strictly the result of a slow racetrack.Half an hour earlier, a $35,000 claiming horse had covered the distance in 1:49 1/5, only four-fifths of a second slower than the nation's ranking 3-year-old.

Delp was unconcerned. "As long as the horse is good and came back good, I don't care about the time," he said.

Spectacular Bid's obvious superiority in the Flamingo field brought a number of plungers to Hialeah, eager to bet the colt to show and collect a virtually certain five cents on the dollar. They wagered $116,974 in the show pool.

The winner paid $2.10, $2.10 and $2.10 across the board, procured a $13.40 exacta payoff and a $49.20 trifecta with the second and third-place finishers, Strike The Main and Sir Ivor Again.

Spectacular Bid will leave Florida on Thursday and take his nine-race winning streak to Keeneland Rack Track in Lexington, Ky. There Delp will begin preparations for the Blue Grass Stakes on April 26, and for the Kentucky Derby May 5.

[eye123]

Dell, what struck me when I was watching it (at Hialeah live)...was how "wide" Franklin kept the horse the entire race. He did everything "not" to even come close to another horse. Wish I had a trackus on that race. (can only imagine by how many lengths he would have won had he had Shoemaker or any other top jock on his back) Not many times a horse has awed me, that day he did.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________






HIALEAH, Fla., March 24 — “Hang on, Ronnie!” bawled Ron Franklin's public as the 19‐year‐old jockey paraded Spectacular Bid in the walking ring before the 50th running of the Flamingo Stakes today.

“Hang onto him!” others cried, taunting the kid whose confused ride in the Florida Derby had got the colt into trouble but had not cost him the race.

Hang on was all Franklin had to do after his dark gray mount left the starting gate in Florida's premier test of candidates for the Kentucky Derby and subsequent races in the Triple Crown series. With the greatest of ease, Spectacular Bid romped away from seven challengers on the backstretch and finished the mile and an eighth a winner by 12 lengths, the largest margin ever enjoyed in this stakes.

Now the winner of nine straight stakes and 11 of the 13 races in his life, Spectacular Bid was favored at 1 to 20 by the crowd of 21,089, paying $2.10 for every $2 bet on him across the board. The winner's purse of $96,850 brought his bankroll to $649,980 and the colt is only a month past his third birthday.