Posted on
10/23/2007 7:55:10 PM
Breeders’ Cup Wagering: Juvenile Favorites
By Mike Dempsey
(Saturday, October 20) The “Juvenile Jinx” came to a resounding end, as Street Sense became the first in history to win both the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and the Kentucky Derby.
The Juvenile and Derby winner will go for an unprecedented triple this Saturday by attempting to be victorious in the Breeders' Cup Classic.
The Juvenile has historically been one of the most challenging races to handicap on the entire Breeders' Cup card. Rapidly improving two year olds, some making their first start around two turns, can be tough to figure out.
The average win mutuel over the past ten years is $27.31. Let's not forget last year's winner Street Sense returned $32.40 for a $2 wager and topped a trifecta that returned $996.00.
Street Sense came into the Juvenile off back to back third place finishes in the Grade 3 Arlington Washington Futurity and the Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland.
The winner of this year's Juvenile will be anointed as the early Kentucky Derby favorite, and with Street Sense to thank for breaking the “Jinx”, may have a fighting chance to go on and get Derby glory next May.
Here is a look at the major contenders for this year's running of the Juvenile:
War Pass: The Nick Zito trainee is a perfect 3 for 3 in his career. He followed up a good looking maiden score in his debut with a win against Alw-1 optional claimers and then made his stakes debut a winning one by taking the Grade 1 Champagne on October 6 in very impressive fashion. The colt went gate to wire and earned a career top speed figure. Zito is just 1 for 29 in Breeders' Cup races, but this promising colt gives the trainer a real good shot on Saturday.
Kodiak Kowboy: This colt is a multiple stakes winner who will be routing for the first time for trainer Steve Asmussen. The colt is coming off a good second last out in the Grade 2 Futurity at Belmont Park behind Tale of Ekati, beaten a length for the top spot. The runner up finish snapped a four race win streak that included wins in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor and Grade 2 Saratoga Special. The colt has not been around two turns in his career and will need to outrun his sprint oriented pedigree, but the colt has shown flashes of some serious talent and is in good hands with trainer Steve Asmussen, who is very good with two year olds.
Tale of Ekati: This colt is trained by Barclay Tagg, the trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide. Tagg is having a very strong year and is having a good meeting in New York where he is hitting at a 27% clip. This colt was simply brilliant in his debut, drawing clear to win by 8 ¼ lengths in good time. He finished second in his stakes debut in the Grade 3 Sanford at Saratoga. The colt followed that up with a victory in the Grade 2 Futurity. This colt has plenty of pedigree to handle the stretch out to 1 1/6 miles and still appears to have tons of potential.
Wicked Style: A son of 2000 Juvenile winner Macho Uno, this colt has won all three of his career starts, all over the synthetic polytrack surface. After breaking his maiden in his debut at Arlington, he followed that up with a win in the Grade 3 Arlington Washington Futurity, then won the Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity at the Juvenile distance. The colt had a tough post in his last race and went gate to wire over a polytrack surface that has not been kind to speed types. While his speed figures are on the light side compared to several of the foes he will face on Saturday, this colt has the look of a runner that could move forward with another career top effort.
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