Saturday, Sept. 7 marks the conclusion of Colonial Downs’ summer meet, and the turf-centric racetrack finishes up with a great 12-race card including six stakes races on the grass.
Each week a panel of media members, horseplayers, and Breeders’ Cup World Championships officials release a poll tabulating their votes ranking the top contenders for the 2024 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic. The results are a weekly rating of the top 10 horses in contention and are determined by each voter ranking their top 10 horses with points assigned on a descending 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
The fields for the 14 races that comprise the Breeders’ Cup World Championships really begin to come into focus in summer and fall. This regular feature will offer a snapshot profile of one of the previous weekend’s standout stars, usually a Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series winner, and whether I’m buying or selling their chances to win Nov. 1-2 at Del Mar.
Tom Pedulla offers takeaways from a huge Labor Day racing weekend highlighted by a pair of $1 million races, the FanDuel Racing Pacific Classic Stakes Saturday at Del Mar and the Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes Sunday at
Chancer McPatrick unleashed a powerful late rally down the middle of the track to edge Ferocious at the wire and win the $300,000 Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes Sept. 2 on closing day at Saratoga Race Course.
