Keeping Breeders' Cup Classic winner in training

Horseracing Betting Lines

11/10/2011 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - These days top flight thoroughbreds rarely keep racing beyond the age of four. So it's news when there is even a suggestion that a leading racehorse might remain in training.

Breeders' Cup Classic winner Drosselmeyer was to be retired from racing after last week's race, now his owner WinStar Farm is reconsidering that decision.

"All options are open for Drosselmeyer, and we expect to make a decision by some time next week," said Elliott Walden, WinStar President & CEO on Wednesday. "Our phone has been ringing off the hook since Saturday's big win, including Mike Smith lobbying to keep the horse in training. So we're weighing all of our options and will do what we feel is best for Drosselmeyer and WinStar."

Jockey Mike Smith has every hope to ride Drosselmeyer again. The Hall of Fame rider was aboard the colt last year in winning the Belmont Stakes.

"I had ridden him once to win the Belmont on him," Smith shortly after winning this year's Classic, "and to get a chance to ride him back in the Classic, I don't know, I got this good feeling as soon as I found out."

The 4-year-old colt was to be retired to stand the 2012 breeding season in New York. However, a clause in the contract allows some maneuvering room if Drosselmeyer were to win the $5 million Classic.

"Horses in this day and age don't run a lot of starts. He's had 15," Walden noted on Saturday. "A lot of them don't have stamina, and he will get you the Classic type horse. So that's an exciting thing for his breeding credential, and we'll just sit down and huddle and see how that is."

Five weeks before taking the Classic Drosselmeyer finished a solid second to Flat Out in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park. That came seven weeks after a seventh on the turf in the Sword Dancer at Saratoga. In June the colt was second in the Brooklyn Handicap behind Birdrun with his only other 2011 win coming in a minor stakes at Belmont in May.

"Back before we ran him at Saratoga, we ran him on the grass," Walden said following the Classic victory. "We had a plan to get to the Breeders' Cup. Bill (Mott) came up with the fact that there was a race when he was second on Belmont day, he came up with a plan to run him on the grass once because it was a mile and a half, and that would set him up for the Jockey Club and see what happened in the Jockey Club and where that would take us.

"He ran well in the Jockey Club, and I think anybody that's seen him train all week, well, for two weeks, would just know that this horse is doing very well and is peaking at the right time."

Drosselmeyer was 14-1 for the 1 1/4-mile Classic which was understandable considering his 2011 efforts.

"We backed out of the horse after the Belmont last year," the trainer noted. "We gave him a lot of time. He had a couple of easy months off, didn't do anything.

"We brought him back the beginning of the year. He was fat and really kind of didn't get in the rhythm the first two or three races. As the year progressed, he seemed to get a little better and a little better.

"Really midway through Saratoga, after we ran him in the Sword Dancer, it was kind of like somebody had flipped a switch, and he just turned around. He was moving great. He was into his training. There again, he ran a big one in the Jockey Gold Cup to be second.

"And he was coming on. We didn't beat the winner, but it looked like -- really, Elliott kind of made the decision, I think, to lean towards the Classic with him after that race. Really, it was a great decision, and we've been here for a month, and the horses have had good work on the racetrack. I think it really paid off."

Drosselmeyer more than tripled his career earnings to $3,728,170 with his Classic victory. One more year in training with continued success on the track can give him and his connections much more money and increase his stud value even more.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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