It’s Breeders Cup Day! Televised coverage of the World Series of Horse Racing from New Jersey’s Monmouth Park begins at noon, eastern standard time, on ESPN. (Check your local listings.)
Three new Breeders Cup races, including the dirt mile, were run yesteray. The biggest news of the day was the weather: it was all wet. During the grass race, it was actually hard to see the horses! Nownownow, trained until a week ago by the outlawed Patrick Biancone, came out of the fog for a thrilling mid-track capture of the finish. In the dirt mile, Corinthian scored a decisive victory; poor Discreet Cat, last year’s top horse, finished a far-distant third.
I’m distracted from the coverage this morning by reports of a quarantine being lowered on Barn 47 at Churchill Downs, where a three-year-old horse trained by David Carroll tested positive on Thursday for Equine Herpes virus (EHV). The horse has been shipped to Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Kentucky for treatment. The horse is expected to recover, but there’s no way to tell if other horses will be affected by the airborne disease.
Complicating matters is that Churchill’s fall meet begins on Sunday and horses are shipping in as Keeneland in Lexington winds up its meet. Biosecurity measures include restricting horses that ship in to race to the track’s receiving and stakes barns. Disinfecting procedures also have been increased at the receiving and stakes barns, starting gate, and paddock.
A complete report is available on the Churchill Downs web site.
