Breeders' Cup Turf

(Pictured is Red Rocks in 2006 after winning this race)

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com


If anyone tries to tell you that the winner of this race will be any horse other than Red Rocks or Soldier of Fortune, you should kick them in them face. Had I any degree of fame, I'd be willing to do something publicly embarrassing should neither of these two horses win. It's a very solid field with plenty of quality horses, but these two tower over the field. Well, they're slightly better than Conduit, then tower over everyone else.



1. Soldier of Fortune- In his last race he beat Duke of Marmalade and Henry the Navigator, who figure to be about the 3rd and 4th favorites in the Classic. He's always in the money in Europe's most prestigious grace races and hasn't had a race with a timeform rating under 124 in his last 6 races. If Red Rocks doesn't run his absolute best race, I don't think this race will be contested for a single step down the stretch.

2. Red Rocks- The only horse to beat Curlin since June of '07. He came in third in this race last year and he won it the year before that. All kinds of talent. His talent isn't the issue, but his health is. Since suffering a staph infection earlier this year, it's not clear if Red Rocks is at 100%, or closer to 90% or so. If Soldier of Fortune doesn't fire, it will be his race to lose.

3. Conduit- You Conduit! Conduit has been garnering a lot of attention after his impressive performance last race. What was so impressive about it was that his timeform rating # came close to numbers that Soldier of Fortune has been running for nearly a year and half now. If this is a new trend for Conduit, it certainly means he will be a major factor in this race. What makes me think that is unlikely is that the aforementioned race was at a 1 1/16 miles, and not Saturday's 1.5 mile distance. His previous two races were at a mile and half, so I don't know why his connections would shorten him up as a prep for a mile and a half race.