Breeders' Cup Preview

Believe in Belief - Shared Belief can win the Breeders' Cup Classic

With the loss of some big names, this year’s Breeders’ Cup has encountered similar problems to Ascot’s own Champions’ Day, however much like with that event we still look set for an incredible weekend of racing.

Time has conspired against me somewhat this week preventing me from going quite as in depth as I would like on every race – I did however get Mile and Juvenile previews up last week which you can view by clicking the respective links – so I’ll simply have to put up my fancies for the weekend and try to explain why I’ve backed them.

Starting on the Friday, and first up we have the Dirt Mile and Goldencents. Last year’s winner is my idea of the weekend’s banker and providing he can get out and get on to the lead from his draw in one then he should take some stopping once again.

His form this season might not look all that on paper but that doesn’t tell the whole story and he’s been running some mighty figures in defeat with legitimate excuses when coming up short.

Forget the controversy surrounding his trainer, it is essentially just a name change and nothing else, Goldencents can become yet another horse to back up at the Breeders’ Cup, and though not all out disastrous it will be a disappointing start to the weekend if he’s beaten.

Kentucky Derby 2013 Preview

Optical Illusion - Orb can flash past his rivals in Saturday's Kentucky Derby

The 139th running of “the greatest two minutes in sport” has lost a bit of its interest for me this year as the two horses I picked out a while back for the race now won’t run due to injury.

So with both Shanghai Bobby and Violence “off the Derby trail” as they like to say in the US, it’s been back to the drawing board in recent weeks for me.

I would love to see Aidan O’Brien’s Lines Of Battle win but he looks to face a stiff task if he is to do so, but he won well in the UAE Derby at Meydan on World Cup night, although the form of that race is yet to really be tested, and with Ryan Moore missing Saturday’s racing at Newmarket to take the ride you’d have to give him a chance, if only an outside one.

My idea of the winner though is a horse called Orb; a horse that has coincidentally beaten my original two picks in two of his prep races. He narrowly accounted for Violence in the Fountain of Youth and then won the Florida Derby impressively with champion 2yo Shanghai Bobby well beaten down the field.