Horses Betting

On Monday night, the most anticipated Horse of the Year announcement in 26 years highlights the 40th annual Eclipse Awards dinner, which is to be held at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel in Florida.

Will it be the wildly popular mare who had won all five of her starts in 2010, Zenyatta or will it be the nation’s leading older horse, who won the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Blame?

The President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Alex Waldrop will make the announcement and it is expected to come between 9:30 and 10 p.m. Eastern Time at the end of what promises to be a marathon evening. To the black-tie dinner, more than 500 people are expected to attend.

For that Eclipse Award, the colt Blame and the filly Zenyatta are finalists. At Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky, Blame beat a fast-closing Zenyatta by a head Nov. 6 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. In Zenyatta’s 20-race career, it was the only loss.

Racing writers and racetrack officials are the Eclipse Awards voters. On Jan.4, the voting was completed and in each category, the three top vote getters were identified as finalists. In racing publications, some writers said they voted for Zenyatta, as she generated a lot of publicity for racing and because she won five of her six 2010 races. Other writers said that they voted for Blame, as Blame beat Zenyatta. Blame had won four of the five 2010 races.

Two horses that began their careers at Calder Casino & Race Course, Awesome Feather and Big Drama are favored to win other Eclipse awards. For the 2-Year-Old Filly Award, Awesome Feather is a finalist. She won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly stakes Nov. 5 and has won all six of her 2010 races.

Other categories are slam-dunk decisions and are as close as the Zenyatta-Blame battle. Lookin At Lucky (3-year-old male), Goldikova (female turf horse), Uncle Mo (2-year-old male), Awesome Feather (2-year-old filly) and Blind Luck (3-year-old filly) are expected to win by landslide margins.

Finalists Ramon Dominguez, Garrett Gomez and John Velazquez could be separated by only a few votes in one of the most interesting categories, the top jockey.

Climbing 15.5% for last Saturday’s card, the overall handle for the Breeders’ Cup held at Churchill Downs increased to set a new record.

Fan-favorite and horse racing betting favorite as well, Zenyatta’s attempt to win her 20th race in the Classic helped the success of this year’s Breeder’s Cup. Other factors also helped increase the handle, such as an increase in race field size and a lower minimum for many exotic bets even though beyond Zenyatta’s fan base increasing television ratings. Last year, the all-sources handle on the 14 races was over $157 million, up from just over $136 million.

As did betting numbers on Zenyetta to win, betting on the Classic itself, set a record. As bettors could place a wider variety of bets, handle in exotic pools were increased due to the larger field sizes and bet minimums set to fifty cents.

Compared to previous years, attendance was also very strong for Saturday’s card, with over 70,000 at Churchill Downs and for Friday’s card almost 42,000 at the track. Enjoying two races Friday and the Classic Saturday under Churchill Downs’ track lights were the attendees, who enjoyed prime-time racing.

A successful Breeder’s Cup was contributed by innovative new betting offerings, increased field size, and the presence of a track favorite, of which many features will be utilized at the 2011 Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs.

On Monday, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association released its weekly poll of the top racehorses in the country and there were few changes from last week.

Still on top of the list at first place and second place are Zenyatta, the undefeated mare, and four-year-old colt Blame, respectively, according to the latest NTRA National Thoroughbred Poll. Horse betting online fans too have Zenyatta and Blame on the top of the list.

In fact, from last week, the first seven horses remain unchanged, and there are no new names among the top 10.

Zenyatta, a two-time champion was the one of the only changes of note and lost a first-place vote from last week’s 14. The horse now has 170 points in total.

For Zenyatta, the next scheduled race was owned by Jerry and Ann Moss and trained by John Shirreffs, is in the Lady’s Secret Stakes at Hollywood Park on Saturday, October 2.

Winner of the Stephen Foster and Whitney Handicaps, Blame stayed in second place but and picked up five first-place votes. Blame will also make his next start on October 2, in Belmont Park’s Jockey Club Gold Cup and it now has 158 points.

With 139 points, Woodward Stakes champ Quality Road is third followed by Lookin At Lucky (120), Blind Luck (97), Paddy O’Prado (47) and Rachel Alexandra (41).

Five-year-old mare Proviso is moving up from ninth to eighth. to move ahead of Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti, the turf runner received 33 points and posted 24 points.

In 10th with 21 points remains Pacific Classic winner Richard’s Kid.

Rampant talks running about a possible matchup between filly Rachel Alexander and Zenyatta. From Rachel Alexander trucking up to Saratoga, the talk stems from and it could be possible start in the Personal Ensign, which would be August 29. Jess Jackson, Owner, said of racing August 29th, “I do think there is a chance she can run here.”

Owner Jerry Moss has never been a fan of the Del Mar poly track, although Zenyatta is working towards racing August 7th for Del Mar’s Clement Hirsch. Morning workouts were stopped, in the first day after the start of the Del Mar meet because of separation of the poly track surface.

The Woodward could be another possibility on September 4. For the Woodward, both owners could hold out and show up. With the Woodward, a race both horses training schedules coincide well too.

The filly Rachel Alexandra is the current Horse of the Year preparing for her fifth start of the year and Zenyatta, West coast phenom, is a perfect 17-0 in his career. For over a year, several tracks have been attempting to entice the two camps to enter their horses in the same race and for the two to meet, this may be the best opportunity.