Bob Hill
Staff writer
Tracksideview.com

If exotic bets are your thing nothing could be more attractive than what has been put together for handicappers for the two days of the Breeders’ Cup to be held at Oak Tree at Santa Anita on Nov. 6 and 7.  Whether your exotic excitement is derived from multi-race vertical tickets or multi-place horizontal tickets, you will able to play in almost every race on the card on both days.

There are nine races carded for Friday, starting with two allowance races and followed by the running of six Breeders’ Cup stakes in races 3-8.  The Las Palmas Stakes will be the final race on the card that day.  On Saturday, the 10-race card will start with the Damascus Stakes before the running of the eight Breeders’ Cup races and then the final race of the day, the Oak Tree Derby.

For vertical bet players, daily doubles will be available in races 1-8 on Friday and 1-9 on Saturday.  A special daily double also will be available pairing the Ladies Classic and the Classic.  Pick 3 bets will be available in races 1-7 on Friday and 1-8 on Saturday.  Three different Pick 4 bets will be available on each day, starting in races 1, 5, and 6 on Friday and in races 2, 6, and 7 on Saturday.  Pools in the all-BC Pick 4 bets will be guaranteed in amounts ranging from $500,000 to $1.5 million.  Friday’s Pick 6 will be in the six Breeders’ Cup races 3-8.  That pool will be guaranteed at $500,000.   On Saturday, the Guaranteed $2 million Pick 6 will begin in race 4 and end with race 9.   

Horizontal bettors will be able to make all the standard win, place and show bets, as well as exactas and trifectas.  Ten cent superfectas will also be available in every race.  Super Hi 5 wagers will be possible in the Ladies Classic and Classic.

One new bet has been added this year and will be available as a futures proposition right up until the start of race 3 on Friday.  The bet is a head-to-head wager in which the player will make a win bet on a jockey.  There will be 16 jockeys in the betting pool, and winning tickets will be based on the jockey that wins the most Breeders’ Cup races. 

For some racing fans the pageantry and spectacle of gathering some of the greatest horses in the world for two days of competing is sufficient to generate great interest.  For others, the wide array of betting options ignites enthusiasm.  I am easy.  Both get my juices flowing, and you can bet on it!