The autumnal season in the northern hemisphere ushers in blazing arboreal colors, cool crisp air tinged with wood smoke and thoroughbred horse racing championships. Last week's Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe is generally recognized as crowning the world's best turf horse. This weekend marks the annual Champions Day of racing at Ascot for which Britons will proclaim champions in a wide assortment of flat races during that country's richest day of racing. Here in the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave we are just scant weeks away from similarly crowning our own champions when the Breeders' Cup returns to Santa Anita, host for this year's World Thoroughbred Championships.
The purpose behind today's entry here in the digital pages of Heavy Artillery is not to conduct an analysis of the Breeders' Cup races for wagering strategies but rather merely to whet the appetite for the spectacle and scenery of horse racing at its best.
A brief column titled "Life in the Bubble" published by The Blood-Horse last week regarding trending attendance and wagering figures at some tracks also spotlights the burgeoning crowds flowing into Keeneland during its current Fall Meet. Following the noble yet failed experiment of replacing the dirt main track with a synthetic racing surface and with the return of traditional dirt racing and the excitement generated from having hosted last year's Breeders' Cup, Keeneland is experiencing a dramatic new golden age. As written here last week; if you haven't been to Keeneland, go.
For those who do not have an inclination towards the written or digitized word but have a preference for visual media, the website AmericasBestRacing.net has two video's which serve to illustrate the same subject. The 5-minute long "ABR Wired" follows Daily Racing Form handicapper and NBC Sports horse racing analyst Matt Bernier as he prepares for an afternoon telecast live from Keeneland just last week. Watching this video will give you the viewer an interesting behind-the-scenes glimpse into the NBC broadcast but also, and more importantly for our purpose here, is jam-packed with scenic sights and sounds from Keeneland. With regard to next month's Breeders' Cup, ABR has posted an attractive 12-minute film titled "The Biggest Game in Horse Racing" that strives to explain "the passion, pageantry and excitement associated with Thoroughbred racing's $28 million weekend." A few elements of the narrative are over-blown, and there is a repeated bit of mispronounced terminology from the narrator that chaffs my flank but the overall product is beautifully filmed and produced.
Roll the credits!
