Santa Anita Park is the site of the 36th annual World Championships this weekend, and the events will come to a climax at the Grade 1 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday night, with a purse of $6 million. This race features the best dirt route racehorses in a 1 ¼-mile heat. This race plays a significant role in the voting for the Eclipse Awards for Horse of the Year. This year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic is set for a post time of 8:44 pm Eastern time on Saturday, and you can catch all the action starting at 8:00 pm on NBC. In this article, we give you the post positions and opening 2019 Breeders’ Cup odds for each horse as well as our sports betting thoughts on the favorites.
2019 Breeders’ Cup Classic Betting Favorites
Packed house in the saddling area @santaanitapark. All of the #BreedersCup horses are acting nothing but professional. pic.twitter.com/2LpTbar1Fh
— Breeders’ Cup (@BreedersCup) October 30, 2019
| Post | Horse | Trainer | Rider | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Math Wizard | Saffie Joseph Jr | Ricardo Santana Jr | 30-1 |
| 2 | Seeking the Soul | Dallas Stewart | Brian Hernandez Jr | 30-1 |
| 3 | Owendale | Brad Cox | Javier Castellano | 15-1 |
| 4 | War of Will | Mark Casse | Tyler Gaffalione | 15-1 |
| 5 | Yoshida | William Mott | Mike Smith | 8-1 |
| 6 | Elate | William Mott | Jose Ortiz | 6-1 |
| 7 | Higher Power | John Sadler | Flavien Prat | 6-1 |
| 8 | McKinzie | Bob Baffert | Joel Rosario | 3-1 |
| 9 | Mongolian Groom | Enebish Gambat | Abel Cedillo | 12-1 |
| 10 | Vino Russo | Todd Pletcher | Irad Ortiz Jr | 4-1 |
| 11 | Code of Honor | Claude McGaughey | John Velasquez | 4-1 |
The Favorites
Vino Rosso has 14 career starts with five wins, one second and three thirds. In 2019, he has won two of five starts, and he won the Jockey Club Gold Cup his last time out — until he was disqualified for delivering a bump to Code of Honor down the stretch. Last year, he was noted for slow starts with a big kick at the end, but in 2019 he has changed his style so that he gets off to a quicker start, not relying on a huge finish. He has won both of his races of a 1 ¼-mile distance this year, the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the Gold Cup at Santa Anita. Irad Ortiz Jr rode him at the Jockey Club and will ride him again here.
Code of Honor won that Jockey Club Gold Cup after the stewards ruled out Vino Rosso. However, that should not be taken as a slight against Code of Honor’s own merits. He has nine career starts, with five wins, two seconds and a third. The worst race he has run came in his sophomore debut last winter at Gulfstream Park, where he came in fourth. He won the Runhappy Travers Stakes in his own right in August, another 1 ¼-mil3 event. He has a solid style of staying close to the leaders and then pouring it on in the finish.
McKinzie has 13 career starts, with seven wins and five seconds. He likes to get out and push the pace from the very beginning, and there are times when that has led to big wins, such as the Alysheba Stakes, where he won by 4 ¾ lengths, and the Whitney Stakes, where he won by almost two lengths. There have also been some head-scratching results, as he came in second three different times in 2019 when he entered as the heavy favorite. This happened on September 28 at the Awesome Again Stakes, where Mongolian Groom won in an upset by 2 ½ lengths. So he is the favorite here — but there are consistency questions as well.
Elate has 18 career starts, with seven wins, seven seconds and two thirds. At a 1 ¼-mile distance, she won the 2017 and 2018 Delaware Handicap and the 2017 Alabama Stakes. She has only fallen out of the top three two times in 18 starts, and in one of those she was pulled up. She missed the Breeders’ Cup last year but will take on male horses for the first time in the Classic. She did lose to Midnight Bisou on august 24 and to Blue Prize at the Juddmonte Spinster Stakes. However, she has the drive to push down the stretch and make a play in this field.
