Breeders’ Cup special despite top stars’ absence

Are horse racing fans pessimists or optimists at heart? This year’s Breeders’ Cup offers a good litmus test.

Racing’s two biggest superstars, Rachel Alexandra and Sea the Stars, will not run in the Nov. 6-7 event at Santa Anita.

I can already hear the glass-is-half-empty gang bemoaning the lack of stars at the Breeders’ Cup. How can the sport crown champions when the top two horses aren’t even there? And then, of course, there’s the notion that running back-to-back Breeders’ Cups over a synthetic surface does not yield true results.

But the glass-is-half-full side will revel in the Breeders’ Cup’s 14 stakes races with overflow fields, including most of the best horses in training. Handicappers will not find two better days to play the races.

Unfortunately, Breeders’ Cup president Greg Avioli sees the glass, and perhaps the stands at Santa Anita, as half full.

He recently said Sea the Stars would add 10,000 fans and $10 million in handle to the Breeders’ Cup — what a cop-out.

The Breeders’ Cup is similar to the Super Bowl in that regardless of who’s playing, you market the event.

All Avioli is doing is putting a convenient excuse in place in case the attendance and handle numbers tank.

After gouging fans at last year’s event, the Breeders’ Cup has backpedaled on prices. It will be much more affordable to attend this year, and hopefully fans will show up even if Rachel Alexandra and Sea the Stars will not.

By the way, the last thing racing needs to do is paint the owners of Rachel Alexandra and Sea the Stars in a bad light. For as much money as horse owners put into racing, and for as little as they take out, they certainly are free to decide when and where their horses run.

But I must say I’m anticipating the arrival of the Daily Racing Form Breeders’ Cup advance edition like a kid waits for Christmas. I guess that alone puts me on the glass-half-full side.

Which side are you on?

• PICK THE PONIES — The last big-money handicapping tournament in Las Vegas for 2009 will be Pick The Ponies at the Las Vegas Hilton from Nov. 4 to 6.

Race and sports book director Jay Kornegay and his staff cap entries at 200, so sign up early.

Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.