Here are the winning Beyer Speed Figures for the 14 Breeders' Cup races, along with last year's winners and figs and the highest ones recorded in each race since 1991:
The 10-point decline in Conduit's winning figure may seem counterintuitive for a repeat winner, but that's how the times came up. Conduit ran 2:23.42 last year and 2:23.75 this year -- 0.33 seconds slower on a quicker course -- while. for example, Goldikova ran 1.14 seconds faster (132.26 vs. 1:33.40) repeating in the Mile. Much as I admire Presious Passion, Conduit's beating him by half a length was probably a weaker performance than his daylight triumph of a year ago.
The only other grass race that went slower than a year ago was the Juvenile Turf (Pounced in 1:35.47 vs. Donativum in 1:34.68) but this seems due entirely to the bizarrely slow pace this time around -- 1:12.47 vs. 1:10.34 last year. This may be a good race in which to downgrade those nearest the slow pace and upgrade those who closed into it.
--Here are Saturday's commingled-only handle and pool totals, which declined about 6 percent with one fewer Cup race on the program. About a third of the decline, though, came simply from the gate scratch of Quality Road, which caused about $2.4 million in refunds.
