Finding The Key To A Breeders' Cup Score
The excitement is building as we near the 31st annual Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Keeneland. The Breeders’ Cup offers gamblers and fans alike a weekend of enticing betting opportunities as well as a chance to see the sport’s top stars in action.
After nearly a year of intense competition it seems almost surreal that we are on the verge of seeing the Triple Crown winner American Pharoah as he looks to avenge his loss to fellow Classic participant Keen Ice in this year’s main event.
This Breeders’ Cup I will be focusing on the handicapping and betting side of the sport while offering tips and selections throughout the week.
"Finding the Key" is a phrase I use quite often use in terms of my betting strategy for the Breeders’ Cup. Consider the “Key” your source to riches, your “Golden Ticket” to the Chocolate Factory, you might say. The Key can also open the door to disappointment if it’s the wrong key. But either way, my Breeders’ Cup success will be determined on how many “Keys” open the door to the Winner’s Circle.
The Breeders’ Cup offers 13 Championship races. That’s 13 chances to win a fortune or lose a fortune depending on your betting style. It is very hard to be right about 13 Championship races that differ, from turf sprints to dirt routes, colts, fillies, juveniles, older, foreign, American, the Breeders’ Cup has it all! So instead of trying to be correct on picking the winner of every race I am going to use my “keys” to open the door to Breeders’ Cup winners I feel the strongest about. I’m going to play them in Pick 3’s and Pick 4’s while going deep in races that are included in those sequences.
The Pick 4 is a great way to get value. In 2012, Wise Dan looked virtually unbeatable going into the Breeders’ Cup Mile. He didn’t disappoint giving the fans one of the most impressive performances of the weekend while winning at odds of 8/5. The late Pick 4 which included the short priced Wise Dan paid $5,647.40 for 50 cents.
“Howard the Cabbie” also known as Howard Chinchuck has made a killing in past Breeders’ Cup’s by using the key method of zoning in on a few horses he feels strongly about and basing his wagers around them. Howard is well known to the Horse Racing world, he was first introduced to us by Steven Crist in an article coined “Travels with My Cabbie.” Brian Zipse has also written about Howard, he’s becoming a household name in the horse racing world while being very active on social media.
In 2004, Howard and an associate of his played a pick 4 ticket together. Their two “Keys” for the day were Ouija Board in the Filly and Mare Turf and Ghostzapper in the Classic. Howard was very high on these two as singles. He was strongly against Kitten’s Joy in the Turf who was the 3/5 favorite. He also had a strong opinion against the favorite Roman Ruler, and main contender Afleet Alex in the Juvenile. The Cabbie decided to single his two keys, Ouija Board and Ghostzapper while going all in the two races where he had strong opinions against short price horses. Howard felt so confidently about this bet that he and his associate played this ticket several times, and as you know, Ouija Board and Ghostzapper both won, and their pick 4 returned them winnings of $64,000 per person.
As we go through the past performances this week we’ll look to see something similar to what “Howard the Cabbie” saw in 2004 and find the right keys to score huge this Breeders’ Cup weekend!