I have finally crawled out of my spider hole, because today is Christmas for any horseplayer. Yes, it's Breeders Cup Day! For the first time, it's broadcast on the four-letter, ESPN, starting at High Noon. After a decent amount of preparation, I have come away with some thoughts on today's card. So, here are my picks:

Juvenile Fillies

My pick is 3 Cash Included.
Also use: 1 Dreaming of Anna, 6 Bel Air Beauty, 13 Quick Little Miss (Longshot)

Juvenile

My pick is 9 Circular Quay (pronounced "key").
Also use: 3 Scat Daddy, 6 Principle Secret, 10 Pegasus Wind (the Lukas Longshot, very much under the radar)

Filly & Mare Turf

2 Ouija Board
Also use: 7 Wait a While (clearly this is Ouija Board's to win)




















Frankie Dettori celebrates the only ticket I cashed.

Sprint

As usual, this is a crapshoot. Strap yourself in and hang on for about 67 seconds.
The three speedballs are: 4 Henny Hughes, 6 Bordonaro, 8 Pomeroy. The question is do these three burn themselves out or will one prevail. Knock on Henny Hughes is not enough races. Pomeroy is coming back from 7f to 6f.
I'll give you two at a price: 11 Siren Lure and 14 Kelly's Landing.

Mile

Let's beat the 7 Aragorn.
My pick is 12 Gorella.
Also use: 3 Araafa, 4 Sleeping Indian, 6 Echo of Light.
The one worry I have is 8 Badge of Silver alone on the lead. The 6 may not let that happen.

Distaff

I can't split hairs, so let's use 2 Pine Island and 6 Spun Sugar. Upon further review, I'm goin' with the 6.

Turf

My pick: 6 Cacique
Also use: 3 Icy Atlantic, 4 Scorpion, 7 Hurricane Run

Classic

THE pick: 3 Bernardini, 3 Bernardini, 3 Bernardini
If he wins this and comes back well as a 4yo, we probably have the best horse since Spectacular Bid.

Breeders Cup-Alysheba vs. Ferdinand

Trevor Denman will call today's Breeders Cup races, but Tom Durkin has had some great calls. Like this with Alysheba and Ferdinand from 1987:



Meal of Links

"George. The ocean called. They're running out of shrimp." Seriously, they're running out of shrimp.

Kanye West hates French people. Justice and Simian beat him for best video at MTV's European Video Awards.

Wal-Mart starts the Christmas discounts early. I still don't shop there, I'll wait for the others to fall in line.

Exercise Yard

Maybe the Cavs are for real, as they beat San Antonio, a rarity in Tejas.

BTW, my NBA Fantasy team, Adopt an NBA Orphan, is rather interesting:

G Raymond Felton
G Stephon Marbury
F Tim Duncan
F Ron Artest
C Etan Thomas
6 Ricky Davis

That would be a real life stroke-in-waiting for any General Manager, but they were good last night.

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44 Across: University founder Stanford (6 letters) Leland