Breeders’ Cup Odds: Saturday’s Races Include $5 Million Cup Classic

Breeders’ Cup Odds: Shared Belief is the 5-2 morning line favorite to win the $5 million dollar Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday that can be seen on NBC. The race will feature all of the Horse of the Year contenders with Shared Belief, Bayern, California Chrome and Tonalist. Let’s look at the race, the morning line odds and Breeders’ Cup picks.

Breeders’ Cup Classic Odds

Shared Belief                               5-2

Bayern                                          5-1

California Chrome                     6-1

Tonalist                                        6-1

Cigar Street                                12-1

Zivo                                              12-1

Moreno                                       15-1

Toast of New York                    15-1

V.E. Day                                     15-1

Majestic Harbor                       20-1

Candy Boy                                 30-1

Footbridge                                30-1

Imperative                                30-1

Prayer for Relief                      30-1

Big Cazanova                           30-1

Horse of the Year Contenders

The winner of this race should be named Horse of the Year. Shared Belief is unbeaten and it is his race to lose. If he gets beat then the likely winner would be California Chrome, Bayern or Tonalist. If any one of these four horses wins the Classic then they are almost certainly going to win Horse of the Year. “I like to leave that to the people that vote on that,” Shared Belief trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said, “We’ll see what happens in the race and then let those folks that vote on Horse of the Year and all the other awards … they’ll look at all the evidence and they’ll make their decision.” Each of the Horse of the Year contenders is young and it should be noted that no 3-year old has won the Classic since 2008.

Breeders’ Cup Picks

Maybe Shared Belief is good enough to win but at odds of 5-2 there is not a lot of value. We’ll take California Chrome as the top choice and for a live longshot we’ll go with Zivo at double-digit odds. Zivo has won nine times in his 17 starts including six in a row.

Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Schedule (All Times Pacific)

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies – 12:05 p.m.

Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf – 12:43 p.m.

Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint – 1:21 p.m.

Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint – 2:05 p.m.

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile – 2:43 p.m.

Breeders’ Cup Turf – 3:22 p.m.

Breeders’ Cup Sprint – 4:01 p.m.

Breeders’ Cup Mile – 4:40 p.m.

Breeders’ Cup Classic – 5:35 p.m.