When Todd Pletcher claims a horse – horse bettors tend to take note of this. As he has slimmed down his stable over the past few years Pletcher has gone from training a stable of hundreds of horses to becoming a trainer of stakes-quality horses only. At $40,000 the 4-year-old colt Calibrachoa was a supremely good value.

In his first start off the claim he earned a $39,000 check for a wind in the overnight Gravesand Stakes at Aqueduct on December 18th. Last Saturday he went on to win the Grade 3 Toboggan earning an additional $60,000 – bringing his lifetime win record to 6 for 12.

According to Big Drama’s trainer David Fawkes it would have been just a tad embarrassing to claim the Eclipse Award on behalf of championship sprinter Big Drama if lost his 2011 debut just two days earlier in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

The other time Soaring Empire met Rule, he finished greater than a 12 lengths in back of him in the 2010 Florida Derby. On Saturday, the greatly advanced Soaring Empire flipped the tables when suppressing a late attempt from Rule to register one and one-quarter length win in Gulfstream Park’s $100,000 Hal’s Hope. Morning Line finished 3rd as the heavy 3-5 chalk.

When the rain came poring down at Calder Race Course on Dec 18 before the annual running of the 1 ½ mile W.L. McKnight Handicap race goers weren’t surprised when the race was taken off the turf. However, most of the horses entered in the race were specially looking to run on the grass which left the field with a shot group of only five contenders.

After struggling with a synthetic surface since 2007 horse bettors can look forward to traditional dirt racing at Santa Anita when the winter meet opens on Sunday, December 26. With this change handicappers will have to change several of their routine assumptions about betting on horses at Santa Anita in order to have a profitable meet.

This year’s Tropical Turf handicap was back at Calder Race Course in Miami, FL after a year long hiatus due to financial difficulties of the track. Even though it was only a grade 3 event with a lowly purse of $100,000 (the lowest possible for a graded stake race) it drew an overflow field of 16 horses that included 4 on the extra eligible list.

Most of the time, horse races are run smoothly without much complication – the first horse to cross the wire is the winner and the other horses follow in order. However, when there are riding infractions this can result in the disqualification of horses as determined by track stewards. On Friday Night, a very rough running of the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Dows resulted in multiple disqualifications.

As a direct result of increased purses related to slot machine revenue, Delta Downs in Vinton, LA recently hosted the Delta Jackpot with a record purse of $1 million dollars. Even with such a large purse the race is still only a Grade 3, but nevertheless drew several notable horses from Louisiana and around the country.

The winner of the day was Calder based Gourmet Dinner who made his first start with blinkers on. The equipment change was seemingly just what the 2-year-old needed to overcome his rivals as he powered to a 2 and a quarter length win over Decisive Moment.

In addition to the world class racing that the world witnessed over the two days of Breeders Cup racing last week at Churchill Downs – there were a few moments of weirdness. One of the strangest events was the fight that broke out between three time Kentucky Derby winning jockey Calvin Borel and Javier Castellano.

Last Saturday over 73,000 racing fans showed up at Churchill Downs to see one thing and one thing only – That Zenyatta should win her second consecutive Breeders’ Cup Classic. She was facing a significantly tougher field of males (both three year olds and older horses) this time around, and she was making her third start on dirt – a surface she’s not at all used to racing on.