Early November sees the two biggest days of horse racing in North America

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The Breeders’ Cup World Championship is fast-approaching beginning with the Stars of Tomorrow, which features five races for two-year-olds on Nov. 1. The minimum purse is US$1 million.

The main event of nine championship races on Nov. 2 is the US$7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. The Cup is being held where the turf meets the surf at the iconic Del Mar Racetrack in Southern California.

Leading up to the biggest two days of racing in North America, the Daily Racing Form offers comprehensive coverage of all the races. The best part of the DRF’s coverage is the Clocker Reports by longtime DRF correspondent Mike Welsch. Welsch will be at Del Mar watching horses prepare for their respective races and, with his extensive experience as a clocker, offers great insight into how the horses are training.

A good example of the value of following Welsch’s reports came last year when he recommended not buying the hype about Tamara in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Tamara was one of the big stories leading up to the Cup. Trained by Richard Mandella, she was an impressive winner of both of her starts including an easy romp in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante. The hype was huge due to her being out of Beholder, who ranks as one of the best females of all time. The daughter of Henny Hughes won 18 races, beat the boys in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic and closed out her career with a thrilling victory over Songbird in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

When Welsch saw Tamara work five furlongs in company at Santa Anita, he went sour on her. Most people who saw the move thought it was fine.

“I didn’t like the way she finished,” said Welsch. “She just seemed to lack energy. She should have easily outworked the other horse but didn’t. I thought it was a good betting opportunity because I liked how Bill Mott’s horse was coming into the race.”

He was referring to Just F Y I who paid US$16 for her narrow victory over Jody’s Pride in the mile-and-16th race. Tamara was sent off as the odds-on favourite and finished out of the money.

Welsch was going to college in Boston when he got into horse racing. His roommate had a cousin who worked at Suffolk Downs and when not studying they would make their way to the now-defunct track.

“I enjoyed it,” said Welsch. “I wasn’t betting a lot of money, but I guess I did OK.”

Somewhat by a fluke, Welsch started his career in horse racing in 1972. He was in journalism school at Boston University and needed an internship to complete his degree. He tried to get hired at a few of the local newspapers but didn’t have any luck.

“Nobody was hiring so I asked my prof if an internship with the Racing Form would work,” said Welsch. “He said it would be fine as long as I did some writing.”

Welsch eventually ended up in Miami where he has been the analyst and columnist for the DRF since 1993.

“That morphed into clocking which started about six or seven years later,” he said. “I started doing it with a buddy of mine and we did it basically for ourselves.”

Welsch, along with a team of clockers working for the Racing Form, now put out Clocker Reports for most of the major tracks in the U.S. His excellent work led to the Racing Form asking him to do written clocker reports on horses prepping for the Kentucky Derby and the Cup. Now he does video reports along with his written ones.

What he will be looking for at Del Mar is how the horses finish their workout. In the case of the European horses that will be running on dirt for the first time, is how well they handle the surface. Most notable is City of Troy, who will be among the favourites in the Classic.

“I don’t worry so much about how fast they work, but more on how they complete the work and then gallop out,” he said. “One of the best workouts I’ve seen was Rachel Alexandra leading up to the Derby.

“Unfortunately, she ran in the Oaks and was favoured. She came back to beat the Derby winner, Mine That Bird, in the Preakness. She would have been a nice price if she ran in the Derby.”

Welsch began his workout reports earlier this week and they can be viewed at drf.com. He should be busy this weekend with many horses putting in their final preps for their respective races.

While I will be at Del Mar sharing with you a first-hand look at things, Hastings Racecourse will open at 9 a.m. both days with teller service beginning at 10. On Saturday, the George Royal room will open at 9:30 a.m. with teller service beginning at 11.

Randy Goulding has been handicapping horses and writing for The Racing Form at Hastings Park for more than 30 years. His column will run every Friday throughout the racing season.

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