American Triple Crown champion American Pharoah ready for one last fling

Locally, Assiniboia Downs wrote out the biggest cheque – one for more than $50,000 – to a player who walked into the Quest Inn during Breeders’ Cup races in 2006 (one of seven off-track betting sites) and spent $20 on tickets to correctly predict the top four finishers in a race. The new tables will feature two new games – Ultimate Texas Hold’em and Three Card Poker.

More than 17 million patrons have wagered on races at the greyhound track since it opened in 1957.

While there appears to be only a slight chance American Pharoah won’t be named Horse of the Year, Golden Horn already locked up the European title regardless of his finish in Saturday’s $3 million Turf on the strength of victories in the Irish and Epsom Derbies and the Arc de Triomphe.

Triple Crown victor American Pharoah was given a favourable draw on Monday for what will be the final race of his career, when he attempts to add this weekend’s Breeders’ Cup Classic to his glittering trophy haul. “I said to (Baffert and Zayat) that if anyone was going to beat him, it was going to be that day”. The trio teamed with I’ll Have Another to win the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness. The colt is set to retire after Saturday’s race and begin a stud career in nearby Versailles. Jockey Jesse Campbell will be riding in his second Breeders’ Cup after finishing ninth in last year’s Juvenile.

American Pharoah was timed in 46.60 seconds for a half-mile workout Monday at Santa Anita.

“When they wheel out at the head of the stretch, we’d like him to bring her out in the clear, show her daylight, and let her run”, Ramsey said.

Untapable returns with a different jockey. Kent Desormeaux will ride 6-1 shot Exaggerator for his brother. She’s been replaced by John Velazquez, who is 1 for 6 with the 4-year-old filly since then.

Untapable has won 9 of her 17 races, including the 2014 Kentucky Oaks, and earned $3.8 million, and a Distaff repeat with the approximate $1.1 million winner’s purse would have pushed her bank account close to $5 million.

This year’s 200 pre-entries include 24 horses who ran in last year’s Breeders’ Cup, including four winners: Judy the Beauty (Filly & Mare Sprint), Karakontie (Mile), Bobby’s Kitten (Turf Sprint) and Untapable (Distaff).