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‘Never forget’: Area veterans honored at breakfast

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Cougar’s Gallagher scores in 2OT for the women’s soccer MAC Freedom Championship title

DEL MAR, Calif. &#8212; There&#8217;s a new king in horse racing and it&#8217;s Gun Runner. The 4-year-old colt won the $6 million Breeders&#8217; Cup Classic by 2 1/4 lengths Saturday, sending rival Arrogate to a third straight career-ending defeat at Del Mar.Gun Runner ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:01.29 and paid $6.80, $4.40 and $3.20.Collected returned $5.60 and $4, while West Coast was another 1 1/4 lengths back in third and paid $3.60.Arrogate finished in a dead-heat for fifth with Gunnevera, done in once again at the seaside track north of San Diego. It was the scene of two losses during the summer.&#8220;He just doesn&#8217;t seem to get a hold of this racetrack, for whatever reason,&#8221; jockey Mike Smith said. &#8220;I hate to blame it on the track, but he&#8217;s shown it time and time again. I keep trying to talk myself into it, that he&#8217;s going to like it one day, but he just never did.&#8221;Arrogate hasn&#8217;t been the same horse since his dominant wins in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup and the $10 million Dubai World Cup earlier this year that made him the sport&#8217;s richest thoroughbred with over $17 million in earnings.The Dubai race was the last time Gun Runner lost. Since then, he&#8217;s emerged stronger than ever with four consecutive victories.Arrogate was a slight 2-1 favorite over Gun Runner, with $1,420,233 bet on Arrogate to win &#8212; $132,416 more than on Gun Runner.Bob Baffert saddled a record four horses in pursuit of a record fourth straight win in the Classic. He finished 2-3 with Collected and West Coast, and was left to puzzle over another disappointing showing by Arrogate. His other horse, Mubtaahij, was eighth.Arrogate broke a step slow and banged his left side on the starting gate.&#8220;At the break when he ducked in and he had to gather him up, you just can&#8217;t do that against these horses,&#8221; Baffert said. &#8220;But I notice when he goes around these turns he loses momentum. I can&#8217;t really totally blame it on the track. He&#8217;s so much better than that.&#8221;War Story was fourth, followed by Arrogate and Gunnevera, Churchill, Mubtaahij, War Decree, Pavel and Win the Space.JUVENILEGood Magic puts himself in Derby pictureDel Mar, Calif. &#8212; Two-year-old colt Good Magic introduced himself as a Kentucky Derby contender Saturday by making the $2 million Breeders&#8217; Cup Juvenile the first victory of his career.&#8220;Yahoo,&#8221; said breeder Barbara Banke of Stonestreet Farms when asked about becoming part of the Kentucky Derby picture.Overlooked at odds of 11-1 in a field of 12 in the race that in recent years crowned the 2-year-old champion and stamp the early Kentucky Derby favorite, Good Magic did nothing to surprise his trainer, Chad Brown.&#8220;I thought he was a winner every step of the way,&#8221; said Brown. &#8220;We took a shot because he was a maiden, but he&#8217;s developing rapidly.&#8221;With a pair of second-place finishes to his credit - the last in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park last month, Good Magic rolled by Solomini entering the stretch and ran off to a 4 1/4-length victory over 11 rivals, with 3-5 favorite Bolt d&#8217;Oro finishing third after a troubled trip.&#8220;I think Chad did a remarkable job with this horse, getting him here with great confidence. He did have to talk us a little bit into it because the horse obviously because the horse came in second in his last start. He said, &#8220;I think he&#8217;s really going to improve. He&#8217;s really going to like going a distance.&#8221;Grabbing the top spot among 2-year-olds has not been proven a particularly persuasive achievement when it comes to the resume of a Kentucky Derby winner.Since the Breeders&#8217; Cup began in 1984, only two of the 33 winners of the Juvenile have gone on to win the Derby &#8212; Street Sense in 2006 and Nyquist in 2016.Only two other Juvenile winners have finished in the money in the Derby &#8212; Chief&#8217;s Crown (3rd) in 1985, andTimber Country (3rd) in 1995, with 16 previous winners failing to make it into the Derby field.Prior to Street Sense winning in 2006, the previous champion 2-year-old colt to go on win the Kentucky Derby was Spectacular Bid in 1979.Nonetheless, &#8220;It sure is a thrill to have a really good 2-year-old in the barn,&#8221; said Brown. &#8220;They&#8217;re so hard to find.&#8221;One of three maidens in the race, Good Magic ran the 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.34 and paid $25, $9.40 and $5.60. The 2-year-old son of former Breeders Cup Classic winner Curlin gave trainer Chad Brown his second victory of these championships.The race&#8217;s 3-to-5 favorite Bolt d&#8217;Oro, named for the champion sprinter, Usain Bolt, entered the race a perfect 3-for-3, but was forced extremely wide on the first turn, and while he did move up on the outside on the far turn, his finish was too little too late.&#8220;We were a little wide but it&#8217;s horse racing and it is part of what is going to happen,&#8221; said Bolt d&#8217;Oro&#8217;s jockey, Corey Nakatani. &#8220;I was trying to get tucked in but with all the traffic, he seemed to be spinning his wheels a little bit.&#8221;Also part of the Kentucky Derby picture was the second-place finisher Solomini, who held off Bolt d&#8217;Oro through the stretch.&#8220;He&#8217;s improving all the time,&#8221; said jockey Flavien Prat of Solomini. &#8220;I rode him the whole way and he ran a good race. He&#8217;s going to improve race after race.&#8221;And there will be plenty of them between Saturday&#8217;s Juvenile and the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May.IN OTHER RACES&#8212; Trainer Peter Miller went 1-2 in the $1 million Turf Sprint with 30-1 shot Stormy Liberal winning by a head over 13-1 shot Richard&#8217;s Boy. Stormy Liberal paid $62.40 to win.&#8212; Talismatic rallied in the stretch to win the $4 million Turf by a half-length at 14-1 odds. The Britain-bred colt ran 1 1/2 miles in 2:26.19 and paid $30.20 to win. Defending champion Highland Reel &#8212; the 7-5 favorite &#8212; was third.&#8212; Smith scored an upset &#8212; his leading 26th Cup win &#8212; in the $2 million Juvenile Fillies with 17-1 shot Caledonia Road.&#8212; World Approval became the second favorite to win on the weekend, taking the $2 million Mile by 1 1/4 lengths and giving jockey John Velazquez his second Cup win in two days.&#8212; The weekend&#8217;s biggest upset was staged by 60-1 shot Bar of Gold in the $1 million Filly &amp; Mare Sprint. Ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., Bar of Gold ran seven furlongs in 1:22.63 and paid $135.40 to win.&#8212; Wuheida took the $2 million Filly &amp; Mare Turf by a length and paid $24.40 at 11-1 odds.&#8212; Roy H won the $1.5 million Sprint by a length under Kent Desormeaux, giving Miller his second victory on the weekend. The winner paid $11.80 at 9-2 odds.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Florent Geroux celebrates after riding Gun Runner to victory in Saturday&#8217;s Breeders&#8217; Cup Classic in Del Mar, Calif. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_Gun-Runner-BCC.jpg</photo0><caption0>Florent Geroux celebrates after riding Gun Runner to victory in Saturday&#8217;s Breeders&#8217; Cup Classic in Del Mar, Calif. </caption0><photoCredit0>Gregory Bull | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>Associated Press</bylineMeta></div>

Breeders’ Cup: Gun Runner finally beats Arrogate