The Post will profile each of the nine Breeders’ Cup races to be run Saturday at Churchill Downs. The Countdown to the Cup spotlights potential nice-price winners as handicapped by reporter Ed Fountaine and columnist Ray Kerrison. Good luck.
2-year-olds. Grade 1. Purse: $2 million. Distance: 1-1/16 miles (dirt). Post time: 5:25 p.m. Bets: WPS, Exacta, Trifecta, Superfecta, Daily Double, Pick 3.
ANALYSIS: This has been a formful race from Day 1, with favorites going 10-for-27 and hitting the board the last six years in a row. Of the seven Juvenile winners at Churchill Downs, one went gate-to-wire (in the slop); three stalked the pace; the other three came from well out of it.
Union Rags, undefeated in three starts including a 71⁄4-length romp in the Saratoga Special and a 5 -length score after overcoming trouble in the Champagne, looks like this year’s Uncle Mo. He will go off lower than his 2-1 morning-line odds despite breaking from post 10.
LIVE LONG SHOTS: Alpha rallied for second in the Champagne. Hansen won his two starts by 12 and 13 lengths on Polytrack at Turfway. Dullahan has a strong late kick. Crusade and Daddy Long Legs won stakes on turf in Ireland for the Ballydoyle boys who won the 2001 Juvenile with Johannesburg.
THE BET: Union Rags has tactical speed, he can rate, has run the best numbers and showed rare professionalism for a 2-year-old in the Champagne. He could be a special horse. Alpha, Dullahan or Bob Baffert’s colt Drill can complete the exacta.