59°F
weather icon Clear

Mike Brunker

Mike Brunker

Mike Brunker is an assistant city editor at the Review-Journal and he writes a weekly horse racing column. The column is posted on Thursday's and appears in Friday's print edition. He previously covered horse racing for the San Francisco Examiner, the Thoroughbred Times and NBCSports.com. Follow @mike_brunker on Twitter

Lessons learned from Breeders’ Cup Day 1

Be wary of jumping to conclusions based on such a small sample of races, but here are some early trends that will bear watching Saturday at the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar.

Arrogate, Gun Runner square off for final time in Breeders’ Cup Classic

Many handicappers believe Gun Runner is in the best form of his career. The Del Mar linemaker is a member of this club, installing the Steve Asmussen-trained son of Candy Ride as the 9-5 morning line favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Breeders’ Cup races coming into focus after pre-entries

We know more about the lineups of the Breeders’ Cup races, but the precise matchups of many of the 13 Grade 1 races to be run Nov. 3 and 4 at Del Mar remain unclear. Here’s what we’ve learned and what we still don’t know.

THE LATEST
European stars appear headed to Del Mar for Breeders’ Cup

The turf races in the first Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar look like they will attract a strong contingent from across the pond. Here are some of the big names being considered for the races on Nov. 3-4.

Fortune favors the well-prepared in the Breeders’ Cup

With three weeks to go until Del Mar hosts the thoroughbred world championship races for the first time, handicappers should be doing early work to ensure they’ll be ready for the two-day extravaganza on Nov. 3 and 4.

Racing industry has misguided fear of embracing exchange wagering

Many of horse racing’s varied constituencies fear that the wider adoption of exchange wagering would reduce revenue for the sport. But results from New Jersey indicate they are dead wrong.

Exchange wagering minting new horse racing fans

In a little more than a year, Betfair has created new, younger fans and increased handle in New Jersey among established players with its system that the New York Stock Exchange with horses instead of shares.