Plenty Of Chances To Get A Bet Down

Horse players have two options for Saturday’s big day at the races.

Playfair Race Course offers on-site racing in addition to the seven Breeders Cup championship events from Belmont Park, New York.

Greyhound Park in Post Falls carries the full day at Belmont - the Breeders Cup events plus three other stakes races. The first stakes, the I Love New York, goes off at 8 a.m.

Greyhound Park also offers wagering on the national pick 7, where bettors try to pick all seven Breeders Cup winners. That option is not available at Washington tracks.

The Juvenile Fillies is the first Breeders Cup event at 8:55 a.m., followed by the Sprint, the Distaff, the Mile, the Juvenile, the Turf and the Breeders Cup Classic

Cigar was one of 84 horses entered for $10 million worth of Breeders’ Cup races. Despite drawing the No. 10 post position in a field of 11 in the $3 million B.C. Classic, Cigar was made an early 3-5 favorite.

Trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Jerry Bailey, Cigar will attempt to cap off the first undefeated season in major competition since Spectacular Bid went 8-for-8 in 1980. So far this year, Cigar is 9-for-9.

Thunder Gulch, the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner who had been vying with Cigar for Horse of the Year honors, was retired with a minor injury, leaving trainer D. Wayne Lukas without a Classic horse.

Concern, winner of the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs, is the only returning champion. Trained by Dick Small and ridden by Mike Smith, Concern is a 20-1 outsider.

The co-second choices at 6-1 in the morning line were Unaccounted For, ridden by Pat Day and winner of the Whitney at Saratoga last Aug. 5, and Halling, who has won eight in a row in England and Dubai but is inexperienced on dirt.

Simulcast wagering on six other tracks - Calder, Keeneland, Santa Anita, Bay Meadows, Meadowlands and Los Alamitos - is also on Greyhound Park’s Saturday schedule.

Texas greyhounds and local on-site dog racing are other attractions.

Doors open at 7 a.m. Saturday. A breakfast buffet and a limited supply of Breeders Cup glasses are available at Greyhound Park. A coupon is available today and Friday for free coffee, a hot dog and a soft drink for Saturday’s events, a track spokesman said.

Golf

A 10-member professional team that included Mark Rohde and Chris Mitchell of Spokane beat an amateur team 16-4 Wednesday in the Pacific Northwest PGA’s 47th Hudson Cup at Aurora, Wash.

Battling wind and driving rain, the pros extended their series record to 38-6-3 in the two-day event.

Rohde beat Chris Maletis 4 and 3, while Mitchell topped David Farnam 5 and 4.

Bob Christensen of Hayden Lake, Idaho, playing for the amateurs, lost to Rick Acton 4 and 3.

Correction

The Saskatoon Blades did use their top three players - center Mark Deyell, right wing Frank Banham and goaltender Randy Weinberger - in Sunday night’s 5-2 Western Hockey League loss in Spokane.

It was incorrectly stated Monday that the three did not play.

, DataTimes