The Breeders' Cup spin is that Friday was a day of record handle and that fans love the new format. But Steve Crist looks closer and finds that a year-to-year race-to-race handle comparison tells a very different story. Handle on the filly and mare races was down 32%, with the Distaff alone falling off by $3.2 million.

"Though it has from the beginning been a showcase for the best and the fastest horses of each racing season since 1984, the first quarter-century of the Breeders' Cup has been marked by a good deal of remarkable human accomplishment."

"After a few weeks of being on the cusp of recording his 4,000th career victory, the supremely gifted but oft-troubled jockey Pat Valenzuela finally broke through ... at Louisiana Downs." A remarkable achievement for P Val, a jockey who can't ride anywhere but Louisiana for now due to a lengthy history of drugs, drink, and suspensions.

Verdict of the numbers: "So is Zarkava the greatest filly to put hoof to turf? The ultimate racehorse? No. In truth she's simply the best three-year-old filly since Bosra Sham." According to one figure maker, Zarkava's rating post-Arc is 127, which puts her ahead of Big Brown, behind Curlin.

"The triumph of Zarkava and Christophe Soumillon in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe yesterday was instead a crescendo of reckless joy, un grand amour between two of the most bewitching talents in French Turf history." Independent turf writer Chris McGrath crushes out on the undefeated filly and her tousled jockey.

Alex Waldrop's wrap-up of the Vegas summit.

Preview of fan panel at NTRA summit from Alex Waldrop.

"As the world turns on every verbal barb between the connections of Big Brown and Curlin, almost invisibly out west there's a filly barnstorming her way toward the game's highest honor rolls."