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Sports Briefs: Zenyatta is favorite to win Breeders' Cup
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Published: November 4, 2009
Updated: 11/04/2009 12:10 am
ARCADIA, Calif. -- Zenyatta was made the early 5-2 favorite yesterday in a field of 13 horses for the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic, where she'll put her 13-0 record on the line against males for the first time.
Zenyatta will break from the No. 4 post in Saturday's 1¼-mile race at Santa Anita.
She had also been pre-entered in Friday's $2 million Ladies' Classic, which she won last year. But owners Jerry and Ann Moss, and trainer John Shirreffs, had a bigger goal in mind for the 5-year-old mare, which has won all four of her starts this year.
"There's an opportunity to make history in the Classic, that's why we chose the Classic," Shirreffs said, referring to the fact that no female horse has ever won in the race's 25-year history.
Zenyatta will be just the fourth female to run in the Classic. Jolypha had the best result, finishing third in 1992. Azeri was fourth in 2004 and Triptych was sixth in 1986.
Missing from the Classic, America's richest race, will be Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra, the 3-year-old filly who won all eight of her races this year including three against male competition. Owner Jess Jackson shut her down for the year because he doesn't like Santa Anita's synthetic surface.
Zenyatta will take on a loaded field that includes 12 Grade 1 winners, including Ireland-bred Rip Van Winkle, the 7-2 early second choice, and Summer Bird, the 9-2 third choice who swept the Belmont, Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Mine That Bird, winless in four races since his stunning upset in the Kentucky Derby, was listed at 12-1, along with six other horses.
Basketball
■ Forward Maya Moore of Connecticut yesterday became the seventh unanimous choice on The Associated Press' preseason women's All-America team. She is joined on the team by teammate Tina Charles, Jayne Appel of Stanford, Jantel Lavender of Ohio State and Monica Wright of Virginia.
Moore was one vote short of unanimous selection last preseason. She helped UConn to a 39-0 record, averaging 19.3 points and 8.9 rebounds.
■ Kyle Singler scored 20 points, Jon Scheyer added 19, and No. 9 Duke wrapped up its preseason by routing Findlay 84-48 last night in Durham. The Blue Devils shot 41.2 percent and used a 24-4 run early in the second half to open a 60-27 lead.
Duke also announced that Nolan Smith will sit out games against UNC Greensboro and Coastal Carolina next week because he played in an unsanctioned summer league. Smith said the game included overseas players and pros and was played near his hometown of Washington, D.C.
■ Coach Tubby Smith of Minnesota has indefinitely suspended freshman forward Royce White and senior guard Devron Bostick players for breaking team rules but wouldn't say yesterday why they were in trouble. He said they will be held out for at least two games and possibly more until he decides that they're ready to return.
Bostick is a reserve who averaged 11 minutes last season. White is part of a touted recruiting class that includes transfer Trevor Mbakwe, who is also out indefinitely while a felony aggravated-battery charge against him goes through the court system.
Golf
■ The PGA Tour is leaving the FedEx Cup just as it is with the playoff schedule and points system. Rick George, the chief of operations for the PGA Tour, said yesterday that any adjustment to the points system was not on the agenda and was not discussed at a board meeting earlier this week.
It would be the first time since the FedEx Cup began in 2006 that the points system was left alone. Tiger Woods won the $10 million prize this year, although four players had a chance to win the cup on the back nine of the Tour Championship.
George said that the FedEx Cup has met its objectives and that he doesn't anticipate any changes.
■ Erik Compton, the golfer with two heart transplants, has received another exemption into the Children's Miracle Network Classic at Disney next week. He also received an exemption last year and tied for 60th. He was allowed to ride in a cart, just five months after his second transplant. Tournament chairman Kevin Weickel said that Compton will be walking.
Compton received the exemption yesterday, a week after he was medalist by seven shots in the first stage of Q-school. The tournament will be Nov. 12-15, and is the last one on on the PGA Tour schedule.
■ The PGA Tour is moving the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open to July, the same weekend a nationally televised celebrity golf tournament has been played at Lake Tahoe for 20 years.
The PGA tournament historically has been played in August at Montreux Golf & Country Club on the edge of Mount Rose, between Reno and Lake Tahoe. The new dates, July 15-18, put it opposite the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship at Tahoe and the British Open, which are both shown on network television.
Miscellaneous
■ Wake Forest forwards Kaley Fountain and Jill Hutchinson made the first team in voting for All-ACC women's soccer honors, and North Carolina led the voting with three selections -- Whitney Engen, Ashlyn Harris and Tobin Heath. Duke's Elisabeth Redmond also was a first-team pick.
Tiffany McCarty of Florida State was the offensive player of the year, UNC's Engen was the defensive player of the year, Victoria DiMartino of Boston College was the freshman of the year, and Mark Krikorian of FSU was the coach of the year. Also for Wake Forest, defender Jackie Logue made the all-freshman team.
The ACC Tournament will start today at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary. FSU will play Duke in the opener at noon, followed by Wake Forest-Virginia Tech at 2:30, Boston College-Virginia at 5 p.m., and UNC-Maryland at 7:30.
■ The final round of ticket sales for the 2010 Winter Olympics will start Saturday.
There are more than 100,000 tickets available for events in Vancouver, such as curling and hockey, including seats to gold-medal games. The tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis through the Olympic committee's Web site.
Organizers are also putting the final touches on their ticket resale Web site, which they expect to launch to help people sell tickets they can't use.
■ Tennis player Tommy Haas of Germany is dealing with a case of swine flu.
"I did a test because I suspected that I had swine flu. The test was positive," Haas said in yesterday's Bild newspaper. "Of course, it was a shock for me."
Haas told the paper he was already feeling better. He pulled out of a tournament in Stockholm last week after becoming ill. He first thought had had the normal flu but decided to get tested.
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