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Title: Casino Drive wins Breeders Cup Classic prep
Tags: CasinoDrive 2008 BreedersCup OakTree SantaAnita
Blog Entry: Casino Drive remains unbeaten after winning a $52,000 Allowance at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meet on Sunday. Jockey Victor Espinoza brought Casino Drive home in a sharp 1:42 for 1 1/16 miles. The Japanese colt's victorious synthetic debut was meant to prep him for the Breeders Cup Classic, which is a little less than two weeks from today's race--the Classic will be run on Saturday, October 25th, and will potentially pit Casino Drive against Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown, and Horse of the Year, Curlin. Over a fast track on a beautiful day, longshot By Spot grabbed the lead early, with third-choice Informed pressing. Dakota Phone came up the rail inside of 2/5 favorite Casino Drive, who was never in jeopardy despite the long layoff. Down the stretch Casino Drive took command of the lead, with Dakota Phone now trying to catch him from his outside and having to settle for second. Casino Drive won by 3/4 of a length. Second-choice Sensational Score closed in for third as Informed hung on for fourth. FRACTIONS: 24.36 - 49.07 - 1:12.89 - FINAL TIME: 1:42.14 Casino Drive returned $2.80 to win, the $1 Exacta was a mere $5.90, and the $1 Trifecta paid $16.00. Casino Drive hadn't run since winning the Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont in May. The three-year-old Japanese-owned colt caused a great deal of anticipation when entered in this year's Belmont Stakes--his grandsire won the Belmont Stakes in 1992; his half-brother Jazil won the Belmont in 2006; and his half-sister defeated Curlin to win the Belmont Stakes in 2007. Casino Drive was looking to be the second betting choice behind favored Big Brown until the morning of the Belmont when Casino Drive was scratched from the race due to a foot bruise. The horse's connections decided to make the Breeders Cup Classic his next target, and he arrived in California in early October. Casino Drive is trained by Kazuo Fujisawa.