Midnight Lute repeats in Breeders' Cup Sprint

Horseracing Betting Lines

10/25/2008 - Arcadia, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending champ Midnight Lute rallied down the stretch to repeat as the victor in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Saturday. The win gave trainer Bob Baffert his second victory of the day.

Racing for just the second time in 2008, Midnight Lute and rider Garrett Gomez broke slowly from the gate in the eight-horse field. Setting the pace up the backstretch was First Defence and Fatal Bullet.

Fatal Bullet took the lead on the final turn as Midnight Lute began his rally. Running down the middle of the track the defender caught Fatal Bullet inside the furlong pole and opened up to the wire.

Midnight Lute, giving Gomez his fourth Championship win this weekend, posted a two-length victory over Fatal Bullet with Street Boss third and In Summation getting fourth.

Trainer John Sadler said Cost of Freedom, who drew the inside post, was scratched from the Sprint after a veterinary inspection Saturday morning.

The time for the six furlongs was 1:07.08 on the synthetic surface, more than two seconds faster than the winner's time last year at Monmouth Park.

Midnight Lute was coming off a 10th-place finish in the Pat O'Brien Handicap at Del Mar in his lone start this year. The Sprint victory was worth $1.15 million to bring the five-year-old's career earnings to more than $2.7 million. He has won six of 13 lifetime starts.

Owned by Mike Pegram, Midnight Lute has a chance to win his second Eclipse Award as champion male sprinter.

Midnight Lute paid $7.40, $5.00 and $3.20. Fatal Bullet returned $6.60 and $3.80, and Street Boss paid $2.40 to show.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.