Breeders’ Cup Mile Preview

Seek The Value - Seek Again has drifted to an enticing price in the UK

With the mighty Wise Dan out this year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile the race and the meeting itself has lost a bit of its magic.

However the Mile now looks ripe to try and exploit some value from, and after a bizarre and frankly ludicrous drift in the last few days the horse to do that with is Bill Mott’s Seek Again.

Generally around the 6/1 mark for a number of weeks, Seek Again has been inexplicably pushed out to 12/1 and bigger in places in the last 48 hours with several UK firms. There appears to be no real reason for this as he’s been working well on the east coast as he preps for the penultimate race on the Breeders’ Cup card, so now confirmed as an intended runner, and as arguably the leading hope for the home team, now seems a good time to back him as he will be half that price come the day.

Beaten in a photo in May on the Kentucky Derby undercard by Wise Dan, who prior to being ruled out was a 6/4 shot for the race, there seems little justification for Seek Again being eight times that price.

He has since come out and won the Fourstardave in between placing in the Manhattan on Belmont day after enduring a troubled passage and finishing off the board last time out in the Shadwell won by Wise Dan after again meeting trouble in running.

His run style does often leave him a hostage to fortune as he attempts to sneak up the rail so with a big field expected in the Mile luck will definitely need to be on his side but if he can bag a good draw then things could go his way on what will still only be his fourth US start.

Generally European raiders have the edge on US horses in turf races, hence the disparity in price between the likes of Anodin and Toronado with the leading US contenders.

No one would ever claim that Seek Again was in the same league as Toronado when trained on these shores by John Gosden, but he was fifth in last year’s Cambridgeshire so brings decent UK handicap form to the table which should stand him in a stronger position than most US turf horses for tackling the transatlantic raiding party.

There are questions to be answered by most of the European challengers and with no Wise Dan this time Seek Again definitely looks the pick of the home team at a price that is almost too good to be true making him a cracking bet to hit the frame once more.

Recommendation:

0.5pt each-way Seek Again @ 12/1 (Sky Bet)