Picking winners on Breeders’ Cup day is a daunting challenge, even for the most knowledgeable and sophisticated handicappers in the world. All the past performances, speed figures, and videotape analysis helps provide helpful hints but over the years a Ouija Board may have been the most valuable tool in a player’s arsenal.

In other words, luck often beats skill in cashing tickets.

Of the 101 horses pre-entered earlier this week for this year’s Breeders’ Cup, the filly Ouija Board stands out as one of the most fascinating horses in the group.

Owned by Lord Derby, this 3-year-old daughter of the Irish-bred sire Cape Cross is entered in both the 1½-mile Turf (first preference) and the 1 3/8-mile Filly and Mare Turf. Trainer Edward Dunlop will decide in the middle of next week whether to tackle the boys for $2 million or tackle her own sex for half that pot.

Early odds offered by the William Hill Betting Service in London shows that Ouija Board is the 3-1 favorite in the Filly and Mare event and a solid 7-2 second choice to favorite Kitten’s Joy in the Turf.

No ordinary filly
The choice of which race to enter is more difficult than it might appear on paper. Certainly, the presence of the brilliant 3-year-old Kitten Joy’s might push the connections away from the Turf.  But Ouija Board is no ordinary filly.

In her most recent run, the prestigious Grade 1 Prix de l’Arc De Triomphe in Paris, she ran an outstanding third, beaten just a length and a half by the winner Bago. That third-place finish broke a 2004 three-game winning streak, her only races of this three-year-old campaign.

It’s not that fillies haven’t enjoyed success in the Turf either. Who will ever forget the quirky English invader Pebbles, who won the race in 1985 while training on steady diet of a pint of Guinness per day. Pebbles was a solid favorite at chilly Aqueduct in New York that day, but when another filly Miss Alleged grabbed the Turf   at Churchill Downs in 1991, she paid a whopping $86.20 to win.

The Breeders’ Cup Mile also has produced successful fillies that have conquered their male counterparts — Royal Heroine (1986), Miesque (1987 and 1988), Ridgewood Pearl (1995) and Six Perfections (2003).

Race comes up relatively light
Based on her outstanding form, Ouija Board could easily continue the trend. Outside of Kitten’s Joy, the Turf has come up relatively light. Sure Powerscourt won the Arlington Million (only to be DQ’d), but the likes of Balto Star, Better Talk Now, Request for Parole and Strut the Stage shouldn’t scare anybody.

Those killer Grade 1 Euros have stayed home rather than fly to Dallas. The field of 10 or 11 also is more manageable than the full field of 14 expected for the Filly and Mare race, thus cutting down the percentages of poor racing luck.

To me, this is a no-brainer. My humble advice to the esteemed owner Lord Derby is this: Run Ouija Board against the boys in the Turf rather than the perceived “softer” spot in the Filly and Mare Turf.

If you do Mr. Derby (do you call a lord, mister?), I won’t need a Ouija Board to pick the winner of this year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf.

I’ll take the real Ouija Board, the filly.

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