When: Saturday, October 27, 2007 Post time 2:35 ET
Where: Monmouth Park, Oceanport, New Jersey
Distance: 6 furlongs
Purse: $2 million

The Breeders' Cup Sprint in most years is the most challenging race for handicappers on Breeders' Cup Day. Full fields are the norm, and while American runners dominate the race, it matches up the very quickest from both coasts in an all out speed fest.

The Sprint is the defining race for the division. The winner of the race has gone on to win the Eclipse Award for outstanding sprinter in 14 of the 23 runnings of the race.

Jockey Corey Nakatani won his fourth Sprint last year aboard Thor's Echo. Nakatani also won the Sprint on Reraise, Elmhurst, and Lit de Justice.

Thor's Echo lit up the tote board, returning $33.20 for the win. Friendly Island finished second at 58/1, and Nightmare Affair was third at 29/1.

The trio combined for a trifecta that paid $10,611.80 for a $2 ticket.

Two favorites have won the Sprint over the past ten years. The average win mutuel over that time is $20.42.

Only one horse over the past decade has been able to take the field gate to wire. That was Reraise in 1998. Most of the Sprint winners have been able to stalk from just off the pace and got the jump on the deep closers in the stretch.

D. Wayne Lukas (Gulch, Orientate) and Jenine Sahadi (Elmhurst, Lit de Justice) are the only trainers that have won the Sprint twice.

Very Subtle (1987) and Thor's Echo (2006) are tied for the largest winning margin, each winning their races by four lengths. The race has been decided by a neck or less on eight occasions. The first running of the race in 1984 was won by a nose by Eillo.

Groovy has the distinction of losing in 1986 at 2/5 (finishing fourth), then returning to be the beaten chalk at 4/5 in 1987 when he finished second.

Three fillies have won the Sprint. The first to do it was Very Subtle in 1987. Safely Kept was a four year old filly when she won the Sprint in 1990. She ran second in the race in 1989. The last to win was Desert Stormer, who won the race as a five year old mare in 1995.

Desert Stormer may be the last female to win the Sprint for a while. The Breeders' Cup added the Filly & Mare Sprint, which will be run for the first time in 2007 at Monmouth Park.

The biggest upset in the Sprint occurred in 1991 when Sheikh Albadou came from Europe to upset the field and returned $54.60 for the win.

The only other horse European horse to crack the top three in the Sprint was Dayjur, who ran second in 1990, beaten a neck by the filly Safely Kept.

Average Exotic payoffs for last four years:
$2 exacta: $493.12
$2 trifecta: $4,798.10
$2 superfecta: $63,481.75