Older Cadillacs, long in the tooth athletes, and horse bettors need a tune up now and again and all can get a chance to hone their skills early in the Santa Anita meet, as the California Cup will be run the second weekend, on October 5 exactly. This will give players a chance to test some exotic betting patterns before the real money will be on the line on BC Day.

To accommodate the Breeders' Cup, the 10-race card was front loaded during the stand to give room for the BC horses to get used to the surface.

The $250,000 California Cup Classic, at 1 1/8 miles, will highlight the day and horse bettors need to take a look in the rear view mirror to get inkling as to where the winners will come from this season.

Let's start with the grand daddy, the Classic. Last year the winner Bold Chieftain used a turf prep at Bay Meadows to get ready for the big day.

He stalked mid pack and was inching away beating Lava Man in the process.

Horse bettors should take heed about where this guy came from as many horses from Northern California point to this day all year and the upsets usually follow.

A key to the type of winning style one needs in the Classic was stated by Chieftain's rider, Russell Baze: "we wanted to get a position early and have something left when we turned for home, so it was kind of a balancing act."

The lesson to be learned is tactical speed.

In the Mile Handicap on the grass, Unusual Suspect also ran fourth in his prep, the Oak Tree Derby. The splits were pretty fast in 2007 so this guy had to come from pretty far back but he won lengthening his lead late.

To accentuate the fact that some stables seasons are made or busted by this day, note the Sprint winner last year was trained up to the race and had not been on the track since July, when he was a 9-1 upsetter in the Triple Bend.

Mike Mitchell had the guy ready off the layoff and his stock will be well meant this year too.

Jeff Bonde, a NoCal legend, has had great success in this event over the years and he had Sierra Sunset primed again off a vacation to win the Juvenile last year.

Bonde stretched him out after winning a 6-furlong Bay Meadows stakes and the runner whipped a dozen foes coming away in the lane at a fat 6-1.

Another NoCal invader took the Distaff Handicap. Gentle Charmer was far back in an open grass route at Bay Meadows and hence went off a 54-1 in the Distaff.

She drew the normally disadvantageous rail but came from dead last and blew up the tote board.

Romance is Diane made it a double for Mitchell. Again he did it with a horse that had been on vacation and had not raced for 2 months.

She had shown class in the past but her style was changed for the Cal Cup Matron and she took them wire-to-wire at 5-1.

The Distance Handicap, at a mile and a quarter on grass, was won by the chalk in 2007, Imagine. The filly was overmatched in the Yellow Ribbon in her final prep then pretty got a perfect trip when coming from just over 3 lengths off the pace to hold on for the score.

The Juvenile Fillies was also won by the chalk, Runforthemoneybaby. And her trainer Jeff Mullins was adamant about getting a race over the surface for his filly and he did just that when she prepped nicely when third in the Grade 1 Oak Leaf about 5 weeks before her score.

Horse bettors this day should look beyond speed figures and current condition and scour the past performance for runners that have had this event in mind from Day One.