Await The Dawn Odds to Win Breeders Cup Contingent on Race, Health

Await the Dawn odds to win the Breeders Cup Classic were set between 8/1 and 12/1 depending on the Internet race book.  TwinSpires.com, which is legally licensed in the US and owned by Churchill Downs, was currently offering odds on Await The Dawn.

It was still uncertain as of October 26 whether the Aidan O’Brien trained horse would run in the Classic or the Breeders Cup Turf. 

Await The Dawn nearly died a few weeks ago from equine pleuropneumonia, which is basically a form of “travel sickness” resulting from stress on long journeys.  The horse has had a miraculous recovery since that time, prompting O’Brien to ship him off to Churchill Downs.

He was very sick and he got sicker," said O'Brien on Wednesday. "He was so sick, he nearly passed away. He was really ill for four, five, 10 days but he's made great progress since.

"He probably fell sick on the way to York. There was another horse on the plane who behaved very badly and got very anxious and we think that's how he got travel sickness, when he got stressed out by that.

"With hindsight he was very quiet when we went to saddle him up that day, when usually he likes to let you work to put it on, but it was after the race that he had a very high temperature and we suspected something was wrong."

- Ean Lamb, Gambling911.com