Hansen, the 2011 Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner and champion two-year-old, will make his season debut against five rivals in Sunday's Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park. (Post time: 4:45pm Eastern; TV: HRTV). The Holy Bull is a one-turn mile with a total purse of $400,000.

Hansen, a three-year-old son of Tapit out of a Sir Cat mare (Stormy Sunday), was a perfect three-for-three during his Eclipse winning juvenile campaign. He began his career with a twelve and a quarter length romp against Maiden Special Weight company at Turfway Park before turning in another dominating performance in winning the Kentucky Cup Juvenile by over thirteen lengths. He capped off his juvenile season by holding off Union Rags in deep stretch of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. In his three lifetime starts, he has yet to run behind another horse at any portion of a race.

Below are the entries and post positions for Sunday's Holy Bull. Morning line odds will be updated later.

Updated: Morning line odds have been added. Hansen set as 6/5 favorite; Algorithms at 5/2.

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Arlington Park, which recently received approximately $140 million in casino impact fees, will add a new $400k stakes race on the grass to its stakes program, as well as an increase of $1.3 million to its stakes purses, according to a report in the Daily Racing Form. The new race will be open to three-year-olds and up and will run during the August 18th Arlington International Festival of Racing card, along with the G1-Arlington Million, G1-Beverly D., and the G1-Secretariat Stakes. The Secretariat, which had its purse reduced to $400,000 last year, will once again be a $500,000 race.

The Arlington St. Leger is based on the St. Leger races run in England and Ireland, each of which are contested at a distance of one mile and six furlongs. The Arlington St. Leger will run at one mile and five and a half furlongs.

Arlington Million day is already one of the best days for grass racing in the United States and the addition of a $400k race like the St. Leger should only add to that quality. The purse is high enough and the distance sufficiently unique that the race should attract a much different caliber and type of horse than the Million. Additionally, since the European owners and trainers like to ship to Arlington for the Festival, there shouldn't be a shortage of international horses looking to take a shot at a race tailor-made for them. Finally, although the race is currently ungraded (and will be until the requisite number of years have passed), this is a nice addition to the grass racing stakes calendar.

Arlington added another European-style turf race a few years ago when it started running the American 1,000 Guineas in 2008. The race was open tor three-year-old fillies at a mile and had a purse of $200,000. Sadly, the race only lasted three years and was dropped from the Arlington stakes calendar in 2010.

It's not a huge surprise that the Breeders' Cup is going back to NBC Sports after several years at ESPN, but I don't think any us realized how imminent that move was. Now that I've had a few minutes to let the news of the broadcast deal between the Breeders' Cup and NBC Sports to sink in I've got some thoughts on the changes. In short, this move makes sense on so many levels and is really a win-win for both parties. In long... well, read below:

• For the new NBC Sports Network ("NBCSN"), they get a fantastic live sporting event to build around and it fits in with their current content. They began providing Saratoga and Keeneland coverage last summer/fall, which is a perfect lead towards the Breeders' Cup in November. (The network will also broadcast several Kentucky Derby prep races.)
  
• Ratings on the Versus/NBCSN are generally lower (overall) than on ESPN which, in some ways, is good for the Breeders' Cup. Instead of being viewed as a drag on the programming, as it seemed it was on ESPN, televising of the Breeders' Cup on NBCSN can be viewed as an opportunity to grow both the network and the event.
  
  The year that the Breeders' Cup transitioned from NBC to ESPN ratings took a huge hit. Much of that is due to the disparity between broadcast and cable TV. But even when you compare broadcast-to-broadcast numbers from the ABC portion to the old NBC telecasts, the ESPN/ABC events just didn't measure up in terms of viewership.
  
• The Breeders' Cup gets to be on a network where they aren't being "fit in" around the college football schedule. Sure, NBC has Notre Dame, and NBC Sports Network will televise college football, but ESPN was wall-to-wall college football on fall Saturdays, so much so that the network split up its Breeders' Cup coverage between ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. That, to me, was a really bad deal for the Breeders' Cup and something that could only hurt viewership.
  
  The Breeders' Cup will now be a centerpiece of NBC Sports Network's coverage. That's good for the Breeders' Cup in terms of marketing and promotion.
  

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The Breeders' Cup and NBC announced a new television agreement beginning in 2012 that will return North America's premiere event to the first network to broadcast it back in 1984. Additionally, for the first time ever, the Breeders' Cup Classic will be broadcast in primetime on network television, while the majority of Breeders' Cup Friday and Saturday will be shown on the re-branded NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus).

ESPN/ABC broadcast the Breeders' Cup from 2005 to 2011.

The full press release from the Breeders' Cup and NBC:

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Mr. Bowling, sent to the gate as the 7/2 co-favorite, got up in the final yards to edge Z Dager and Shared Property in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes at the Fair Grounds. The winner stalked in mid-pack through as longshots Alexander Thegreat and Hero of Order set solid opening fractions of 23.21 and 47.22. At the top of the stretch the field fanned five or six wide, with Shared Property in the middle of the track looking like he had the momentum to go right on by Z Dager. Shared Property flattened out in the lane, as did Z Dager, allowing Mr. Bowling find the finish line first.

Truth be told, this race isn't going to win any style points. The pace was honest for the first half-mile but really fell apart in the later stages. The third quarter split went in 25.66 seconds, while the fourth quarter was run in a pedestrian 26.47.

We'll have to wait to see how the variant and figures break out for this day at the Fair Grounds but I'm doubtful that this race is going to earn a big number.

Mr. Bowling is a three-year-old son of Istan out of an Irish Tower mare (Goldilock's). He is trained by Larry Jones and was ridden by Robby Albarado.

The $0.50 Pick 4 returned a large $16,124.60 for a $0.50 base bet.

Fractions:
1/4: 23.21
1/2: 47.22
3/4: 1:12.88
Mile: 1:39.35
Finish:1:43.49

Internal Splits:
1/4: 23.21
1/2: 24.01
3/4: 25.66
Mile: 26.47
Finish: 4.14

Below are the payouts for the Lecomte Stakes:

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