If Reilly slips in ‘Beetlebaum,’ he’ll have achived something

These are the six horses running in Saturday’s first race, 12:30 p.m. at Santa Anita, with their post positions (linked here):

= Premiere Diablo
= Benezit
= Silver Sword
= Russian Liquor
= Screen to Screen
= Bad Boy

Have at ‘em, Rick Reilly.

Sports Illustrated ESPN writer and on-camera feature reporter who continues to drink his own Kool-Aid is allowed to do the call on this race as part of ESPN’s coverage of the Breeders’ Cup next month at Santa Anita. It will air as a feature story.

“This could be the beginning and the end of my track announcing career in one race,” joke Reilly in the Santa Anita Oak Tree press notes distributed today.

He at least, reportedly, got some advice from Trevor Denman. But will it help?

“My hero was always Jim Murray and this was his favorite place,” said Reilly of the former L.A. Times columnist, who has a race named for him. “I’m so glad to finally be here — the mountains, the setting, this place is so majestic. It’s so beautiful, it’s going to be hard to focus.”

Try. There’s money (from other people) riding on it.

The $20,000 claiming race is for 3-year-olds and up at 6 1/2 furlongs on the all-weather track. They are also non-winners of a race since Sept. 9.

Reilly’s kinda horses.