Aidan O'Brien equals Breeders' Cup wins record

By John Ingles

09:22 · SUN November 03, 2024

After saddling two more winners at Del Mar this year, Aidan O'Brien joined D. Wayne Lukas on a total of 20 Breeders' Cup victories. John Ingles looks at some of his best winners at the meeting.

After all the build-up and almost unprecedented hype, it just wasn't to be for City Of Troy in Saturday's Breeders' Cup Classic - the son of Justify never threatening to get seriously involved in the race after being left trailing behind a ferocious gallop in the early stages.

Aidan O'Brien managed no better than a fifth-placed finish on the night courtesy of Wingspan in the Breeders' Cup Turf, with Luxembourg sixth in the same race before Content also finished sixth in the Filly & Mare Turf.

But the wins for Lake Victoria and Henri Matisse a day earlier on 'Future Stars Friday' did see O'Brien move onto a record-equally 20 career winners at the Breeders' Cup. Here's a reminder of some of the best from Ballydoyle so far...

Johannesburg (2001 Juvenile, Belmont)

Two years after sending his first runners to the Breeders’ Cup, Aidan O’Brien struck at the meeting for the first time with two-year-old colt Johannesburg in the Juvenile at Belmont.

The American-bred colt had already established himself as the season’s top two-year-old, winning all six of his starts. Successful in the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot on his only try over five furlongs, all his other wins had come at six, notably in the Phoenix Stakes, Prix Morny and Middle Park Stakes, landing the odds in all three Group 1 contests.

Johannesburg therefore had his stamina to prove stepping up to the extended mile at Belmont, as well as needing to prove himself on dirt for the first time. Four of his American rivals were unbeaten, including odds-on favourite Officer, with Johannesburg only third choice in the betting.

But, going best of all in the straight, Johannesburg quickened well under Michael Kinane to win by a length and a quarter from Repent with the favourite only fifth. O’Brien’s very first Breeders’ Cup winner remains his only winner at the meeting on dirt to date, and Johannesburg is also notable for being great grandsire of Ballydoyle’s 2024 Classic contender City of Troy.

High Chaparral (2002, Turf, Arlington)

Half of O’Brien’s Breeders’ Cup winners have been two-year-olds, but O’Brien has also won the Turf a record seven times and his first winner of that contest was three-year-old High Chaparral at Arlington in 2002.

He was significant for being the first Derby winner to win at the Breeders’ Cup, stablemate Galileo having been beaten in the previous year’s Classic. A top-class colt, High Chaparral followed up his Epsom success from stablemate Hawk Wing by winning the Irish Derby and then suffered his only defeat of the campaign when a rallying third behind Marienbard in the Arc.

Unusually for a Breeders’ Cup, the going on the turf course at Arlington was on the soft side of good, as it had been for his two Derbies, and he was sent off odds on in a field of eight. High Chaparral had to be strongly ridden by Kinane but quickened well to take the lead inside the final furlong before idling to a length and a quarter win over Man o’ War Stakes winner With Anticipation.

High Chaparral became the first dual winner of the Turf a year later at Santa Anita but had to share the spoils in a thriller with American colt Johar, the pair of them just a head in front of the Luca Cumani-trained Falbrav.

St Nicholas Abbey (2011, Turf, Churchill Downs)

O’Brien’s third Breeders’ Cup Turf winner was no doubt a significant one personally for him as his eighteen-year-old son Joseph became the youngest jockey to win a Breeders’ Cup race when steering four-year-old St Nicholas Abbey to victory at Churchill Downs.

O’Brien junior’s riding career was to be a brief one and he became the youngest trainer of a Breeders’ Cup winner too when Iridessa won the Filly And Mare Turf eight years later. St Nicholas Abbey’s two wins earlier in 2011 had both come with Ryan Moore in the saddle in the Ormonde Stakes and Coronation Cup, but Moore was required to partner Sir Michael Stoute’s St Leger third Sea Moon at Churchill Downs.

O’Brien, who’d only lost his claim earlier that autumn, had ridden St Nicholas Abbey in the King George and Arc, finishing third and fifth in those races. In a relatively steadily-run race, St Nicholas Abbey was unleashed approaching the final furlong and soon asserted to beat Sea Moon by two and a quarter lengths.

With Wrote also winning the Juvenile Turf that year, Aidan O’Brien’s career total of six victories by then made him the most successful European-based trainer at the Breeders’ Cup.

Found (2015, Turf, Keeneland)

Five fillies have won the Breeders’ Cup Turf but the only one to do so at the age of three is Found, successful at Keeneland in 2015. She went on to win the Arc as a four-year-old, but her three-year-old cv would have looked very different without her Breeders’ Cup success as her only win in Europe that season came in a three-runner Royal Whip at the Curragh.

But Found, who’d begun her campaign over seven furlongs at the same track, was nothing if not tough and the Turf was her eighth race of the year and her fourth championship event of the autumn. Runner-up in the Irish Champion Stakes and the Champion Stakes at Ascot, she had little go right in the Arc in between. Golden Horn had won the first two of those contests and was odds on to come out on top again when they met for a third time at Keeneland.

The pair had it between themselves in the straight, with Frankie Dettori sending Golden Horn on after the home turn, but Moore had the move covered on Found who dug deep to get on top inside the final furlong for a half-length win over a rival who wasn’t at his best. Although a better filly at four, Found was only third to stablemate Highland Reel in a tactical contest at Santa Anita a year later.

Auguste Rodin (2023, Turf, Santa Anita)

O’Brien’s most recent Turf winner, and Moore’s fifth in all, was Auguste Rodin at Santa Anita last year. Although part of a high-class raiding party from Europe also comprising King of Steel, Onesto and Mostahdaf, in the end it proved a less than vintage contest and it was the ride the winner received which made it a memorable race.

In a season of mixed fortunes, Auguste Rodin had proved himself a high-class three-year-old more often than not, beating King of Steel into second in the Derby and having the same rival a close fourth behind him in the Irish Champion Stakes. Also successful in the Irish Derby, Auguste Rodin was sent off favourite at Santa Anita but, having been shuffled back a bit early on, Moore had little option but go for a run up the rail in the home straight.

Presented with a gap when the Japanese horse Shahryar was switched wider, Auguste Rodin enjoyed a dream split on the inner and quickened to a three-quarter length win over the leading US hope Up To The Mark.

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