The Breeders’ Cup is fast becoming something of a Charlie Appleby playground.
The Godolphin trainer – who has enjoyed a remarkable season domestically including winning the Derby, Irish Derby, King George and St Leger with star three-year-olds Adayar and Hurricane Lane, backed up by the notable achievements of champion two-year-old Native Trail – went into the weekend with an eyecatching 3-7 Breeders’ Cup strike-rate dating back to Santa Anita in 2013, and emerged having enhanced that record to a downright ridiculous 6-11.
But anyone who has spent even the shortest amount of time in playgrounds knows one has to remain on guard at all times. Expect the unexpected - the next bump or bloodied nose is generally just around the corner.
And for all the apparent simplicity of Space Blues’ swansong success in the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile, and Yibir’s visually stunning late surge to go by Broome in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf later on Saturday, for the majority of onlookers the most abiding memory from Del Mar 2021 will be Modern Games' controversial victory in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, having been officially declared a non-runner just moments beforehand.
With the racing world looking on, and countless potential new fans drawn to the event which had been staged at the picturesque ‘Surfside Race Place’ for the very first time – and to great acclaim - in 2017, a costly case of miscommunication, combined with what winning jockey William Buick hinted at may have been a sense of “panic” following the ugly incident with stablemate Albahr in the very next stall, resulted in Modern Games being hastily scratched, swiftly reinstated, and promptly returning to the winners’ circle to a cacophony of boos from local bettors.
Buick also claimed his horse had been “perfectly behaved”, while the official report from the California Horse Racing Board stated it was Modern Games who had initially reared and banged his head on the top of the stalls, which set off Frankie Dettori’s mount, Albahr.
The story isn’t quite straight there, but Friday was a damaging day for North American racing, make no mistake.
We may be used to the relative luxury of British-based online bookmakers paying out on the official winner as well as the first horse past the post in this sort of freak scenario (it is at their discretion and not all did on this occasion), but all bets in the US placed on Modern Games – their 9/5 favourite - were voided, stakes returned.
There were consolation pay-outs for Daily Double and Pick 3 bets, in which Modern Games was the final leg, but the millions who had him in their hugely popular Pick 4, Pick 5, Pick 6 and Pick All multiples effectively ended up with eventual race favourite and fifth home, Dakota Gold, on their tickets instead.
Likewise all those who had selected the legitimate non-runner Albahr, who would have reasonably assumed at least they’d be collecting on the stable companion. Godolphin took the cheque, but Tiz The Bomb – around 16/1 on the tote – was deemed a most unpopular winner for betting purposes.
Twenty-four hours is a long time in horse racing and thankfully there was so much better to come.
The Brad Cox-trained Knicks Go and Todd Pletcher’s Life Is Good put up destructive all-the-way performances to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Dirt Mile respectively. A potential clash between the two of them in next year’s Classic is something to savour, while Wesley Ward’s Golden Pal – a disappointing seventh on these shores in the Coolmore Nunthorpe at York’s Ebor Festival – reminded us all of his talents by registering his first G1 win in the Turf Sprint under Irad Ortiz Jr, who ended with three winners across the weekend.
Ward trained two of those and, along with Appleby and Buick, Bob Baffert and 56-year-old Mike Smith, Steve Asmussen and Joel Rosario - who were all on the board - he was one of the usual suspects.
There were some significant firsts elsewhere – for Christophe Clement, American racing’s Mr. Nice Guy, who broke his long-standing maiden when Pizza Bianca (the French-born trainer’s 43rd Breeders’ Cup runner) won the Juvenile Fillies Turf. And also for Britain’s three-time champion jockey Oisin Murphy, who was as shocked as anyone when Marche Lorraine toughed it out to win the Distaff at 50/1.
Marche Lorraine became the second Japanese representative to ever win a Breeders’ Cup race, a mere two hours after her stable companion Loves Only You had broken the seal in the Filly & Mare Turf.
The Breeders’ Cup as an organisation has made a huge effort over the past six or seven years to attract horses in Japan, from travel arrangements to the hiring of individuals responsible for looking after connections in terms of translation and settling in through the build-up. But given the nation’s strong stance against raceday medication, this year’s BC being a Lasix-free zone surely contributed more than anything towards the unprecedented seven-strong squad from Japan (there had been 13 Japanese-trained runners in total in the past, none of which finished in the first three).
The meeting and racing fans were duly rewarded, colourful trainer Yoshito Yahagi landing a memorable double and potentially opening the floodgates for future years.
One final thought - dog breeders enjoy informing people around this time of year that pets are ‘for life, and not just for Christmas’ and I can assure readers I have a firm understanding of the general concept, having as a child once been gifted a Shetland pony that I had to semi-reluctantly look after for the following 16 years (another story for another day, perhaps).
But on a similar token, don't be tempted to bin off the European horses’ Breeders’ Cup form as largely meaningless just because the excitement has died down a little. It might be hot and sticky with the beach a stone’s throw from the course, but this is no string-free holiday romance never to be spoken of back home.
Consider, rather, the form strings of some of the European raiders to have contested the Juvenile Turf in recent seasons, namely Masar and Anthony Van Dyck, who competed at Del Mar (2017) and Churchill Downs (2018) respectively before going on to win the Derby the following summer.
There was, admittedly, a really poor turnout from the travellers at Santa Anita in 2019, Arizona and Blue Soldier going on to achieve the square root of nought, but last year’s edition contained another burgeoning star in recent Champion Stakes winner Sealiway, who could manage only fifth behind Fire At Will at Keeneland.
In terms of seeking out some final Flat eyecatchers before heading into winter hibernation, there’s arguably no better place to pick them than on the alien territory of one the tightest turf tracks in the world. So did anyone spot a potential Classic contender among this year’s crop in the Juvenile Turf?
Sometimes they’re hiding in plain sight.
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