Aidan O'Brien extends record as Ryan Moore wins on Mendelssohn
Aidan O’Brien extended his own record for top-level wins in a year when Mendelssohn, the favourite, took the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf under a well-executed ride by Ryan Moore. The success was O’Brien’s 27th in a Group or Grade One race this year and he has several more chances to improve his record still further on the meeting’s main card today.
Forever Unbridled took the feature event on the card, the Distaff, under an unconventional ride by John Velazquez, who took the mare around the outside of the field coming around the home turn and held the late charge of Abel Tasman in the closing stages to win by half a length.
Mendelssohn was swiftly away from stall one and settled in a close third by Moore as Sands Of Mali, from Richard Fahey’s stable in Yorkshire, and the locally-trained Flameaway set the pace. By getting out and then into position Moore had done all he needed to do until the turn for home three-quarters of a mile later, and Mendelssohn responded readily when his rider moved him out and around Sands Of Mali at the top of the home straight.
Mendelssohn quickly opened up a two-length lead and, while the closers were cutting into his advantage in the closing stages, Moore’s mount stayed on strongly to secure the win by a length. US-trained runners filled the next three places as European hopefuls including Masar, James Garfield, Beckford and Rajasinghe failed to fire.
“He’s still learning but he got away well and travelled very kindly the whole race,” Moore said. “He was able to ease his way out, and I felt he still had plenty to give. He still wasn’t sure how to get down and gallop. He’s a big, raw horse still and he’ll improve with racing and experience.”
Mendelssohn is by the late Scat Daddy, giving him an American dirt pedigree, and the Kentucky Derby next May is now under serious consideration for the colt.
“We always thought a lot of him,” O’Brien said. “First run, he was very green, then in his second run Ryan rode him and he was very green again. We decided to put a pair of blinkers on him in his work, he grew another leg then but we weren’t sure about his work until he went to the Dewhurst [when he finished second], and that was a massive step up again.
“He was a late foal and every week he’s getting better. We knew he has a dirt pedigree but we just didn’t want to stop that progression so we left him on the grass [at the Breeders’ Cup].
“Hopefully he’s the sort of horse we could train for the Kentucky Derby now, particularly now that we have a trial race for that at home.”
Michael Tabor, part of the Coolmore syndicate which owns Mendelssohn, is hopeful the colt will eventually replace Scat Daddy on the Coolmore stallion register. “In his short life, Scat Daddy was a great stallion and we’ve been on the lookout for the next one,” Tabor said. “Hopefully this fellow will do the trick.”
Earlier on the card, the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf brought back memories of some Breeders’ Cup failures of the past as O’Brien’s two runners, September and Happily, missed the break and found themselves in difficult positions heading into the first turn.
Down the back stretch September was in last place. Happily was just a couple of places in front of her and in need of a dream run against the rail to stand any chance of taking a hand in the finish.
The gaps did not appear for Ryan Moore but Seamie Heffernan, on September, was able to take his filly to the outside and made good ground rounding the turn.
In the end, though, September had surrendered too much ground at the start while the year’s best US-trained turf filly, Rushing Fall, had been perfectly positioned to strike for home at the top of the stretch by her rider, Javier Castellano.
She was quickly in front and, while September was closing all the way, she ran out of turf as Rushing Fall beat Best Performance by three-quarters of a length with September another length away in third.
A fine race to end the day, but the real meat of this year’s Breeders’ Cup is tomorrow, when Europe has big chances in all four of the turf events to look forward to as well as U S Navy Flag and Churchill running on the dirt for Aidan O’Brien in the Juvenile and Classic respectively.
It promises to be an outstanding night, I hope you’ll be able to join me for it. For now, this is Greg Wood signing off at Del Mar.
Forever Unbridled made rapid ground around the outside on the home turn and it carried her into the lead as she left the final turn, but after charging around the field, would she be able to last home? The answer was yes, and while Abel Tasman made some ground in the closing stages, John Velazquez’s mount was always holding on.
DISTAFF RESULT: 1. Forever Unbridled, 2. Abel Tasman, 3. Paradise Woods.
Loading for the Distaff.
It’s 10 minutes to post time for the Distaff, and the runners are coming out onto the track. Elate is the narrow favourite ahead of Stellar Wind and Forever Unbridled.
Mendelssohn is dirt-bred on both sides of his pedigree and could now be aimed towards the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in May.
Ryan Moore is in the interview room:
He’s still learning but he got away well and travelled very kindly the whole race. He was able to ease his way out and he won, and I felt he still had plenty to give. He’s a big, raw horse still and he’ll improve with racing and experience.”
Here’s the closing stages of the race via Twitter:
Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore strike with Mendelssohn in the @BreedersCup Juvenile Turf! #BC17 pic.twitter.com/dvJIHqdXOt
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) November 3, 2017
US-trained runners were second, third and fourth there, but Ryan Moore drove Mendelssohn into the lead at the top of the stretch and never looked likely to come back to his field.
The winner paid $11.60 to a $2 stake, a shade over 9-2, and got an excellent, no-nonsense ride from Moore.
Unlike O’Brien’s fillies earlier, they got a good break from stall one and then settled just behind the pace as Sands Of Mali, from Richard Fahey’s yard, took them along at a good clip. Moore did not need to do anything else until the turn for home, when he pulled out and around Sands Of Mali and grabbed a lead which he held to the line.
JUVENILE TURF RESULT: 1. Mendelssohn, 2. Untamed Domain, 3. Voting Control. Aidan O’Brien’s 27th Group or Grade One winner of the year.
Approaching the gates now, Mendelssohn still favourite but now 9-2, Masar & Catholic Boy are 5-1, James Garfield 7-1 and it is 9-1 bar.
Beckford, from the Gordon Elliott stable, is another interesting runner from Europe in this race. It would be quite something to finish as the top trainer at the Cheltenham Festival over jumps in March, and then saddle a winner at the Breeders’ Cup seven months later.
The runners are in the paddock for the Juvenile Turf, including James Garfield, the mount of Frankie Dettori, who is a 7-1 chance to give George Scott a winner at the Breeders’ Cup at the first attempt. Now 11 minutes to post time.
Aidan O’Brien’s runners proved disappointing in the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf, but the local punters are still backing Mendelssohn to redress the balance in the next race, the Juvenile Turf. Ryan Moore’s mount, who will need to make a brisk exit from stall one, is a 7-2 chance on the PMU, while Charlie Appleby’s Masar is a 6-1 chance alongside Jonathan Thomas’s Catholic Boy, the shortest-priced runner from the States.
Here’s the closing stages of the Dirt Mile via the Del Mar Twitter feed:
Battle of Midway holds on to win the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile in a thriller pic.twitter.com/rIe6nR5qyd
— Del Mar Racetrack (@DelMarRacing) November 3, 2017
Mor Spirit was a complete blowout, beaten turning in, but the Dirt Mile turned into a brilliant battle down the stretch between front-running Sharp Azteca and Jerry Hollendorfer’s Battle Of Midway. The 15-1 chance only got the upper hand in the final strides, and there was a fair bit of daylight back to Awesome Slew in third.
DIRT MILE RESULT: 1. Battle Of Midway, 2. Sharp Azteca, 3. Awesome Slew.
Approaching the gate for the Dirt Mile. Mor Spirit is a solid 2-1 shot, Sharp Azteca now second-favourite at 3-1.
Interesting stat:
AOB 1-27 last five years in North America with fillies and mares!
— michael carey (@michael56149087) November 3, 2017
Mor Spirit’s main rivals in the betting are Azteca Spirit, seen here winning the Kelso Handicap, and Accelerate, a Grade Two winner here earlier in the year:
A little over 10 minutes to post time for the next race on the card, the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. This is not a race that has ever had any appeal to the Europeans, and is a bit of an afterthought for the Americans too, since it features horses that are not fast enough for the Sprint, or classy enough for the Classic.
It has very warm favourite in Mor Spirit, who is a bit of a case in point as he was 10th in last year’s Kentucky Derby but has been notching up Grade Ones since dropping back in trip.
Here he is winning the Met Mile at Belmont Park:
Here’s the full finishing order in the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf:
The official order of finish in the #BC17 Juvenile Fillies Turf. pic.twitter.com/VVosK4YFRI
— Breeders' Cup (@BreedersCup) November 3, 2017
September, meanwhile, has now finished fast to make the frame in a Group One in her last two outings, and she could now be nudging a little closer to Happily in the betting for next summer’s Oaks. Ryan Moore’s filly was virtually pulled up before crossing the line in last place.
That was a disappointing start for the Europeans but Rushing Fall does look like a top-class turf two-year-old and is now unbeaten in three starts.
The home team strike first at the Breeders’ Cup, and that was a fine ride by Javier Castellano from stall 11 aboard Rushing Fall.
Happily and September both missed the kick - September fell out of the stalls - and were third-last and last respectively going into the back stretch.
Happily never threatened to get involved in the finish, but September put up a huge run to charge through the field rounding the home turn and then make ground all the way up the straight. Rushing Fall, though, had been perfectly positioned to strike for home at the top of the stretch, and September and Seamie Heffernan were never quite going to reel them in.
The distances were 3/4 length and a length.
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf result: 1. Rushing Fall, 2. Best Performance, 3. September.
Approaching the gates for the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf, Breeders’ Cup 2017 about to get underway....
Other European challengers in the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf are Now You’re Talking (Joseph O’Brien up against his dad), Madeline (Roger Varian) and Juliet Capulet (John Gosden/Frankie Dettori).
Unfortunately I’m struggling to find a video of September just losing out to Laurens in the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket, but I reckon she would have won with just a little more luck in running.
Happily is currently showing at 2-1 on the local PMU, with Rushing Fall and September both on 7-2.
Happily lined up for the colts’ race on Arc day at Chantilly, the Prix Jean Luc Lagardere:
Twenty minutes to post time for the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf, here’s some video form for the leading contenders, starting with Rushing Fall’s win in the Jessamine Stakes at Belmont Park.
Good evening from Del Mar racetrack near San Diego (or “the Surfside Race Place as a banner on the main entrance has it), the splendid venue for this year’s Breeders’ Cup. It might not have the mountainous backdrop of Santa Anita in Los Angeles, but the Pacific Ocean is a few hundred yards away, hence Del Mar’s other nickname as “the place where the surf meets the turf”, and the train ride up from San Diego is one of the most memorable raceday rattlers anywhere on earth, as the last few miles are right alongside the beach.
The first four of the 13 Grade One events are on this evening’s opening-day card, and Europe has a strong challenge for both of the turf events for two-year-olds. It will be a real disappointment, in fact, if one of the visitors does not pick up the Juvenile Turf, which looks there for the taking assuming that our runners can handle the extremely tight turns on a full circuit of the course. Aidan O’Brien will be going for his 27th top-level success of the season with Mendelssohn, the runner-up to U S Navy Flag in the Dewhurst last time out – or possibly his 28th, depending on how September and Happily get on in the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf earlier on.
My fancy for the Juvenile Turf is George Scott’s James Garfield, though I would not be nearly as confident about his chance as one of the TV tipsters here at the track is about Rushing Fall, the biggest locally-trained threat to our two-year-old fillies in the first Breeders’ Cup race of the day. He suggested that backers should consider a perm for the Pick6 bet which amounted to a total outlay of no less than $1200 for 600 lines – with Rushing Fall his only pick in the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf. Brave man.
The big race of the day for the local punters is the Distaff, with eight fillies and mares going to post and five priced up at single-figure odds. Stellar Wind is the early favourite, but she was behind Forever Unbridled in this race last year when the pair finished third and fourth behind Beholder and Songbird, and Dallas Stewart’s mare looks a better bet at the prices.
Here’s wishing everyone a thrilling, and hopefully profitable, two days at the track.
Updated
Greg Wood will be along shortly. In the meantime, here is the day’s Talking Horses blog looking ahead to the Breeders’ Cup:
Updated
