It would be difficult to say that Magical, a seven-time Group 1 winner with a $5.3 million bankroll, had encountered misfortune during her racing career. But imagine what might have been if Magical had not come along while Enable roamed European racecourses. Magical's seven second-place finishes include three, all at the highest level, behind Enable. Her loss to Enable that Americans know best came in the 2018 Breeders' Cup Turf at Churchill Downs, where Magical, a rising 3-year-old, raced neck and neck with Enable through a thrilling stretch run, finally succumbing by three-quarters of a length.
Enable was retired last month. She's out of the way, and Magical has returned to Kentucky, the hunted rather than the hunter in the $4 million Breeders' Cup Turf. She breaks from post 2 facing nine rivals going a three-turn 1 1/2 miles, will have Ryan Moore on her back, and will be expected to go one place better than two years ago in Louisville.
Magical, a 5-year-old by Galileo, initially had retirement in her post-2019 plans, but her owners and trainer Aidan O'Brien revisited that decision following the racing season.
"Physically, she just really changed over the winter, and they felt it was worth letting her take a chance to have another year," O'Brien said in a teleconference last week. "She was very sound, and her mind was good."
Magical roared back into action this season. Facing inferior foes, she notched easy Group 1 wins in the Pretty Polly Stakes and the Tattersalls Gold Cup, but ran into Ghaiyyath, the world's top-rated turf horse this year, and was beaten three lengths by him Aug. 19 in the Juddmonte International. On Sept. 12, Ghaiyyath shipped to Ireland for the Irish Champion Stakes, and Magical was ready for him. Showing more speed than typical, she kept in contact with front-running Ghaiyyath and overpowered him in the homestretch.
It was the mare's finest moment — but has it left her vulnerable this autumn? Magical was favored Oct. 17 to win her second straight Champion Stakes at Ascot but slipped a notch and finished a soundly defeated third. Maybe very soft ground compromised her, but Magical won the 2019 Champion over a rain-beaten course. Now, she has traveled overseas to race 1 1/2 miles, a distance that always has been slightly farther than her very best. Enable or not, Magical is not a lock.
O'Brien sent a second runner, Mogul, who comes with merit. Mogul all this season was a work in progress, though in progress to what was not entirely certain. Finally, last month in the Grand Prix de Paris, he put together a comprehensive race, roaring up the fence to win by 2 1/2 lengths over In Swoop, who would return to finish second in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Pierre-Charles Boudot engineered the perfect trip that won in Paris and will try to make magic from tricky post 10 on Saturday.
"He loves to have nice ground," O'Brien said, putting reason behind the decision to pass the Arc, contested on a sodden course. "He travels very well and quickens well."
Also traveling from Ireland is Tarnawa, whom trainer Dermot Weld rates his best chance ever to win his first Breeders' Cup race. Weld is not blowing smoke. Four-year-old Tarnawa enters on a three-race winning streak, the last two the first Group 1 successes of her career. Tarnawa crunched the high-level French filly Raabihah to win the 1 1/2-mile Prix Vermeille over a good Longchamp course in September, and on Arc Day blasted down the middle of the course to master soft ground and 13 rivals in the 1 1/4-mile Prix de l'Opera. Christophe Soumillon, who has won top races all over the world, rode Tarnawa for the first time in September and will take a live mount Saturday for Weld and the Aga Khan.
John Gosden took a bitter defeat in the 2015 Turf at Keeneland with Arc winner Golden Horn and has two lesser entrants this year. The filly Mehdiyaah can outrun her 30-1 morning-line odds making just her third start of 2020, but almost certainly can't win, and Lord North will be the much better fancied of the pair. Lord North, a gelding, rose from the handicap ranks last season to land a mighty blow in the Group 1 Prince of Wales's Stakes over 1 1/4 miles at Royal Ascot in June. He lost a shoe in the Juddmonte International and couldn't abide heavy going last month in the Champion Stakes, but Lord North is no sure thing to perform as well at 1 1/2 miles as he has at 1 1/4 miles.
The long-distance American turf division has felt weak all season, but the best of this bunch — United, Channel Maker, and Arklow — don't look so bad coming into the Turf. Trainer Brad Cox added blinkers to Arklow's race-day equipment package for the Sept. 12 Kentucky Turf Cup, an experiment in the horse's 29th career start that proved it's never too late to tinker. Arklow ran his best race this year, winning by 1 1/4 lengths over Red Knight, who returned with a smart score in the Elkhorn at Keeneland.
Bill Mott trains Red Knight, who is second string in this division to stablemate Channel Maker. Mott already is in the Hall of Fame but deserves a second nomination for turning 6-year-old Channel Maker around this summer and fall. Channel Maker came into the Aug. 29 Sword Dancer at Saratoga on a 10-race losing streak but went to the front and romped by nearly six lengths. A soft course helped his cause that day, but over firmer going Oct. 3 in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont, Channel Maker won by more than two lengths. He got back-to-back 108 Beyer Speed Figures, the best numbers of his career.
"This is his time of year," Mott said.
Channel Maker wants to lead, and so might United, who came within a head of posting a 50-1 shock at Santa Anita in the 2019 Turf. The hulking chestnut does not win by wide margins but wins regularly — four times in five races this year.
"He's become more versatile than ever, just with experience," trainer Richard Mandella said. "I just hope that I've got him at the same level that I had last year, because he ran a helluva race last year."
That was last year. This year's Turf looks deeper, tougher — it will take a magical performance to triumph.
