Journalists Wandering Eyes Posted November 4, 2018 Journalists Share Posted November 4, 2018 Here’s a hypothetical prop bet: If you knew six months ago that a Triple Crown winner would be retired before the Breeders’ Cup, that the GI Classic would lack a standout favorite, and that the horse billed in advance as the biggest equine star of the entire show would be a filly from Europe who didn’t even race the first eight months of 2018, would you have wagered that this year’s World Championships were likely to come off as a resounding aesthetic success? And how about if you factored in that three inches of chilly rain would pelt host track Churchill Downs just prior to the big weekend? Surely a soggy turf course and drying-out dirt track would have the potential to adversely skew some of the outcomes–or at least dampen the festivities. If you wagered against the Breeders’ Cup, that would have been a bad bet. It turns out neither fate nor Mother Nature could derail the 2018 World Championships from being a rollicking, crowd-pleasing thrill ride that unfolded over two days with a cinematic arc and stylistic flair, yielding satisfying answers to key story lines while whetting the appetite with tantalizing new plot points to look forward to in 2019. Even a diehard, nit-picking skeptic like me has difficulty extracting evidence from replays or charts of the 14 championship races to contradict the notion that the most talented horses generally seized the initiative to win rather than having victories handed to them by races falling apart in some tactical fashion. Eight photo-finishes for wins were decided by a length or less, and the larger-margin Breeders’ Cup scores were legitimately earned by superior horses capable of extending to a higher level. The day-after buzz on Sunday centered on the intriguing possibility that the three hardest-hitting Grade I dirt-race winners on Saturday–Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky) in the Classic, Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) in the Distaff, and City of Light (Quality Road) in the Dirt Mile–could tangle in the GI Pegasus World Cup Jan. 26 at Gulfstream Park. Accelerate, the lukewarm 2.7-1 favorite, needed far more grit and grind to get the job done in the well-matched 14-horse Classic than he is used to delivering while running up the score over shorter fields on the Southern California circuit. Despite being drawn widest and giving up coveted real estate on both turns over 1 1/4 miles, Accelerate admirably made his own breaks at nearly every crucial decision point in the race. Jockey Joel Rosario sealed the deal with a decisive far-turn commitment to go for the first true attack on all-out pacemaker Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy) when it appeared that the other two well-positioned stalkers–McKinzie (Street Sense) and West Coast (Flatter)–weren’t up to the task. Yet it took Accelerate the better part of a furlong to put away the resolute Classic pacemaker, and then he was promptly tag-teamed three-sixteenths out by a fresh challenge from hard-charging Thunder Snow (Ire) (Helmet {Aus}) that consumed his attention until deep stretch. By that time Gunnevera (Dialed In) was gaining in full flight with Yoshida (Jpn) (Heart’s Cry {Jpn}) not far behind, but Accelerate held sternly and stubbornly in the final 50 yards to lay claim to a gutsy slugfest victory. Monomoy Girl’s win in the Distaff was a touch more artful from a grace-under-pressure perspective, but no less commanding in scope. Off as the 9-5 favorite en route to her sixth consecutive first-place finish in a Grade I race (she was disqualified to second once during that streak), Monomoy Girl was keen and into the bit early on, but jockey Florent Geroux was careful to let her out only in incremental notches while sitting a perfectly placed second behind 19-1 pacemaker Wonder Gadot (Medaglia d’Oro). Once Monomoy Girl polished off Wonder Gadot 2 1/2 furlongs out, Geroux continued to handle her confidently, even as a fresh wave of challengers crested behind them off the turn. Without panicking but also wanting to avoid using the whip, he energetically hand-hustled her home, drawing clear by tapping into an extra reserve of the filly’s stamina that none of the all-out pursuers could match. In the Dirt Mile, jockey Javier Castellano attained the lead and the 2.6-1 second choice City of Light held it every step of the trip under high-tempo pressure. When undefeated favorite Catalina Cruiser (Union Rags) and one-turn mile ace Firenze Fire (Poseidon’s Warrior) both ranged up to within a length and a half of the leader three-eighths out, City of Light cracked them both, leaving two top-notch middle-distance specialists floundering in his wake. In the GI Turf, Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) lived up to her advance billing as the main equine attraction in this year’s Breeders’ Cup. Sure, all the post-race accolades are deservedly rooted in Enable being the first horse–a filly, no less–to finally pull off the elusive (0-for-8) G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe/Breeders’ Cup Turf double. But the panache with which Enable turned the trick makes it even more enchanting. She gave up significant ground on all three turns and might not have been entirely comfortable with the footing, but Enable and jockey Frankie Dettori always stood out in the pack as a domineering tandem, attaining advancing positions at will. Together, they wound up for a fully torqued stretch battle with Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), wowing the crowd as those two fillies peeled off from the pack nine lengths ahead of everybody else, with Enable relishing being roused to a three-quarter length win. The Breeders’ Cup is billing its first Future Stars Friday card as a success. Yet while the idea of regrouping the races so all five of the 2-year-old races are on the same day does seem logical, to me the absence of the GI Juvenile from its traditional late-Saturday placement imparted a something-is-missing feel to the culmination of the Championships. Sure, the Juvenile in its new position allowed it to be the focal-point feature on Friday. But especially with this year’s Breeders’ Cup being run at the home of the GI Kentucky Derby, the race did seem to take a status hit by not being in the same sequence as the main events on Saturday. Either way, the Juvenile ended up being a corker of a performance by unbeaten ‘TDN Rising Star’ Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}), who was bet down to even-money favoritism. Floated widest into the clubhouse bend, jockey Rosario was content to let Game Winner play the role of midpack stalker prior to launching into a prolonged far-turn bid while again wide through the bend. In the run through the lane, Game Winner was relentless and responsive, brushing with the ambitious (but tiring) overachiever Knicks Go (Paynter) before rocketing home first under the wire 2 1/4 lengths the best. Having the 2-year-old races all on the same day did produce a bit of a timing oddity: In both sets of two-turn juvenile races, the fillies ran faster than the colt-and-gelding divisions. The GI Juvenile Fillies Turf was 1.06 seconds quicker than the GI Juvenile Turf. The GI Juvenile Fillies was .05 seconds faster than the Juvenile. We now have the next six months leading up to Triple Crown season to dissect both divisions and figure out if this means anything or not. Based on geography, Californians ruled the Cup this year with five wins (four in dirt races). European-based horses accounted for three wins (all on grass). In terms of sires, 14 different stallions were responsible for producing the 14 different Breeders’ Cup winners this year. If you expand the tally to include broodmare sires, Elusive Quality accounted for two (in the GI Sprint and GI Filly & Mare Sprint). Galileo (Ire) sired the Juvenile Turf winner and was the broodmare sire of the GI Filly & Mare Turf. View the full article Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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