Frankie Dettori, Ryan Moore and William Buick all produced memorable winning runs here on Saturday as the European-trained runners – Inspiral, Master Of The Seas and Auguste Rodin – took on the first three turf races on the main card of the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita in California won. .
Dettori began the European attack aboard John Gosden’s Inspiral, who started as favorite for the Filly & Mare Turf despite moving from a mile to 10 furlongs for the first time in her career.
Her rider suggested he needed “Lady Luck” by his side, but he ended up making his own horse. Inspiral, as always, came out of the boxes slowly, but Dettori kept her out of trouble and then made ground towards the end of the back stretch. That left Inspiral ready to unleash a decisive run at the top of the straight and they chased down Warm Heart with a few strides to spare.
Inspiral was the best filly of her generation at both two-year-old and three-year-olds, has now won six races at Group 1 or Grade 1 level and will look to add to her total next season, as her owners, Cheveley Park Stud, plan to keep her in training at five o’clock.
“She needs a quarter mile to really get into top gear,” Dettori said. “I thought I better not go for holes. I found the opening on the outside. I expected her to find top gear, but once she did, I don’t know if you saw her cross the line, she flew.”
It was Moore’s courage that found its reward in the Turf, when he took Auguste Rodin, the Derby winner, around the home bend with a paint-scraping drive, passing much of the field, taking an advantage that Up To The Mark and Shahryar could not close.
“It didn’t go to plan at all for the first half of the race,” Moore said. “All I wanted was for the horse to find some kind of rhythm. Once I did that and the run started to present itself, I was able to keep going, and it got there very quickly and very easily.
Buick’s masterclass, meanwhile, took place aboard Master Of The Seas in the Mile. Buick, who had been drawn widest of all in Stable 14, brought Charlie Appleby’s gelding right on the wire to beat Mawj, the winner of the 1,000 Guineas, after still having several lengths to make up with less than a furlong to spare. run.
“It’s never going to be easy for him, but he’s gotten closer, as we all saw today,” Buick said. “I looked up the back half way and thought ‘that’s a lot of horses to pass’, but I didn’t turn as wide as I thought I would need to. Once he got past the quarter post, he just took off.”
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However, there was to be no fairytale conclusion to the story of Live In The Dream as Adam West’s Nunthorpe winner faded in the closing stages of the Turf Sprint after showing excellent speed from the gate to hold a two-length lead at the homecoming.
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Sean Kirrane’s mount could find nothing as Nobals, a gelding trained by Larry Rivelli, moved on his inside and stayed on for the win, while Moore arrived late on Aidan O’Brien’s Aesop’s Fables to finish third.
However, the Europeans left Santa Anita with victories in five of the seven grass events, setting the bar high ahead of the Breeders’ Cup’s return to Del Mar, near San Diego, next year.