Our Ben Linfoot profiles the main players from Team Europe at this weekend’s Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita.
Only a month has passed since Luke Donald’s men gave Team USA one hell of a beating in the Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, but the cross-Atlantic rivalry resurfaces this weekend as the 40th edition of the Breeders’ Cup rolls into Santa Anita.
As usual the Europeans go to the States with a strong hand in the turf races, but some look more reliable than others and while a team dynamic doesn’t always work in the sport of horse racing – Exhibit A, The Racing League – perhaps the European collective can return with a trophy haul to rival last year’s total of six.
Team Captain – MAWJ
Godolphin’s principal trainer Charlie Appleby had three winners and a nose second from seven runners last year, taking his total Breeders’ Cup record to nine from 18, but he’s taking a much smaller squad to Santa Anita on the back of a tough year. To add to his luck his best hope Master Of The Seas has been drawn 14 in the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile, a less than ideal draw, even if he is usually ridden with restraint in any case.
He’ll find it tough to come through the field and win from that starting position, but Godolphin still hold the strongest of hands thanks to Saeed bin Suroor’s MAWJ and she can lead the Europeans by getting an early win on the board on Saturday. Nicely drawn in stall six for an uncomplicated front-runner, the 1000 Guineas winner proved herself in fine fettle after a five-month absence when making all to win the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland on October 14.
It was noticeable that she defied being fresh and keen to run out a comfortable winner over nine furlongs that day, the drop back to the bare mile here looking the right call for the half-sister to last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile winner, Modern Games. She looks banker material as Bin Suroor bids to win his first non-juvenile Breeders’ Cup race since Fantastic Light won the Turf 22 years ago.
Experienced gunslinger – MOSTAHDAF
Every Ryder Cup team needs a steady hand to show the youngsters the way and the previously hit and miss MOSTAHDAF has started to string some high-class efforts together now John & Thady Gosden have found the key to him at the age of five.
The son of Frankel needs time between his races and faster ground, so a rain-sodden Champions Day looked a blessing in disguise for him given he’ll go into the Breeders’ Cup Turf following 73 days off the track. A winner of the Neom Turf Cup at Riyadh, the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Juddmonte International at York this year, another common denominator there is 10 furlongs – so he does have to prove he can replicate that sort of form over a mile and a half.
Santa Anita should help on that score and this well-travelled horse looks to be the most solid option from a fascinating trio of Group 1-winning Europeans that head the market in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf.
Maverick – AUGUSTE RODIN
With some team players you just never know what you are going to get and AUGUSTE RODIN has the potential to either tear this race apart or finish tailed off. Who knows which Gus will turn up this weekend?
If it’s the Gus from the Guineas or the King George he has no chance. If it’s the Gus from the Derby or the Irish Champion Stakes he has every chance and if it’s the Gus from the Irish Derby I’m not sure. The son of Deep Impact has yet to string together consecutive good efforts as a three-year-old and the plane travel over to America has to be a concern for a renowned poor traveller.
The faster ground and the track look sure to suit, though, so if he is in A1 condition perhaps we should prepare for something brilliant – exactly what you’d expect from the team maverick, if he’s in the mood.
Vulnerable big gun I – KING OF STEEL
While it has been all about the Breeders’ Cup for Auguste Rodin from some way out, KING OF STEEL comes here via an extraordinary success in the Qipco British Champion Stakes at Ascot just two weeks before his Breeders’ Cup Turf assignment.
He had a tough race under an inspired Frankie Dettori to win his first Group 1 and the proximity of that success alone makes this a tough ask, especially when you factor in the recovery time and the travelling over to the United States as well. A draw out in 11 further complicates things and his improvement in the latter half of the season has come over 10 furlongs, so he has it to prove going back up in distance, too.
Vulnerable big gun II – INSPIRAL
Getting King Of Steel to settle up in trip could be key to his chance and Dettori will already know his fate on INSPIRAL following her run in the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf by then. She has an identical question mark against her name.
The difference is Inspiral is the best horse in her race on all known form, her victories in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot and last month’s Sun Chariot success marking her out as the classiest filly in this contest by clear daylight. And on pedigree she has every chance of staying being a Frankel half-sister to a 10-furlong winner, her mile pace likely an asset on this speed track, too.
Yet the worry would be if she pulls too hard early on and consequently fails to see out the trip. She has looked an out and out miler throughout her career and her keenness has beaten her even over that trip on occasions, so there is at least one reason to take her on a short prices, for all she’s the class act in the race.
Suited by the course – LIVE IN THE DREAM
LIVE IN THE DREAM is a latecomer to the European touring party following a huge out of the blue win in the Nunthorpe, but that York success was franked in style by runner-up Highfield Princess in the Prix de l’Abbaye and there’s little doubt he deserves his place on the plane.
Adam West has left no stone unturned in his Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint preparation, flying the son of Prince Of Lir out to Keeneland on October 7 for a look at an American sprint race where he faded into fourth in the Grade 2 Woodford Stakes after showing his customary early speed.
That was over five-and-a-half furlongs, though, and the bare five at Santa Anita on fast ground looks sure to suit this out-and-out speedster who could simply have too many guns for last year’s winner Caravel and Archie Watson’s Bradsell, who has a length and three quarters to make up on that Nunthorpe form.
Watch Race Replay
Unlimited race replays of all UK & Irish racing
Access to exclusive features all for FREE – No monthly subscription fee
Log in with your existing Sporting Life, Sky Bet, or Sky Games account. If you don’t have any of those, it’s completely FREE to register!
Young and fearless – BIG EVS
It will be fascinating to see how Mick Appleby’s BIG EVS gets on in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint on Friday night as he bids for a first top-level success to cap a remarkable season.
The son of Blue Point took off on fast ground at Royal Ascot to win the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes before he landed the Group 3 Molecomb in very different conditions after that. A bold throw of the dice didn’t come good in the Nunthorpe at York, but he bounced back from finishing 14th against his elders to put in his best performance yet in the Group 2 Flying Childers at Doncaster.
That form was given a boost in the Cornwallis and he beat them easily on Town Moor, showing rapid pace to get the race won in the first half of the contest and such precociousness will lend itself well to the biggest test of his burgeoning career.
Rock-solid rookie – RIVER TIBER
Aidan O’Brien’s RIVER TIBER is a very different kind of juvenile to Big Evs but he too looks to have laid the foundations for a bold showing in the Prevagen Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
In a similar vein to last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf winner Meditate, O’Brien looks to have racked up the experience over shorter distances with this horse before unleashing him over a mile in America where he could take a huge leap forward.
His form behind Vandeek at Group 1 level is already very good – the best in this line-up – and with a US 1m winner in his pedigree this looks the absolute perfect race for the son of Wootton Bassett.
Wildcard pick I – ALGIERS (update: non-runner – foot injury)
Right then, two wild card picks to finish in the spirit of this tiresome golf analogy.
First up, ALGIERS – and I’m as surprised as you are that we’ve got even half a chance in the Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Fear not, though, the Simon & Ed Crisford-trained horse hasn’t been traipsing around Chelmsford. Far from it, the son of Shamardal has been running on *actual dirt* in Meydan, winning two Group 2 contests by wide margins before his good second to Ushba Tesoro in the Dubai World Cup.
He’ll likely need to improve on that form to beat Cody’s Wish, but his prep run at Woodbine on the back of over six months off was encouraging, especially considering he was even better second run back at Meydan in the spring.
Wildcard pick II – WITH THE MOONLIGHT
At that same Woodbine meeting WITH THE MOONLIGHT returned from 154 days off the track herself in the Grade 1 E. P. Taylor Stakes, finishing second to the ex-Richard Fahey Fev Rover after staying on well under William Buick.
She has no right to beat an at-her-best Inspiral, but if the Gosden filly is below par then this globetrotting Frankel comes into the equation, on both her winning form in the States at Saratoga and her Group 2 wins at Meydan earlier in the year.
Certainly, this track and trip look ideal for her, and it would be very Charlie Appleby to sign off a troublesome transitional season by taking his Breeders’ Cup record to 10 from 20 with an unheralded outsider. She looks better than that to me.
Breeders’ Cup 2023 race times and schedule
Friday, November 3
Saturday, November 4
British and Irish Breeders’ Cup winners in last five years
2022 (Keeneland): Meditate, Mischief Magic, Victoria Road, Tuesday, Modern Games, Rebel’s Romance
2021 (Del Mar): Modern Games, Space Blues, Yibir
2020 (Keeneland): Glass Slippers, Audarya, Order Of Australia, Tarnawa
2019 (Santa Anita): Iridessa
2018 (Churchill Downs): Line Of Duty, Expert Eye, Enable
More from Sporting Life
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org