Some two years after they spotted and quickly made the deal to purchase White Abarrio in a private sale, brothers Clint and Mark Cornett spent part of Sunday morning talking about the colt's victory in the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) and where he will take them next.
Under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., the Rick Dutrow-trained White Abarrio won by a length over Derma Sotogake (JPN) in the marquee race of the 40th Breeders' Cup. He completed the 1¼ miles in 2:02.87.
Dutrow and the Cornetts said they already have started to formulate plans for White Abarrio's next start, the $20-million Saudi Cup (G1) on Saturday, Feb. 24.
In 2021, the brothers decided they wanted to end their hiatus from owning Thoroughbreds and try to buy a horse that would take them to the Kentucky Derby (G1). That September, Mark Cornett, who lives in Naples, Florida, saw White Abarrio win his debut at Gulfstream Park. Within 24 hours they had completed the purchase.
White Abarrio won the Florida Derby (G1) for previous trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., and did take them to the Kentucky Derby, where he was 16th, and has run in high-level stakes. This year in three races with Dutrow, he was third in the Met Mile (G1), won the Whitney (G1) at Saratoga, and added the Classic to his resume.
“It feels great,” said Clint Cornett, a resident of Flower Mound, Texas, “because we jumped back in in '21 and to be here this quick. The horse has taken us on an unbelievable ride, winning the Holy Bull (G3), the Florida Derby and then just winning the Whitney and now the Classic. You can't dream that, right? That's just unbelievable.”
Dutrow said he hopes to leave the 4-year-old Race Day colt at Santa Anita for a while and probably will take him to Saudi Arabia to be prepared for the race.
“I would be comfortable running him in the Saudi Cup in his next start,” he said. “I would be comfortable. I'm going to be pushing for it. I think that's where this horse belongs.”
Dutrow said White Abarrio has established himself as one of the top horses in the world.
“From all the horses we've seen run, I think that it's going to take a big effort for a good horse to beat him in his next start,” he said. “It's going to take a good horse to run a big race to beat them because this next race seems like it is absolutely tailor-made for him, a mile and an eighth around one turn.
“I've already bought all the Chapstick that I can because I'll be licking my lips everywhere with this. I just don't want him to get all rustled up, you know, when you guys are interviewing. But that's what we can't wait for, and I want to make sure that he is on top of his game when he goes into that race. It means everything to us.”
If the tentative plans work out, Dutrow said White Abarrio would go from the Saudi Cup to the Dubai World Cup (G1), run again in the Whitney and try to defend his Classic title next November at Del Mar. Tiznow is the only horse to repeat in the Classic.
To celebrate his victory, Dutrow said he planned to visit Disneyland Sunday afternoon.
“I'm going to go there today, he said. “Of course I am. I love it there. I wish my mom was here so I could take her. I tried to talk her into coming.
Dutrow said he doesn't have a favorite ride.
“I don't get on the rides,” he said, laughing. “I don't. They get me sick.”
Dutrow said he has visited the famous park three or four times in the past.
“I can't remember what I did there, but I just know I like it there,” he said. “Just walking around. That kind of thing. I've got to do that. It will save me money because I'll bet on football and watch football all day.”
Dutrow acknowledged that Cody's Wish, the repeat winner of the Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile (G1), had a strong case to be the Horse of the Year.
“I think that he's the best one going around two turns in this country right now,” Dutrow said. “I think Cody's Wish is the best one that is not going around two turns in this country right now. Cody's Wish had a huge year, one more Grade 1 than him and that's all great.”
Dutrow noted that even though his Silver Train won the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) in 2005, Lost in the Fog was the Eclipse Award winner that year because he had a better overall body of work.
“Same thing here. We won two races. That horse has been going all year long and just been winning Grade 1s everywhere. I'm not putting my vote in for him, but if they give it to him, I will be behind it a million percent. We've got next year for him. We can do it with him next year. As long as he stays the way he is right now. He can get Horse of the Year next year. That's if they don't give it to him this year. I mean. We're not doing the voting.”
Bill Mott – The last thing Bill Mott wanted to do was take the credit. All his barn did over the weekend was dominate the Breeders' Cup. Of the 14 races run over the two days, the Mott barn won three of them.
Godolphin's Cody's Wish (Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile-G1) and Juddmonte's Elite Power (Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint-G1) were the showstoppers as they won their races for a second consecutive year. Just F Y I, owned by George Krikorian, got the party started on Friday with a victory in the NetJets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).
“This is all 100 percent deserved,” said Garett O'Rourke, manager of Juddmonte USA. “There are few people who are as dedicated to their craft as much as Bill is. You might call him old school, but he is such a hard worker and such a good person. And he has a staff that is 100 percent loyal and 100 percent invested and I love that.”
Mott was humble when it was suggested that he should be taking the bows for the impressive showing from the barn.
“I was very fortunate to have those two (Cody's Wish and Elite Power) back in training,” he said. “How lucky is that? Ninety percent of the time, horses win a Breeders' Cup race and they are off to the stud barn. I must have said a prayer that I would get them back and we did for another season.”
Cody's Wish and Elite Power will run no more. They were off to the stud barn Sunday morning, both of them leaving Santa Anita for their new Kentucky homes. Cody's Wish will stand at Darley's Jonabell Farm and Elite Power at Juddmonte, both in Lexington.
Both horses had four wins in their five starts this year.
Mott also saw his 7-year-old Casa Creed finish third in the FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile (G1). His War Like Goddess was seventh in the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1) and Gala Brand was 13th in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1).
Mott has won 15 Breeders' Cup races during his Hall of Fame career. This was the first time he had won three in one year; he has had two victories twice.
“You have it in the back of your mind,” Mott said when asked if he thought he might have a blockbuster weekend at Santa Anita. “I knew I was pretty loaded with Cody's Wish and Elite Power. I knew we were in pretty deep water with War Like Goddess and she ran a good race. But we ran against some of the best Europeans. The unknown was Just F Y I who showed up. You just never know if they are going to reach this level off of a two-race career.”
Todd Pletcher – The trainer said that all four of his runners came out of Saturday's races in good order and will ship to Kentucky this week.
Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1) runner-up Up to the Mark, a top contender for the Eclipse Award as the champion male turf horse, has been retired and will stand at Lane's End Farm next year.
Pletcher's Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) runners, the 4-year-old Bright Future, who finished sixth, and the 3-year-old Dreamlike, who was eighth, will get a brief freshening and are expected to compete again next year. Charge It, fourth in the Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile (G1), will spend some time at owner Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm in Ocala, Florida, and is expected to ran again in 2024.
Pletcher won the FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Friday with Fierceness and Up to the Mark looked like a winner in deep stretch in the Turf. In a dramatic finish, he was overtaken by Auguste Rodin (IRE), who won by three-quarters of a length.
“That was a tough beat,” Pletcher said. “I thought he ran remarkably well. Got a good trip. Unfortunately for us, the winner got an amazing trip.”
Pletcher said his Classic horses had problems with the track that may have affected their performances.
“I thought both of them struggled a little bit with the kickback,” he said. “That was something we saw kind of over the course of Friday and Saturday. I thought the kickback was fairly significant. Some of the horses didn't seem to run into it as well as they would on some other tracks. Bright Future really retreated in the early part of the race. But finally got on track and closed pretty well to be beaten less than 4 lengths in the end. He just left himself way too much to do. Similar from Dreamlike. They said that as soon as he started getting that kickback he started climbing and kind of lost early position. He put in a little bit of a mild run and then kind of flattened out at that point.”
Bob Baffert – Though he did not add to his Breeders' Cup winning totals, he reported that all six of his Saturday runners returned to the barn in good condition. “They all got back safely and are doing well this morning.”
The Breeders' Cup's second-winningest conditioner, with 18, was justifiably proudest of the stellar effort by his Preakness (G1)-winning National Treasure, who was defeated by the narrowest of margins in the Dirt Mile.
“He ran a winning race. He got beat by a champion (two-time Breeders' Cup winner Cody's Wish). He went off form following the Preakness and it was good to see him regain it,” Baffert said.
The 3-year-old son of Quality Road will return to the races next year, although there are no specific plans for his 2024 campaign yet.
Like his sophomore barnmate, Arabian Knight also will return to the races next year. Baffert said of the son of Uncle Mo: “He's got brilliant speed. He just went too fast early and got tired. I might have been able to win the (Breeders' Cup) Sprint or the (Dirt) Mile with him, but I really like the Classic. The track was very demanding yesterday; they were coming home with slow final fractions.”
Arabian Knight finished fourth in the Classic after setting the early pace. Baffert added, “He's still a young horse and he's still developing. I'm not really sure where he's going to run next. We'll take a little time before we decide that.”
Another Baffert speedster, Speed Boat Beach “got us a little excited the way he ran,” Baffert said. “I was proud of his effort. Those are some really good horses who beat him. He might have bounced a little coming off that layoff. I probably could have won an allowance race with him, but the way he's run, he deserved a chance.” Speed Boat Beach split the field, finished fourth of eight in the 6-furlong dash.
Baffert's millionaire filly Adare Manor, who had her five-race winning streak broken with a seventh-place finish in the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1), will be freshened before her return to the races next year. “She's better when she's on the lead, but those fillies were just too fast for her,” Baffert said. “That winner was a monster.”
No plans have been formulated yet for Eda, who ran seventh in the PNC Bank Filly & Mare Sprint (G1), or Du Jour, who ran 10th in the FanDuel Mile (G1) over the turf.
“These Breeders' Cup races are really tough to win,” said Baffert, who leads all Breeders' Cup trainers by purse earnings with $40,385,000. “Everybody who's in them is serious and they're all bringing their 'A' games. It's like being in the playoffs, there are no easy competitors.”
Idiomatic – Horse of the Year talk swirled all over the Santa Anita backstretch during Breeders' Cup week. After the weekend was done, White Abarrio, winner of the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) and Cody's Wish, champ of the Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1), emerged as the names being mentioned most for the coveted end-of-the-year honor.
Don't forget about Idiomatic. The 4-year-old filly owned by Juddmonte, put a bow on her season with a half-length win in the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) Saturday. Her trainer Brad Cox absolutely says she has to be part of the Horse of the Year equation.
“She totally deserves to be in there,” Cox said. “She was not just a horse of the fall or a horse of the summer. She was a horse that danced a lot of dances through the season. She has a beautiful record and I'm proud of her.”
Idiomatic finished the year with eight wins in nine starts, the last three – the Personal Ensign at Saratoga, the Spinster at Keeneland and the Distaff – were all Grade Is.
“Look, there are a lot of good horses,” Cox, who flew from California to Kentucky Saturday night, said. “White Abarrio, Cody's Wish … her. They probably all deserve it. She gets my vote and I don't have one.”
Idiomatic was the only winner for Cox at the Breeders' Cup. None of his other six starters hit the board. Saudi Crown, who won the Pennsylvania Derby (G1) in his last start, was 10th in the Longines Classic (G1) after being part of the early pace.
“I can't give him much of an excuse,” Cox said. “My jock (Florent Geroux) said it might have been further than he wants to go. He is still young and he's learning. It was too much for him. He wasn't ready for this.”
Goodnight Olive – After her history-making repeat victory in the PNC Bank Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1), First Row Partners and Team Hanley's Chad Brown-trained Goodnight Olive was sent on her way to Kentucky, where she will be offered at Fasig-Tipton November sale on Nov. 7.
“She looked good this morning after her run,” Brown said. “She flew out this morning.”
Bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet, she earned her ninth victory from 12 starts and eclipsed $2 million in earnings. She also provided Brown with his first repeat Breeders' Cup winner.
“She's always been a very quiet horse who's easy to work with and a real softy from a temperament standpoint, like I said, but when the gates open, she's coming straight at you,” Brown said. “Perfect horse to train. She's meant a lot to me and is a great horse. To have a back-to-back winner is huge and puts her in high standing in our barn.
“She's owned by the perfect two groups. Team Hanley and Jay Hanley have been with me for a long time and owned part of Lady Eli; and First Row Partners and Steve Laymon was part of the ownership with Dayatthespa. So two great partnerships came together and a lot of great memories were made in her career.”
Nobals – Patricia's Hope LLC's Nobals swung into the spotlight Saturday, winning the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1) with a rail-skimming ride by Gerardo Corrales and providing veteran Chicago trainer Larry Rivelli with the ultimate climax of his career thus far. The third-generation conditioner reported that he was very pleased with how the son of Noble Mission (GB) had exited his fourth victory from seven 2023 starts.
“He's all good,” Rivelli said. “He's on his way back home. He heads to Ocala (Florida) for some 'R & R' for a few months, where he'll be looked after by Dr. Jean White.”
As far as a 2024 campaign, the soon-to-be 5-year-old is expected to have a similar campaign, but Rivelli indicated that anything could be on the table for the 10-time winner (18 starts) and newly minted millionaire.
International Report
Another successful day at the Breeders' Cup for the international runners headed up by Auguste Rodin (IRE) (Longines Breeders' Cup Turf-G1) who was given possibly one of the all-time great rides by Ryan Moore.
Moore displayed nerves of steel making a scintillating run up the rail. It was obvious to see post-race how much Moore thinks of Auguste Rodin.
Plans for his future are still up in the air. Bred to be a star, being by Japanese legend Deep Impact (JPN) out of Group 1-winning Galileo (IRE) mare Rhododendron (IRE), trainer Aiden O'Brien said, “He's so important to the breed. He brings the best of two continents together and we're so lucky to have him.
“I'm delighted for the owners as they put so much in. John Magnier sent the mare to Japan for this and she was one of the best Galileo mares we ever had.”
Of O'Brien's other contenders Warm Heart (IRE) (Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf-G1) who finished a fine second behind Inspiral (GB) could be on her way to Hong Kong next along with Aesop's Fables (IRE) (Turf Sprint) who finished a fast-finishing third.
Adam West was satisfied with Live In The Dream's (IRE) (Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint-G1) performance. He now sets his sights firmly on a return to California next year for the Breeders' Cup in Del Mar.
“What do you expect me to say? We came here as favorite, we didn't want to be favorite, but we were. I believe in the horse and I think he's shown himself,” West said of the 4-year-old. “This is sprint racing, we got collared in the last 100 yards. I'm pretty sure if the horse had eyeballed a few more, he probably could have done it.
“It's one of those things. I can't wait for him next year. These guys improve from 4 to 5 to 6. We've got Del Mar next year, so we're going to be here and really show them.”
Inspiral showed once again her superstar status. Reflecting on the performance, trainer John Gosden said, “A great day. She's done us proud once again. A wonderful filly who we've been so lucky to be part of her journey.”
Master of The Seas (IRE) (FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile-G1) added to trainer Charlie Appleby's Breeders' Cup tally.
“A brilliant day for the team,” Appleby said. “William Buick and Master of The Seas were exceptional and the horse showed us how good he is. He's got a huge amount of ability and courage.”
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