Putting an exclamation mark on a near sweep by Irish-breds in the seven Grade 1 Breeders' Cup world championship races over the Keeneland grass course, Godolphin homebred Rebel's Romance swung wide into the stretch and unleashed a powerful stretch kick under James Doyle to win Saturday's $4-million Longines Turf in Lexington, Ky.
It was the second consecutive Turf win for the Godolphin-Charles Appleby team following Yibir's victory in the 2021 running at Del Mar. It also continued the trainer's hot hand in the Breeders' Cup: Appleby won Friday's Juvenile Turf Sprint with Mischief Magic and earlier on Saturday's program won the Mile with Modern Games. All of the wins were for Godolphin, which also won the G1 Dirt Mile with Bill Mott-trained Cody's Wish.
Appleby now has a Breeders' Cup record of nine wins from 20 starts.
Three of the other grass races in the two-day Breeders' Cup were won by Aidan O'Brien: the Juvenile Fillies Turf with Meditate and the Juvenile Turf with Victoria Road on Friday and the Filly & Mare Turf on Saturday with a horse named Tuesday.
All six were Irish-breds. The other Breeders' Cup grass race, the Turf Sprint, was won by the Brad Cox-trained Caravel, a Pennsylvania-bred.
Rebel's Romance covered 1 1/2 miles on firm turf in 2:26.35. A 4-year-old gelding by Dubawi, he paid $13.92 for a $2 win wager.
Stone Age, another Irish-bred trained by O'Brien, finished second, beaten 2 1/4 lengths. War Like Goddess, an English Channel mare trained by Mott and favored for much of the wagering, was another three-quarters of a length back in third. Mishriff fourth and Godolphin/Appleby's Nations Pride, the 5-2 favorite, was fifth. The order of finish was completed by Broome, Channel Maker, Master Piece, Bye Bye Melvin, Gold Phoenix, Red Knight, Highland Chief, and Nautilus.
Bye Bye Melvin, as expected, set the pace under Feargal Lynch, going :24.91 for the opening quarter mile, :49.42 for the half and 1:14.15 for six furlongs in the race that began on Keeneland's backstretch and went 1 1/2 times around the course. He was tracked by 8-year-old Channel Maker, who was making his sixth appearance in a Breeders' Cup race dating back to 2016 when he participated in the Juvenile Turf.
Bye Bye Melvin raced past the mile marker in 1:38.92 while Doyle, aboard Rebel's Romance, waited patiently well behind in 10th position in the run down the backstretch. Rebel's Romance commenced his move on the final turn and was swung out eight or nine wide at the top of the stretch.
Channel Maker momentarily hit the front as Bye Bye Melvin began to retreat when the field straightened away with less than a quarter mile to run, but Stone Age had began his move and War Like Goddess also began to surge toward the leaders after waiting for racing room. But Rebel's Romance had all the momentum, hitting the front at the furlong pole and drawing away for the victory.
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Support our journalism while accessing bonus behind-the-scenes content, Q&As, and more. Subscribe to our Patreon stream.“It was a tremendous performance,” said Doyle. “Being back on fast ground suited him. He can be a quirky horse in the preliminaries, but he was good today. He was very relaxed and having the pony helped. The guys who look after him obviously, Charlie but also Rob Fitzpatrick who rides him out every day have once again done a great job. It's a great result to have a winner here as obviously my sister Sophie has been based out here as a jockey for a while now and I've let her down before at this meeting but I hope she's proud.”
The win was the ninth from 12 starts for Rebel's Romance, who was produced from the Street Cry mare Minidress. His two wins leading up to the Breeders' Cup came in Group 1 races in Germany, in the Grosser Preis von Berlin in August and the Preis von Europa in September. As a 3-year-old in 2021, Rebel's Romance won the G2 UAE Derby on dirt at Meydan in Dubai by 5 1/4 lengths.
“I am delighted to finish the meeting off with a winner,” said Appleby. “From the whole team's point of view, it's great to have James get first Breeders' Cup win and I'm delighted for him. Over the moon for him. It's been a great meeting. The horse has turned himself around, to be fair. You may think it was the switch to the turf, but I watched him train on the dirt here and I almost wished I was running him on the dirt here. Physically, you can just see that time has helped him. I don't want to repeat myself too much, but it's another son of Dubawi—what more can I say. I'm privileged to be associated with them.”
Of the others, Mott was pleased with the effort by War Like Goddess, who was facing males for the second consecutive race, having won the G1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic in October at the Belmont at the Big A meet at Aqueduct.
“She ran good,” said Mott. “He (jockey Joel Rosario) had to wait a while to produce her. He was in the stretch before he got to let her run. If he could have let her run maybe a little bit around the turn it might have been helpful, but she ran well. Take nothing away from her. I would have liked to see her start her run just a tick earlier. She saved a lot of ground but she had to wait a little bit. When you are on the inside, that's what happens.”
John Gosden, trainer of Mishriff, called the 5-year-old “an extraordinary horse. Throughout the lockdown years, he was winning French Derbies and Saudi Cups and then he's won the Juddmonte International. His best distance is a mile and a quarter – that (12 furlongs) stretched him today – particularly going three- or four-wide. I tried to sharpen him with the blinkers, but it didn't make any difference. Still, he's a lovely horse and done nothing, but be consistent in his career.”
Hugh Anderson, managing director for Godolphin in the UK and Dubai, tried to put Appleby's success at the Breeders' Cup into perspective: “It's actually quite difficult to find words,” he said. “It's exceeded our wildest expectations. It's just a simple reality that Charlie has a brilliant track record at this meeting and he plans it a long way out. He is absolutely brought it home in spades. I'm so pleased for him. You also have to love the Cody's Wish win—it couldn't have been a better two days for Godolphin and I'm delighted for the whole team. He's turned Rebel's Romance around immensely and done an exceptional job with him.”
REPLAY: Rebel's Romance wins the $4 Million @LonginesEq #BreedersCup Turf! Congrats to all connections! #BC22 pic.twitter.com/qIYRHvWCCh
— Breeders' Cup (@BreedersCup) November 5, 2022
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