This year's Breeders' Cup revealed itself as a microcosm of the current state of North American racing: An inability to dodge off-track dysfunction (Friday) paired with sensational on-track action (Saturday).
Luckily, the corking performances unleashed over the course of the two-day thrill show were emphatic enough to spark more than a few exhilarating expectations for 2022.
That will make it a touch easier to endure an entire winter of wincing at the oft-repeated social media meme “for purse money only” while simultaneously wondering if the presumed juvenile champ will even be allowed to compete in next year's GI Kentucky Derby.
Other topical industry subplots also surfaced over the course of the 14-stakes lineup at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. Among them were the continued globalization of high-end racing, the phasing-out of Lasix, and recently reformed whip rules.
The first of those three was a welcome development, with two horses bred and campaigned by Japanese connections breaking through in the world championships for the first time.
The latter two regulatory transitions proved only to be bit players in the overall performance, with neither triggering the levels of harm and alarm that have long been prognosticated by opponents of change.
And how's this for a masterful culmination of a season-long story arc? It took until the final furlong of the 1 1/4-miles GI Classic to answer the two burning handicapping questions that had percolated all year: Could Knicks Go (Paynter) really win a Grade I race beyond nine furlongs? And could his chief tactical weapon of flat-out speed stand up to a pace-centric younger cast of challengers that included the 1-3-4 finishers from the Derby six months ago?
The answers were yes and yes–although the high-torque gray did appear to be cracking under pressure while drifting out three-sixteenths of a mile from the wire with Medina Spirit (Protonico), 'TDN Rising Star' Essential Quality (Tapit) and Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) all bearing down relentlessly.
Yet Knicks Go somehow managed to kick again, reaching for and finding an overdrive gear that none of his foes could match. It translated into a 112 Beyer Speed Figure and the certainty of Horse of the Year honors. The Maryland-bred has now competed in three Breeders' Cups, wiring both the '21 Classic and '20 GI Dirt Mile by open lengths, and finishing second at 40-1 in the '18 GI Juvenile.
The only regret lingering after the Classic came in the form of a “What if?” bit of speculation: Wouldn't you have loved to see 'TDN Rising Star' Life Is Good (Into Mischief) slugging it out on the front end with Knicks Go over 10 furlongs after witnessing the odds-on dismantling that Life Is Good unleashed upon the Dirt Mile field earlier in the afternoon? That win, earned under the duress of blitzing splits, rated as the most dominant victory of this year's championships.
A sophomore did manage to turn the tables against elders in the GI Turf, with Yibir (GB) rallying with gusto from 13th to score by half a length. The victory marked the third Breeders' Cup winner of the weekend for the team of owner/breeder Godolphin, trainer Charlie Appleby, jockey William Buick, and the sire Dubawi. Those same connections all partnered to bring home Space Blues (Ire) in the GI Mile and Modern Games (Ire) in the GI Juvenile Turf.
Yibir has now won four of five stakes since being gelded May 27, which also means there's no risk of this tour-de-force deep stayer being whisked off to stud duty for '22.
The truly global aspect of the Breeders' Cup will now be accentuated a bit more meaningfully thanks to the landmark twin scores by Japanese connections on Saturday. The 4-1 Loves Only You (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) stormed home with an inside surge to win the GI Filly and Mare Turf. The mare who was essentially her travelling companion, the 45-1 Marche Lorraine (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}), got her nose down first in the pace meltdown known as this year's GI Distaff.
Both Japanese victresses were bred by Northern Farm and were trained for separate owners by Yoshito Yahagi. On a larger scale, those two wins represent several decades worth of continued effort by Japanese interests to make an impact in top-tier North American racing. Northern Farm and Godolphin were the only two breeders at this year's Cup to be represented by more than one winner.
Six Breeders' Cup races were decided by a length or less. But the nod for tightest finish goes to Aloha West (Hard Spun), who gamely nailed Dr. Schivel (Violence) by a nostril in the GI Sprint.
As for the most sublime winning ride, that would be Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) looking hopelessly adrift in 14th turning for home before Jose Ortiz seamlessly sliced and diced through traffic to snatch a half-length victory from the jaws of defeat in the GI Juvenile Fillies Turf.
Trainer Wesley Ward supplied the winners of the two grass dashes, with the 'TDN Rising Star' filly Twilight Gleaming (Ire) (National Defense {GB}) besting mixed company in the GII Juvenile Sprint. Stablemate Golden Pal (Uncle Mo), who won the '20 Juvenile Sprint, delivered a lesson in equine propulsion straight from the gate to make every call a winning one in the GI Turf Sprint.
The Juvenile Turf Sprint also provided the only penalty related to California's recently enacted strict whipping standards. Jockey E. T. Baird, who rode ninth-place finisher One Timer (Trappe Shot), was fined $5,000 on Sunday morning for using his riding crop more than six times in the race.
But if overzealous use of the whip was a relative non-issue, so too was the first Breeders' Cup prohibition of Lasix in all races.
In last year's championships, only the juvenile races were mandated Lasix-free. The older Breeders' Cup horses were allowed Lasix, and European-based trainees swept all four of the '20 Saturday grass stakes with first-time-Lasix (FTL) users.
Three of those four FTL winners were back to defend their titles at Del Mar. Running without Lasix, Glass Slippers (GB) (Dream Ahead) was eighth in the Turf Sprint. Audarya (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) ran fifth in the Filly and Mare Turf. Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal) finished 11th as the beaten favorite in the Turf. They are now a collective 1-for-13 since winning their respective Breeders' Cup races on Lasix.
Declining field sizes are a problem at all levels of North American racing, and this year the Breeders' Cup was no exception.
Only six could be lured into the GI Juvenile Fillies, with five of them eating the dust of Echo Zulu (Gun Runner).
Just five faced the starter in the GI Filly and Mare Sprint, won in off-the-pace fashion by Ce Ce (Elusive Quality).
But the true dysfunction alluded to at the top of this article concerns Friday's featured 2-year-old Breeders' Cup races for males.
'TDN Rising Star' Corniche (Quality Road) benefitted from the vet scratch of morning-line favorite and fellow 'Rising Star' Jack Christopher (Munnings) earlier in the week, plus being able to outbreak the field from post 11 to remain undefeated at 3-for-3 in the Juvenile.
The Bob Baffert-trained bay is now the presumptive 2-year-old champion, and under normal circumstances he'd be the early and enthusiastic favorite to win the Kentucky Derby.
But unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past six months, you know that Baffert has been barred by Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), from competing at its corporate collection of racetracks for the next two years over his repeated equine drug violations and a pending possible penalty for a betamethasone overage in the '21 Derby with Medina Spirit.
Horses trained by Baffert aren't allowed to accrue points in the Road to the Derby qualifying series, setting up an array of distracting outcomes that range from Corniche being transferred to another trainer and/or Baffert and CDI engaging in a high-stakes game of “chicken” that could involve litigation as the Derby draws nearer.
The name Corniche means a road cut into edge of cliff, and it's disquietingly appropriate as the crop's top colt awaits a dicey Derby fate that has absolutely nothing to do with his talent or ability.
And then, of course, there was the fiasco about Modern Games (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) having to race for purse money only in the Juvenile Turf because of a series of miscommunications that played out over an excruciating 12-minute span that involved the Del Mar stewards, the veterinary team at the gate, and the track's mutuels department.
You can read the full-blown explanation here for all of the cringe-worthy details regarding Modern Games twice being removed from the wagering pools. The error was costly in terms of lost betting handle, customer ill will, needless confusion, and the erosion of confidence in the officials responsible for overseeing and regulating the Breeders' Cup races at Del Mar.
On-track patrons let loose a chorus of boos as Modern Games crossed the finish wire first, but rest assured no one was deriding the horse.
And if you think that was a bad optic, just imagine the predicament the sport would have been in had the Del Mar stewards scratched/unscratched Modern Games and the colt ended up suffering an injury during the running of the race
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