Ben Linfoot guides you through the European challenge for the Breeders' Cup with profiles on 20 of the runners at Keeneland this weekend.
AESOP’S FABLES (Aidan O’Brien) – Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint
One of Aesop’s Fables, The Swan and the Goose, spawned the saying ‘Every man thinks his own geese are swans’ which brings Aidan O’Brien and his juvenile Group One winners to mind. The latest to be ‘the most exciting ever’ is Auguste Rodin, winner of the Vertem Futurity, but this swan won’t be skidding across the Atlantic for the Breeders’ Cup.
Aesop’s Fables, the horse, might well be, but what is he - goose or swan?
He’s come up short in two cracks at Group 1 level this autumn but he too has been flattered by his maestro trainer, who described him as ‘a big strong colt and beautiful mover’ following his Group 2 Futurity Stakes win at the Curragh in August.
The premature retirement of Blackbeard means there’s a Coolmore-shaped slot in the Juvenile Turf Sprint, but five-and-a-half furlongs looks on the sharp side for this son of No Nay Never who is expected to thrive over a mile next year. Unless this one is more swan than goose, after all.
BAYSIDE BOY (Roger Varian) – Breeders’ Cup Mile
The more you watch Bayside Boy’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes win the more impressive it looks. Yes, it wasn’t the greatest renewal of the race and yes, hot favourite Inspiral was below her best, but to chase down Jadoomi and Modern Games from the position he found himself in suggests he has finally proven himself to be the smart horse he promised to be as a two-year-old.
The obvious catalyst is the blinkers, as he’s two from two since Varian applied the headgear in September, but there’s no doubt he looks a better horse in the autumn, too. A bit of cut in the ground looks vital to him.
Richard Ryan, racing manager for part-owners Teme Valley, has expressed concerns over the tightness of Keeneland’s turns for this horse, but with the QEII being a ‘win and you’re in’ race, Bayside Boy’s expenses are subsidised and he’d be an interesting runner if given the green light - particularly if he was in a position to unleash that turn of foot we saw on Champions Day in the short straight.
MISHRIFF (John & Thady Gosden) – Breeders’ Cup Turf
I’m finding it hard to get too excited about the Breeders’ Cup Turf at this stage. There isn’t a Euro A-lister in there really and when I say that I mean a Derby winner or a King George winner or an Arc winner.
Perhaps that’s unfair on the globetrotting Mishriff who has won a Prix du Jockey Club, a Saudi Cup, a Sheema Classic and a Juddmonte International. But the problem with the current Mishriff is that that York success, in August 2021, was his last, and he’s on a losing streak of seven. An 18-length 13th in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe last time out, the very soft ground won’t have played to his strengths that day and it’s no surprise connections are prepared to roll the international dice one last time at the Breeders’ Cup.
A seven-time winner, a money-spinner, Mishriff has had a fantastic career and, while he might not be A-list on the back of his losing run, he would obviously be a huge player at his best. It’s just a case of whether he can bring his A-game to the table one final time.
MODERN GAMES (Charlie Appleby) – Breeders’ Cup Mile
When Modern Games crosses the Atlantic it goes well. This time last year he won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar by a length-and-a-half from Tiz The Bomb and in September he won the Woodbine Mile by over five lengths in great style.
A somewhat surprising contender for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Champions Day on softer ground than ideal, he ran well in second, overhauling Jadoomi for the runner-up spot on the line. That went some way to proving his versatility conditions-wise, and with winning Breeders’ Cup experience in his locker he’s shown he can handle a tight US track, too.
An out-and-out miler, he’ll be trying to outmuscle the speed horses like Kinross in what promises to be one of the more fascinating turf races at the meeting.
REBEL’S ROMANCE (Charlie Appleby) – Breeders’ Cup Turf
The slightly better fancied horse is Rebel’s Romance, but I wonder if these two will flip-flop in the market as the days count down to the Turf? Rebel’s Romance wouldn’t quite have the level of form of Nation’s Pride, nor the Stateside credentials, but he does look vastly improved since returning from a break at Newmarket at the end of June.
Four from four since then, he’s ‘done an Alpinista’ by picking off a couple of Group 1s in Germany – and look how Sir Mark Prescott’s project turned out. Indeed, Rebel’s Romance came from off the pace to win the Grosser Preis von Berlin and the Preis von Europa – two races this year’s Arc heroine won last year – and Ardakan, a two-length third in the former race, was over seven lengths off Nations Pride at Belmont At The Big A, giving us a bit of Moulton Paddocks collateral form comparison from two races 4000 miles part.
SAFFRON BEACH (Jane Chapple-Hyam) – Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf
Saffron Beach has been a triumph for Jane Chapple-Hyam. The daughter of New Bay has won two Group 1s, finished second on two other occasions at the top level and has run just two poor races in a 13-start career.
She ran a stormer in fourth in the Dubai Turf over nine furlongs at Meydan in March, too, giving hope this extended nine after extensive travelling will be no problem. It would be terrific if she could bow out on a high and, while the Breeders’ Cup is a bit of an afterthought, you can understand connections not wanting to end on a sour note in the Sun Chariot where she was eighth.
There were excuses – she scoped dirty afterwards with mucus on her lungs – but a racecourse gallop at Chelmsford enabled her trainer to give her the green light for one final assignment.
*Saffron Beach has been subsequently ruled out of a trip to Keeneland.
SILVER KNOTT (Charlie Appleby) – Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf
How can you be impartial when you’ve backed one 10 months in advance for the Derby? You can’t. Sorry. Go on Silver Knott you good thing! So yes, cards on the table - he’s my long-term Derby project.
I’ve backed him at 33/1 and *checks Oddschecker* he’s 33/1 for the Derby so things are going just splendidly so far. He burst onto the scene in the Solario Stakes with a decisive win, just like Masar, and now he’s going for the Juvenile Turf, just like Masar.
He’s got a lovely middle-distance pedigree, too, by Lope De Vega out of the G1-winner God Given, so it would be equally lovely if he went and won at the Breeders’ Cup please. And if he doesn’t, well, it would be just like Masar.
THE PLATINUM QUEEN (Richard Fahey) – Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint
“If I was to pick one out that would be suited to America she’d be very high on the agenda,” says Richard Fahey in that video I was banging on about earlier.
Indeed, The Platinum Queen has all the credentials you’d look for in a Juvenile Turf Sprint runner; she’s quick out of the blocks, she goes ‘fast easily’ as her trainer puts it and the bonus is she’s expected to cope just fine with the left-handed turns. Ground-wise she’s versatile having won the Prix de l’Abbaye on very soft ground, while we know she loves it rattling quick, so the question marks are few and far between given her high level of form.
One would be the extra half furlong, which should be neither here nor there, and then there’s the ‘could she be over the top’ question which nobody, including her trainer, can answer until the day itself. Fingers crossed she runs a stormer under Hollie Doyle.
TUESDAY (Aidan O’Brien) – Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf
Last but not least, certainly if you’re in agreement with Matt Brocklebank in his Value Bet preview, is Tuesday. It’s been a largely frustrating season for the daughter of Galileo, Oaks heroics aside, but that Epsom win does give her a verdict over race favourite Nashwa and I fully get the argument for Aidan O’Brien’s filly.
She has shaped like this sort of trip would suit for a good while and I sympathise with her French defeats on account of the draw/how the races were run. A bit better ground will suit her, too, and she could easily finish her three-year-old career just like her full-sister, Minding, who won on Champions Day on her final start at three.
How she deals with adversity would be the main concern in a race like this, as she hasn’t defied awkward draws in the past, so she could be reliant on a nice berth and a dream trip if she is to win her second G1 of the year.
Click here for our Breeders' Cup 2022 index
Other possible European runners:
Lady Hollywood (Alice Haynes), Persian Force (Richard Hannon) - Juvenile Turf Sprint, Basil Martini (Joseph O'Brien), Never Ending Story (Aidan O'Brien) - Juvenile Fillies' Turf, Cairo, Victoria Road (Aidan O'Brien) - Juvenile Turf, Flotus (Simon & Ed Crisford), Go Bears Go (David Loughnane), Naval Crown (Charlie Appleby) - Turf Sprint, Above The Curve, Toy (Aidan O'Brien) - Filly & Mare Turf, Order Of Australia (Aidan O'Brien), Pogo (Charles Hills) - Mile, Broome, Stone Age (Aidan O'Brien) - Turf.
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