Reflections on some matters arising from the two-day Keeneland extravaganza
Flightline, of course
How great thou art; yes, sure, very nice, but in a sport laced tight by the necessity for comparison the real sentiment has to be ‘how great art thou?’
We knew before he gutted the Breeders’ Cup Classic like a fish that Flightline was the best horse in the world. He simply, easily, confirmed it, peeling away from his rivals as though he was running loose, eight-and-a-quarter lengths, ‘only’ eight-and-a-quarter lengths geared down from a field stuffed with G1 winners.
Breeders’ Cup Classic: what they said about Flightline’s stunning triumph
The best horse in the world. But there is perforce one of those every year, and Flightlines are not an annual occurrence. So where does he stand? Secretariat, Spectacular Bid, Man o’War, Citation, Frankel, Seattle Slew, all our old friends?
That depends on your age and excitability, but there is no doubt that Flightline stands among them. And ‘among’ is enough.
Comparison is the thief of joy, so it’s been said. So don’t compare. Just revel in the unadulterated joy of having seen Flightline run. His greatness is a gift to us.
Not really a turf war, as such
Europe won six of the seven races on the Keeneland lawn, including all the juvenile events, and in many cases there were better horses back at home in merrie olde England/Ireland.
In the Turf, five of the first six were British or Irish – runner-up Stone Age and sixth-placed Broome are not top-tier horses in Europe, and neither the winner Rebel’s Romance or fifth Nations Pride are among the very best at Charlie Appleby’s yard. Only the marvellous War Like Goddess could make any impact for the locals, and she may not be around next year.
The turf scene in the US is becoming moribund, populated by ex-Europeans who couldn’t make the grade over there, and the results of the two-year-old races indicate that there’s nothing much coming through to halt this worrying decline. Next year’s Turf Triples, Sword Dancer, Man o’War and all the others would go for export if the Europeans were even half-interested in competing.
Romance is dead
The Breeders’ Cup is supposed to be the best of the best being the best, because that’s what championships are for. But this year’s jamboree may have been the most exclusive ever.
Three wins for Charlie Appleby and Aidan O’Brien. Two for Todd Pletcher and Bill Mott. One for Chad Brown, John Sadler, Mark Casse and Brad Cox. Then there’s Irad Ortiz (3), Ryan Moore (3), William Buick (2), Tyler Gaffalione (2), Flavien Prat, John Velazquez, Junior Alvarado, James Doyle.
Four for the Godolphin empire, three for the Coolmore empire, one for Shadwell, one for Qatar Racing, one for Juddmonte, one for mighty Mike Repole. In Wonder Wheel and Goodnight Olive there were nods to a different world, but both those ownership groups had won before at the Breeders’ Cup.
Maybe there’s no room any more for the trainer with eight horses, the jockey with two graded stakes lifetime, the owner who got lucky after years of going home empty-handed. If so, our loss.
An empire strikes back
That said, it was nevertheless a welcome return to form at the Breeders’ Cup for Aidan O’Brien, who was in danger of being seriously overshadowed in European terms by Charlie Appleby. With only longshot 2020 Mile winner Order Of Australia in the profit column in the previous four Cups, O’Brien was visibly struggling, but a more focused approach to the situation paid rich dividends for the Ballydoyle behemoth.
O’Brien saddled just one runner in each of the Juvenile Turf and Juvenile Fillies Turf and both bullets – Victoria Road and Meditate, his first winner in a fillies’ race at any Breeders’ Cup, for Found won against males – hit the bullseye, a strike-rate improved by the victory of Tuesday in the Filly & Mare Turf.
Turf runner-up Stone Age lent further weight to the revival, O’Brien going three-for-seven over the weekend and back where he belongs at the greatest show on earth. Ryan Moore was in pretty good form as well.
Death and taxes
We shouldn’t have needed reminding, but the message came through anyway. Five winning favourites in 14 races, Cave Rock and Jackie’s Warrior beaten at odds-on. Horses we built up over the spring, summer and fall as surefire certainties leaving the party with hooves of clay (not you, Flightline). Next year we’ll do exactly the same thing. Optimism is an unkickable drug.
Vetting the process
Hot Peppers, Laurel River, Bran and Informative were all scratched from their races by order of regulatory veterinarians. Welfare is paramount, naturally, but there needs to be greater transparency from the veterinarians involved as to why and to what purpose horses are denied their chance at the Breeders’ Cup. Most likely everyone would concur with the official opinion, but without it the whole process takes on rather an arbitrary nature.
“He’s never had no problems,” Uriah St. Lewis, trainer of Informative, told the Daily Racing Form. “He still has no problems. It’s just an unfortunate situation. You can’t fight them, because you can’t win.”
Laurel River’s trainer Bob Baffert was of similar mind. “He looked healthy to us, and he was moving well,” he told DRF. “They said they didn’t like something about him. They scratched him, and there’s no arguing with them.”
Accidents will always happen, as Domestic Spending and Epicenter demonstrated. But there shouldn’t be bodies you can’t fight, and can’t argue with. That isn’t right.
Blood will out
Lasix is banned at the Breeders’ Cup but it nevertheless reared its ugly head, this time in the breach rather than the observance. Lasix is legal in Iowa and the tearaway Tyler’s Tribe had run up a Flightline-esque series of success there before coming for the Juvenile Turf Sprint, in which he bled, was eased right down and vanned off the track. This was one of the pre-race fairytale angles, but if he so obviously can’t run without Lasix, should he be allowed to run at all?
The situation also applied to Rougir, whose form was regressing before she ran with Lasix at Woodbine and won the G1 EP Taylor. In the Filly & Mare Turf, off Lasix, she made no show whatsoever. The debate over Lasix will continue; banning it here and there does nothing to disguise the underlying issues with furosemide use.
California not uber alles
The Golden State was iron pyrites at the Breeders’ Cup, with Juvenile favourite Cave Rock the most obvious signifier of malaise out on the west coast. The sport in California is not as strong as it once was, the pool is much shallower and the fish not as big (not you, Flightline, the exceptional proves the rule). Bob Baffert’s ban from Churchill Downs and the NYRA tracks exacerbates the situation; is California in danger of becoming a backwater of the sport in the US?
Do we need a Dirt Mile?
One of the expansion races of 2007, the Dirt Mile almost always fails to fill and tends to cater for horses who could just as easily run elsewhere at the meeting. Runner-up Cyberknife could have gone to the Classic and Gunite and Pipeline might have been better in the Sprint; although the prevailing trend is for every boy to get a prize, there seems little purpose to the Dirt Mile, the Cup’s snowflake race.
Mind you, the heartwarming story surrounding the winner Cody’s Wish and his uncanny bond with teenager Cody Dorman, who suffers bravely with a rare genetic disorder, lifted this year’s race and specifically the outcome high above any disaffection with the situation.
Horses for courses
Take the Europeans out of the equation, and four of the remaining eight Breeders’ Cup winners – Wonder Wheel, Forte, Caravel and Malathaat – came off a winning prep at Keeneland. It’s too late now, of course, and Santa Anita is unlikely to offer the same possibilities next year, but it might be worth remembering the next time the circus comes back to Keeneland. We’ll forget, won’t we? Sure we will.
The waiting is the hardest part
Does there really need to be an hour’s gap between the Turf and the Classic? Maybe there’s a broadcast requirement for advertising, squeeze a few more dollars into the pot, but even with the anticipation of seeing the greatest horse in the world/ever (see above) on display that hour dragged. 45 minutes between races is plenty.
Nostalgia’s star shines
It doesn’t happen every year – it couldn’t, really – but once in a while the Breeders’ Cup serves up a race that will stick in the mind when most other things have been forgotten. Think the 1987 Classic, the 1988 Distaff, the 1989 Classic – God, weren’t the 1980s great? – Tiznow I and II, the 2003 Turf, all depending upon when your reserves of wonder were replaced by ennui.
Put alongside them the 2022 Distaff, with Malathaat, Blue Stripe and Clairiere separated by two noses in the most thrilling finish imaginable. Sometimes wonder can still win out over ennui – by a nose.
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