The year 2022 seems like a pretty long way back, doesn’t it? Yeah. That was the year Rebel’s Romance won his first Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf. This past November, he very nearly won his third.
Only a flying finish from rank outsider Ethical Diamond kept 7-year-old Rebel’s Romance from a Breeders’ Cup three-peat spread over four years. Second in his third Breeders’ Cup Turf, yes, but still an absolutely first-class racehorse who would be a worthy champion.
Such an unusual horse, this incredible gelding, and in so many ways.
Rebel’s Romance, a homebred for Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum’s Godolphin operation, spends a good chunk of every year at trainer Charlie Appleby’s training yard in England, but it is only outside Great Britain that Rebel’s Romance hits his highest mark. He began his career five Octobers ago winning twice over all-weather English tracks, then wintered in Dubai. It’s easy to forget that the gelding, racing on dirt, won the 2021 U.A.E. Derby. That, however, marked his last start at age 3, and after two dismal dirt showings the following winter in Dubai, Rebel’s Romance embarked on the meat of a very long, exceedingly robust career, switching to turf, winning a couple English races of no great consequence, capturing his first Group 1 in Germany, and then getting that first Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland.
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The following year, Rebel’s Romance looked – to be frank – cooked. He finished seventh in the Sheema Classic on the Dubai World Cup undercard. At Saratoga for the Bowling Green that summer he clipped heels and lost his rider. A fourth-place finish a couple months later as the odds-on favorite in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont came with no such ready excuse.
Rebel’s Romance in 2024 was awesome, the best he had ever been, winning Group 1s in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Germany before ringing the Breeders’ Cup Turf bell again at Del Mar. And if the 7-year-old lost something off his fastball in 2025, he still threw heat. Back in America, Rebel’s Romance won the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic by 3 1/2 lengths while scarcely breaking a sweat.
Rebel’s Romance, a behemoth, thrives on large, galloping grass courses – that is, tracks nothing like Del Mar’s tight oval. Doesn’t matter. On any flat track anywhere in the world, Rebel’s Romance can get the job done. He ran his race Nov. 1 in the Breeders’ Cup, no question of that, and in upper stretch, you would have pegged him as the winner.
As the saying goes, Father Time is undefeated. The winner of 20 races around the globe making his 30th start in the twilight of his 7-year-old season, Rebel’s Romance could not quite seal the deal. For goodness sake, don’t hold that against him. What a horse, a truly worthy Eclipse finalist.
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