The 14th and final race Breeders’ Cup race at Del Mar next weekend is the $2 million Filly and Mare Turf with a post time of 5:25 p.m. Pacific on Saturday, Nov. 1.
In Britain, the race will start at 1:25 a.m. on Sunday, very late but as good of an excuse as any for owner and breeder Jeff Smith to be awake.
Smith races See The Fire, a two-time group stakes winner who has been second or third in five Group 1 races in Britain and France in the last two years.
“I’ll be up,” Smith said in a phone interview on Thursday.
Trained by Andrew Balding, See The Fire rates as a leading European contender in the Filly and Mare Turf despite going winless in her last four starts. From Smith’s perspective, See The Fire is overdue to claim a Group 1 prize.
See The Fire won the Group 2 Middleton Fillies’ Stakes by 12 lengths at 1 5/16 miles at York Racecourse in May in her first start of 2025. In early summer, See The Fire was third in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes against males at Royal Ascot in June, and a third in the Group 1 Nassau Stakes against fillies and mares at Goodwood Racecourse in July.
After finishing fourth in the Group 1 Juddmonte International at York in August, See The Fire was second by a neck in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera on soft turf at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris on Oct. 5.
The narrow loss at Longchamp convinced Smith and Balding to send See The Fire to California.
“She was very unlucky,” Smith said. “It rained on the day of the race and the night before. I think she would have won if it hadn’t rained.”
The situation was similar in the Nassau. The track sustained so much rain that the starting gate could not be used. The five runners began with a flag-fall start on heavy turf. See The Fire was away slowly and was beaten 6 1/4 lengths by Whirl, who led throughout and won by five lengths.
“We targeted the Nassau,” Smith said.
Smith described the rain at Goodwood on the day of the Nassau as “torrential rain, really biblical rain,” he said.
“It changed from firm ground to heavy ground in a matter of about of an hour. She lost five lengths at the start and she got stuck in the mud.”
See The Fire will get firm turf for the BC Filly and Mare Turf. A winner of 3 of 16 starts with earnings of $1,171,881, See the Fire rates as a top contender along with the New York-based She Feels Pretty and the European shippers Cinderella’s Dream and Gezora.
Oisin Murphy, the leading rider in Britain this year for the fifth time in his career, has the mount.
“She should run well extremely well,” Smith said. “The Europeans have a good record in the race.
“She does appreciate fast ground which is why we thought California would come up with the goods.”
Smith, the former chairman of an airplane parts company, has owned horses for more than 40 years.
See The Fire is Smith’s first Breeders’ Cup runner since Lochsong finished last of 14 in the Sprint on dirt at Churchill Downs in 1994. At the time, the Breeders’ Cup did not have the Turf Sprint, a race first run in 2008. Lochsong, Europe’s Horse of the Year in 1993, won 15 of 26 starts on turf, all in sprints.
Smith also owned the immensely-popular Persian Punch, a marathon specialist who won 20 of 63 starts, including 14 stakes. He was twice named Europe’s champion stayer and was third in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup in Australia in 1998 and 2001. Persian Punch died at the age of 11 after collapsing in a stakes at Ascot. His passing made national television news in Britain.
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A commemorative bronze statue of Persian Punch is situated near the walking ring at Newmarket Racecourse.
See The Fire has been Smith’s leading runner this year. Her 7-year-old half-brother, Spirit Mixer, won the 20-runner Northumberland Plate in a 25-1 upset at Newcastle Racecourse in June.
See The Fire, by Sea the Stars, and Spirit Mixer, by Frankel, are out of Arabian Queen, the winner of the 2015 Juddmonte International in a 50-1 upset over Golden Horn, who was second by a neck. Golden Horn won the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe later that year and was second by a half-length as the 4-5 favorite in the BC Turf at Keeneland.
Arabian Queen, 12, was not bred earlier this year, and is scheduled to be bred to Sea the Stars in 2026, Smith said.
After the Filly and Mare Turf, See The Fire will return to Britain and will race as a 5-year-old in 2026 “without a doubt,” Smith.
“We think we were very unlucky” this year, he said. “She takes her racing well. She seems to thoroughly enjoy it.”
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