DEL MAR, Calif. – The all-time leading trainer at the Breeders’ Cup, the most important assemblage of Thoroughbred races in North America, is a man from Ireland.
Gstaad, an excellent horse getting a fantastic ride from Christophe Soumillon, overcame a bad post position, a hesitant start, a wide trip and 13 rivals to win the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Friday at Del Mar. That made 21 Breeders’ Cup winners for Aidan O’Brien, one more than the late Wayne Lukas.
True, with the Coolmore operation behind him, a global racing and breeding powerhouse, O’Brien has depth and breadth of young equine talent other trainers can only dream about, a pipeline into his training yard, Ballydoyle, that never runs dry. Year by year, horse by horse, granular detail after granular detail, he has made the most of it. Soumillon after booting home his second Breeders’ Cup winner, his first since 2005, called O’Brien the best ever to ply his trade.
“It was the first time for me at Ballydoyle a few weeks ago and I was really amazed when I saw it. I’ve been in Japan, Hong Kong, many big stables all over the world, but I’ve never seen something like that,” he said.
Soumillon only got this chance because the world’s best rider, Ryan Moore, who works hand in glove with O’Brien, suffered a stress fracture in his leg earlier this fall. O’Brien tabbed Soumillon to fill the void until Moore returns early next year.
Soumillon, 44, has won more than his fair share of major races, twice piloting the winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. He missed out on two winning Breeders’ Cup mounts in 2020 at Keeneland – one for O’Brien – after testing positive for COVID-19. He nearly won another Arc several weeks ago on the O’Brien-trained Minnie Hauk and came to Del Mar for the first time riding the coattails of a man who already had captured the Juvenile Turf seven times and made it four in a row on Friday.
“It’s coming late for me, but I’m enjoying it like I was 20,” Soumillon said. “I couldn’t dream of it a few weeks and months ago.”
Funny thing – the day started off quite poorly for Soumillon and O’Brien, whose son, Donnacha, won the Juvenile Fillies Turf with Balantina. About 8:30 Pacific this morning the news dropped that Precise, who would have been an odds-on favorite in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, had coughed several times and was out of the race. Then, in the Juvenile Turf Sprint, Soumillon had a very live mount, Brussels, who missed the break from post 1, nearly overcoming his tough luck and finishing furiously for second.
Gstaad, second in three Group 1 starts since easily capturing the Group 2 Coventry at Royal Ascot in June, went off at odds of 6-5, but absolutely nothing was assured with the colt breaking from post 14. Even Moore probably could not have worked out a better trip under the circumstances, and that after Gstaad hesitated at the break, further complicating Soumillon’s position.
“I was happy to see in a few strides I was able to kick in there and get closer on the pace,” said Soumillon, who slid into a spot about 2 1/2 paths from the fence. “On the first corner I felt the pace was quite strong, so I didn’t want to over-go, and when I get into the back-straight I was hoping to be able to find a better position, so I ask him to go forward. He was traveling so easy, I was cruising the whole time.”
Soumillon probably won the race with that backstretch move. It began not long after coming off the turn, Gstaad easing forward. Soumillon asked for a bit more at about the five-furlong marker and Gstaad jumped into the bit, sharply getting into a much better position before the turn, but also switching off when Soumillon asked him to relax and wait.
Still wide on the far turn, but not perilously so and running with a bit of cover, Soumillon turned for home with a ton of horse beneath him. By the sixteenth pole Gstaad had surged to the front, briefly looking like a runaway winner before 58-1 shot Stark Contrast made a strong inside move to narrow the winning margin to three-quarters of a length, though Gstaad was not all out.
“When I asked him to quicken, he changed his leads really easily, and I won hands and heels,” Soumillon said.
Praise the winning favorite, who paid $4.40, but also acknowledge that Stark Contrast could have made things very interesting with a better trip. Sitting fourth in the early stages as Outfielder, pressed by Hey Nay Nay, set splits of 22.60 46.52, Stark Contrast wound up on the rail around the far turn while travelling well, awaiting his cue.
Jockey Kazushi Kimura with a quarter-mile remaining left the fence and tried to get outside the leaders, but Street Beast held him in. Ready to make his run but forced to wait behind Hey Nay Nay as Outfielder faded, Kimura first attempted to squeeze between Hey Nay Nay and Street Beast, found his path blocked, eventually diving back to the inside and closing good ground on the winner before galloping out well in front.
“His first couple races he kind of lost his composure a little bit in the paddock, and today he was exemplary,” trainer Michael McCarthy said. “The winner got the jump on him. He ran a bang-up race.”
North Coast, trained by another O’Brien son, Joseph, got a good trip from the rear third of the field, saving ground around the far turn but finding room to get outside and into the clear to make his run. He latched onto Gstaad’s tail at the head of the homestretch but lacked the winner’s turn of foot, coming home solidly to finish 2 1/4 lengths behind Stark Contrast. North Coast raced in the silks of American owner Gary Barber but will return to Ireland for his 3-year-old campaign.
Street Beast held admirably for fourth, while Heeere’s Johhny ran best among the three horses who came out of the Pilgrim Stakes, making a sustained eye-catching move from last to get up for fifth. Then came Turf Star, Ardisia, Argos, Bottas, Hey Nay Nay, Let’s Be Frank, Third Beer, Gordon Pass, and Outfielder. Gstaad was timed in 1:34.93 for the mile on firm going and earned an 88 Beyer Speed Figure.
Gstaad is by the Coolmore stallion Starspangledbanner and out of the Exceed and Excel mare, Mosa Mine. He was bred by the Maywood Stud of Kelly Thomas, a small Welsh farm with only a handful of broodmares. Gstaad’s brother is the crack sprinter Vandeek.
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Some, in fact, wondered if Gstaad truly wanted one mile. He started his season early for a 2-year-old, May 17, and his big win, in the Coventry, came at six furlongs, He was second over the same trip in the Group 1 Prix Morny, second going seven furlongs in the Group 1 National, and second again in the seven-furlong, Group 1 Dewhurst after failing to settle in the early stages and falling short of a longshot winner he chased home through an uphill finish. Friday, Gstaad had his head fully in the game, a perfect partner to his jockey.
“He is a very special horse,” O’Brien said. “He’s big and powerful. Obviously, we thought he would have won a couple Group 1s at this stage. Things just didn’t work out – little things went against him. It’s a testament to him he kept himself well, kept himself thriving and doing.”
O’Brien had his first Breeders’ Cup runner in 1998, his first winner with Johannesburg in the 2001 Juvenile. In 2000, he made a bid for Classic glory with Giant’s Causeway, and O’Brien said it was Lukas, on top of the sport at the time, who showed him the ropes.
“We knew nothing about American racing,” O’Brien said.
Lukas talked to O’Brien about shoeing dirt horses, even ponied Giant’s Causeway out to the track to train. Friday, O’Brien broke Lukas’s Breeders Cup mark. He and Soumillon have runners in three Saturday races. You’d have to like their chances of winning another one.
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