O’Blarney now 0-18 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. A trial ‘race’ around the Southwell kitty litter is not a real prep for a proper race on dirt in America. Next time perhaps he should send his horse over to the USA to run in one of their actual races (Charlie Appleby does it all the time). Ironic that the winner, Sierra Leone, is owned by a syndicate including ‘the boys’ and running in the pink silks. The numbers before the race said that City Of Troy was not the best horse that Aidan has ever had even though he theoretically had 6lb in hand of the second best in the race (Forever Young). The race was over before he had gone fifty yards. The furious pace at the front end eventually did for my Japanese runner, who ended up favourite with the local bookies; and that was probably what did for Fierceness who still looked to be going well enough when he took the lead on the home turn. In the Breeders’ Cup Mile, Notable Speech was beaten by a horse than was second last at the home turn, More Than Looks, who came with a wet sail in the last furlong to mow down Johannes and Notable Speech near the line. Porta Fortuna was last at the home turn and only beat the pacesetter Goliad home having spent most of the race alongside Notable Speech in mid division. Many of the races at this year’s Breeders’ Cup were typified by the horses up front going too hard and folding in the home straight. In the Sprint, Cogburn was quick out the gate and three lengths clear on the home turn but then tied up in the last hundred yards to be totally run out of the places. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but perhaps I should have had a little each way on Starlust as he was massively overpriced for a horse with an official rating only 1lb below Bradsell and 3lb below Big Evs. A nice pay day for Rossa Ryan to end what has been a memorable season for the young man.
I did this in US dollars as that seemed the easy way. The problem was that I could not find how much Winx won in anything but Australian dollars (Aus$26,421,176) but she did take 33 races to accumulate it. Just for context, Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sierra Leone has $6,008,000 earnings according to Equibase from his four career wins – most of that earned on Saturday. I figured that if you want to be making big money then the place to be racing is Japan. According to Equibase, Deep Impact made $12,825,285 (12 career wins); Equinox made $15,930,077 (8 wins) and Orfevre picked up $19,005,276 (12 wins) – but I bet Orfevre made a fair bit from that Arc second. According to the Godolphin website, Rebel’s Romance has earned $11,828,728 for his 14 career wins. According to Equibase, Enable took home $14,062,824 for her 15 career wins, including two Arcs. Thunder Snow picked up $16,511,476 for just 8 wins but two of them were Dubai World Cups. Other than Orfevre, the highest I could find was Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Arrogate with purses adding up to $17,422,600 from 7 wins.
No doubt he should have won the 2012 Arc. I was there, as I had been when he had sluiced up over course and distance in the Prix Foy. I think what really did him in was the heavy overnight rain and the outside draw. It really was proper soft ground that day and he just emptied in the last furlong. Everyone remembers him colliding with the running rail as he hung right. He was Japan’s best horse at the time, their 2011 Triple Crown winner, and came back again in 2013 but was beaten out of sight by brilliant three year old filly Treve – that Frankie should have been riding. So still the wait for a Japanese winner goes on...
