Memo from Ryan Moore to personal assistant in charge of correspondence:
“Please add Mr. Victor Espinoza of Sierra Madre, Calif., to the family’s Christmas card list. On second thought, send him a case of Cristal.”
The gesture would be fitting. Moore and his partner, Coolmore’s dual Derby winner Auguste Rodin , arrived at the top of the Santa Anita Park stretch in the $3.68 million Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1T) Nov. 4 after an eventful 10 furlongs, variously described by the colt’s connections with words like “havoc” and “nightmare.”
But then, with a flourish last used by Moses to part the Red Sea, the pace-setting Balladeer cornered wide under Espinoza, and suddenly Moore could see the distant horizon. The rider had been ready to tap the brakes, just in case. Instead, it was full speed ahead for Auguste Rodin, who shot through in the blink of an eye to secure a three-quarter length victory over Up to the Mark at the end of a 1 1/2 miles on firm turf in 2:24.30.
Moore, when asked if he had a Plan B if the hole had not opened, replied, “That was Plan F.” Up in the stands, trainer Aidan O’Brien could only hold his breath until the deed was done.
“I knew when he started to move he’d get there two furlongs too early,” O’Brien said. “It’s an instinct with him now, though he said he didn’t have any other choice. But Ryan, being the man he is, saw it coming. He was calm as ever.”
And the trainer?
“I’m always a wreck,” O’Brien replied.
The Turf may have been an orderly procession of classy Thoroughbreds at the end, but earlier in the race, they looked like orphans scrambling for table scraps.
Auguste Rodin after coming up the rail to hit the lead in the Breeders’ Cup Turf
Broome , who at 7 is old enough to know better, broke last and then was rushed to his job on the pace for Team O’Brien by Dylan McDonagle. Some of that rushing was done across the dirt strip separating the hillside portion of the course from the main oval, and both Auguste Rodin and Up to the Mark were rattled by the chaos.
Things settled down a bit as the clubhouse turn arrived, with Moore setting up shop on the rail and Up to the Mark up ahead, on the outside and comfortably in the clear. Irad Ortiz Jr., aboard Up to the Mark for Todd Pletcher, disposed of Broome around the final turn and indulged Balladeer into the stretch, confident the lead was his whenever he wanted it.
Shahryar gave Japan’s cheering section a thrill by getting up for third, just ahead of the Irish ex-pat Gold Phoenix . The depth of the field was further certified by also-rans King of Steel (fifth), Onesto (sixth), War Like Goddess (seventh), and Mostahdaf (eighth).
O’Brien’s fulsome praise for his jockey had its limits. At one point he pivoted to the real star of the show, noting that Moore “had to have the horse to do what he did.”
Few recent stars of the Coolmore firmament have flickered hot and cold like Auguste Rodin, a 3-year-old son of Deep Impact and the Galileo mare Rhododendron . On one side of the ledger, he can boast classic and top-level wins in the Epsom Derby (G!), Irish Derby (G1), Irish Champion Stakes (G1) and now the Breeders’ Cup Turf. In the other column, sitting like two hecklers at a wedding, are the colt’s failure to fire as the favorite in the English Two Thousand Guineas (G1) at Newmarket (beaten 20 lengths) and the King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1) at Ascot (eased). O’Brien lays off both races because of the deep ground, or because the colt flew from Ireland that morning, or something else that never made itself known, since Auguste Rodin refused to talk.
Auguste Rodin comes back after winning the Breeders’ Cup Turf
“What happened at Ascot was, he started to labor halfway through the race,” O’Brien said. “Ryan decided that rather than staying on with him and giving him a hard race, he took him out of the race so there’d be no mental or physical damage. And the same in the Guineas. So those races aren’t as bad as they look, if you know what I mean.”
For his part, United States-based Up to the Mark could not have run better in noble defeat. After winning grade 1 races this year at 8, 9, and 10 furlongs, the son of Not This Time came agonizingly close to hitting for the cycle. Pletcher refused to second guess the decision to try the Turf instead of the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1T)—won by a horse he just beat, Master of the Seas , in the Turf Mile Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland, and instead pointed out the obvious.
“Take nothing away from the winner, but he gets through inside, and we go around,” Pletcher said. “That was the difference. That’s turf racing.”
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