Trainer Larry Rivelli and owner Vince Foglia are longtime friends who raced horses in Chicago for years. As Arlington Park was winding down to its closure in 2021, they looked for a horse who might do well in the Arlington-Washington Futurity. Foglia bought Nobals , who not only won the final Futurity for them, but he has become a Breeders’ Cup winner, capturing the Turf Sprint (G1T) at Santa Anita.
“That was our race, the home town,” Rivelli said. “We bought him to try to win that race.”
They got so much more than that. Since the 2021 Futurity and prior to the Breeders’ Cup, Nobals had won seven more races, six of them stakes, and racked up earnings of almost $1 million. He also put together a good enough resume as a turf sprinter that Rivelli and Foglia decided to take a shot at the Breeders’ Cup.
Jockey Gerardo Corrales and trainer Larry Rivelli at the post-race press conference
“When I saw the nominations, I thought you could throw a blanket over the whole field as far as who was better than one another,” Rivelli said.
When the gate opened in the five-furlong Turf Sprint, European runner Live In The Dream zipped to the lead and set brisk fractions of :21.15 for a quarter-mile and :43.77 for a half-mile. Nobals broke ninth of 12 for jockey Gerardo Corrales and ran in midpack early.
“Our plan was to be a little closer—didn’t work out; they were gone,” Rivelli said. “He ended up working out a trip and we held on.”
After Nobals took a bump from the outside, Corrales moved him to the inside and saved ground around the turn. They came through on the rail to take the lead. Big Invasion , who was in tight early, got clear late to make a huge rally. But Nobals held him off to win by a neck in :55.15. Aesop’s Fables closed for third, and Live In The Dream held on for fourth.
Nobals with Gerardo Corrales after winning the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint
Foglia, who races in the name of Patricia’s Hope LLC, named after his mother, was unable to attend the Breeders’ Cup. He purchased Nobals privately after the gelding won his first start, a five-furlong maiden race on Presque Isle Downs‘ all-weather track. Nobals had won the race by four lengths for owner/trainer Leland Hayes. In the Arlington-Washington Futurity, Nobals’ first start for Foglia and Rivelli, he scored by 4 1/4 lengths as the 4-1 second choice. He became a millionaire in the Breeders’ Cup, with earnings of $1,037,225.
Dr. John Chandler bred Nobals in Kentucky from his winning homebred Empire Maker mare Pearly Blue , a daughter of Chandler homebred graded stakes winner Western Ransom . Chandler consigned Nobals to the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale in the name of Mill Ridge Sales, selling him for $3,500 to Eat n Cheese. This year the mare has also been represented by stakes-placed My First Pearl .
Nobals is a son of Noble Mission , a full brother to European leading sire Frankel . An earner of more than $2.2 million, Noble Mission was a three-time group 1 winner in three different countries—his native Great Britain, Ireland, and France. He entered stud in 2015 at Lane’s End near Versailles, Ky., and in 2021 he was moved to Japan. Noble Mission stands JBBA Shizunai Stallion Station, where in 2023 his stud fee was $1.5 million yen. His runners have included 2019 Travers Stakes (G1) winner Code of Honor .
Video: Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1T)
