Twenty years in the past, Oct. 27, 2001, Belmont Park hosted the 18th Breeders’ Cup World Championships. Six weeks faraway from the fear assaults of Sep 11, the standard fun-filled Breeders’ Cup ambiance befell on a extra somber word, below heavy safety. Sharp-shooters armed with computerized rifles had been on excessive alert, stationed at strategic positions with watchful eyes on all angles of the monitor and grandstand to forestall no matter would possibly and will go improper.
Regardless of the historic subtext, it was a day to have fun a serious step within the return to normalcy, not just for New York however for America, as individuals started to embrace as soon as once more the rhythms of life.
The World Championships are simply that as horses representing nations and homeowners from across the globe compete for the principle prizes. Nevertheless, this version was about greater than {dollars} and trophies. It was additionally about not letting the occasions that had transpired “dent the metal of American resolve.”
Roger Devenport’s Unbridled Elaine gained the Distaff (G1), the primary Breeders’ Cup race on the cardboard.
Godolphin’s U.S.-bred Tempera scored within the Juvenile Fillies (G1) whereas French-bred Val Royal gained the Mile (G1T) for U.S. pursuits, and the all-American boy Squirtle Squirt took the Dash (G1).
Representing international pursuits, Juddmonte’s Nice Britain-bred Banks Hill landed the Filly & Mare Turf (G1T); Kentucky-bred Johannesburg, contemporary off a victory within the Center Park Stakes (G1) at Newmarket, added the Juvenile (G1); and Kentucky-bred Implausible Mild catapulted from a victory within the Irish Champion Stakes (G1) at Leopardstown to safe the Turf (G1T).
13 horses lined up for the Breeders’ Cup Basic (G1). Regardless of final 12 months’s Horse of the 12 months and Basic winner Tiznow ‘s presence in the field, favoritism fell to Juddmonte’s Aptitude, who came into the race off three consecutive graded wins. Second-choice was Coolmore’s English/Irish Derby (both G1) winner Galileo, who had a perfect season until running second to Fantastic Light in the Irish Champion Stakes.
Then there was Godolphin’s Kentucky-bred Sakhee, winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) in his previous start.
In counterpoint to all these winners was Cees Stable’s Tiznow who, while not a shadow of the horse he had been the previous year, had put together a rather puzzling campaign. His two graded wins—the San Fernando Breeders’ Cup Stakes (G2) and Santa Anita Handicap (G1) sandwiched a race he should have won, the Strub Stakes (G2), but didn’t (he was runner-up).
Out of competition from March to September, the blaze-faced dark bay warrior with four white socks returned to battle in the Woodward (G1) at Belmont, where he finished third and followed that lackluster performance with a similar endeavor in the Goodwood Breeders’ Cup Handicap (G2) at Santa Anita.
Ridden by regular jockey Chris McCarron for trainer Jay Robbins, the humbly bred son of Cee’s Tizzy—Cee’s Song, by Seattle Song, chose the right moment to rise to the occasion. With the world watching, he engaged Sakhee in the final two furlongs. Within the final sixteenth Albert the Great entered the fray and Tiznow dropped back to third behind Sakhee and the new rival.
As the waning late October sun cast long shadows across the track, Tiznow summoned the same courage that had propelled him to a neck victory over Giant’s Causeway in last year’s epic battle at Churchill Downs, and from 2 1/2 lengths back caught Sakhee by a nose.
What was it that racecaller Tom Durkin said at the finish? Oh, yes, “Tiznow wins it for America!”
Like Uncle Sam and Rosie the Riveter from previous wars, America had a new face to represent that “do or die” American spirit.
