The Week in Review, by Bill Finley
Winning Breeders’ Cup races is supposed to be tough. Doesn’t Charlie Appleby know that?
The annual Breeders’ Cup brings together the best coaches in America and many of the best in Europe. Wayne Lukas has won the most races, 20. Next is Bob Baffert with 18. Chad Brown and Todd Pletcher have always been the forces. Aidan O’Brien brings a small army to the Breeders’ Cup every year and has 16 winners to show for it, including three this year.
But Appleby stands alone. His numbers are remarkable. He has nine winners from just 17 starts. That’s 53%. Lukas won with 12% of the starts; Baffert with 13%. O’Brien, Appleby’s main European rival, is 16-169 in the Breeders’ Cup, giving him a 9% win.
Appleby won his first Breeders ‘Cup race in 2013, winning the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf with Outstrip (GB) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}). But it was last year that he first got the message that he could do things that no other coach could do. He entered three races and won all three.
He set a record four times in a row winning the Breeders ‘First Cup on the card Friday, the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf with Naughty Magic (Ire) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}). It will be consecutive years if Silver Knott (GB) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) wasn’t a few paces behind in GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, a race he lost by baton to O’Brien-trained Victoria Road (Ire) (Ire)Saxon Warrior {Jpn}).
It’s Friday. On Saturday, he was third with Creative Force (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in GI Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. He won GI Breeders’ Cup Mile with Modern games (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and then won the GI Breeders ‘Cup Turf with Rebel’s Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}). National Pride (Ire) (Teophilo {Ire}) ranks fifth in Turf for Appleby, his stallion underperforming.
Over a two-year period, he entered eight Breeders’ Cup races and won six of them. How does he do that?
That he trains for the mighty Godolphin Stable is where you have to start. It provided him with a bottomless well of talent. But there is something more than that. Appleby has clearly found the horses from his stables are best suited for the North American races and when he comes here he always arrives with a horse ready for their best efforts. . That’s what he usually does with horses that aren’t necessarily big stars at home. Rebel’s Romance came out of the Group 1 race in Germany, where the competition is unlike in the UK, France and Ireland. Naughty Magic won nothing better than the UK Group 3 race before finishing fourth, over four long runs, in G1 Middle Park S.
And it’s not just at Breeders’ Cup. Appleby is 17 for 35 (49%) over the past two years in North America. In addition to Breeders’ Cup races, he has won the GI Saratoga Derby Invitational, GI Woodbine Mile S., GIII Jockey Club Derby Invitational, GIII Saratoga Oaks Invitational, GI Canada International, GI Diana S., GI Just a Game S., GI Natalma S. and two versions of GI Summer S.
It seems impossible that someone can just go to first class races and win almost 50% of the time, but that’s exactly what he does when he gets here.
Appleby is only 47 years old and could become a force in the Breeders’ Cup for years to come. It’s not hard to see him rewrite the notebook one day. He’s so good.
Sadler for HOF
Somehow, John Sadler was overlooked by the nominees and voted in the Hall of Fame, a mistake that can now be rectified due to his stellar work with the GI winner. Breeders ‘Classic and Future Horse of the Year Flight route (Tapit).
Long before Flightline came along, Sadler had been a constant winner when it came to performing at the sport’s highest levels. He won 2,715 races, which is 17%. He’s had 186 ranked wins, 45 of them in Class I races. Along with Urge (Look at Lucky), he won two Classic runs. He has won the GI Pacific Classic four times, including four of the last five runs, and the GI Santa Anita H. three times. When it comes to success with older male dirt runners, Sadler is just as good.
Don’t think that only someone can do with Flightline what he did. He must guide the horse through some difficult problems, always seem to do the right thing, and stand up admirably to the pressure of training the world’s best horse. He is a Hall of Famer.
A big couple of days for Europeans
The European team simply overtook the Americans this year, winning six of the seven grass races. The Only Lawn Victory for the U.S. Comes in the GI Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, won by Pennsylvania-hybrid Caravel (Mizzen Mast). That’s no surprise given that the American horses have won 14 of the 15 editions of the Turf Sprint, a race where the Europeans are clearly at a disadvantage. And the Europeans came close in the Turf Sprint, finishing second, third and fourth.
Speaking of Caravel, there always seems to be at least one Breeders’ Cup winner that makes no sense and that’s her. She ran Beyer’s numbers 81 and 89 in her previous two starts, which didn’t make her nearly fast enough to win. (She gets 105 for the win). But when Golden Pal (Uncle Mo) broke through slowly, runner Tyler Gaffalione seized the opportunity and took the lead. Gamely, she won in half length. A job well done for Gaffalione, coach Brad Cox and the bettors, who nailed the impossible long shot 42-1.
The main stables dominate
Here are your Breeders’ Cup-winning coaches: Chad Brown, Cox, Bill Mott (2), O’Brien (3), Appleby (3), Todd Pletcher (2), Sadler and Mark Casse. This is no Breeders’ Cup for the little guy. Only Marcelo Polanco, who has won only three races this year, came close to losing the GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff by nose with the Blue Stripe (Arg). You have to feel for Polanco, who has won only nine ranking shares in his career and only seven synthetic races in the last three years. But he can boast that he has his mare ready to run the race of her life.
The flight path has stopped working
I guess the owner of Flightline didn’t get a chance to read my column on TDN Sunday beg them to bring the superstar back for another year of racing. Or it falls on deaf ears. Around the time the ink had dried on the pole, they announced their retirement.
I actually thought there was a chance they would bring him back, which now seems hopelessly naive. The lure of the stallion and the wealth it will bring will prevail. How do you get rid of all that money? Probably, never had a chance of him running again.
I got it. Not feel hard. Thanks for a great, albeit brief, run and memories. A horse indeed.
