Breeders' Cup Turf

Introduction

As one of the original seven races of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, the Breeders’ Cup Turf has been a cornerstone of American and international racing since its inception in 1984. This Grade 1 race has become a crucible for turf excellence, drawing the best from both sides of the Atlantic to compete for supremacy over grass. With a rich history and a tapestry of memorable champions, the Turf is often considered the most prestigious long-distance grass race in North America.

Breeders’ Cup Turf History

The Breeders’ Cup Turf was established to provide a high-stakes, year-end staying championship for turf horses, something that was missing in the American racing calendar. The race has grown enormously in prestige, and is a key influencer of Eclipse Award outcomes and international rankings. With a purse of $4 million in 2022, it is one of the most valuable turf races in the world.

The Turf is open to horses aged three years and older. It is run over a distance of 1 1/2 miles, the classic European middle-distance range, on a grass course.

2024 Breeders’ Cup Turf Challenge Series Races

Breeders’ Cup Turf Trends and Stats

• 28/29 winners to have raced at the distance had been at least 2nd (Found in 2015 the exception)
• Layoff: US 35 days or less (’19 winner off 3 months); Euro any
• 41/41 aged 3-5yo; 6yo+ 0/65
• Euro 3yo’s 9; US 3yo’s 2 (last one in 1989)
• 32/41 won G1 that season (8/9 exceptions were Euro, & averaged 12.5/1). US *MUST* have won G1 same season
• 12/26 Euro winners last ran in the Arc (rarely the ‘obvious’ one, though Enable doubled up in ’18)
• Arc winners are 1/7 in same season (Enable first horse to do the double)
• 8 US winners ran in Joe Hirsch, six of them winning that key prep (War Like Goddess won 2023)
• 27/30 since ’94 had 3-8 season starts – 3-5; 4 or 5-8; 6 to 8-14
• 6 of last 12 had 6-8 seasonal runs, though mares Enable won off just 2 runs in ’18 & Tarnawa off 3 in ’20
• Every winner to have had at least two 1m4f runs either won or was 100% ITM at the distance
• Europe 19 1/2 US 5 1/2 since 1999 (2xUS winners trained by Graham Motion, Englishman)
• APO’B 7 wins, Sir Michael Stoute 4, Fabre 3, Appleby, Motion, bin Suroor, Meehan, Mott 2 each
• European-trained horses have won the Turf a staggering 26 times prior to the 2024 renewal, emphasizing the transatlantic nature of the race as well as how it plays to the stamina strengths of the overseas runners
• Two horses – High Chaparral and Conduit – have won multiple editions of the Turf. High Chaparral’s second win was the only dead heat to date in Breeders’ Cup history
• Aidan O’Brien has won the Breeders’ Cup Turf seven times, more than any other trainer
• No horse aged six or older has ever won the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Prior to the 2024 renewal, that’s 67 runners and counting

How The Runners Fit in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Turf

Breeders’ Cup Turf Pace

Luxembourg has been leading in his recent races but he might take back here and make his bid later. Stablemate Wingspan could make the pace her him, or he for her – who knows? Jayarebe is often handy though has stamina questions so might be more patiently ridden, and perhaps Cabo Spirit will be the one to take them along. Expecting an even tempo with the action beginning to unfold down the back straight second time around.

Key Turf Trials

Go to breederscup.com for race videos.

Turf Trends Contenders

Luxembourg, Emily Upjohn, Wingspan

2024 Breeders’ Cup Turf Form Preview

Cabo Spirit is a five-year-old with five wins from 27 career starts. He’s never run beyond a mile and a quarter and is not bred for it, though he did win on his first try upped to a mile and a quarter when leading all the way in the G2 John Henry at Santa Anita. That was a canny ride, setting steady fractions and getting first run in the home straight, with several reopposing rivals behind. He’s expected to face pace contention here.

El Encinal was one of the horses behind Cabo Spirit last time. A smart horse in his native Argentina, he moved to California prior to his penultimate race – but has been plum last in both US outings. He is here because of a ‘Win and You’re In’ score in an Argentinian G1 last December. Needs a minor miracle to be involved.

Team Gosden have opted to point Emily Upjohn here rather than the furlong shorter Filly & Mare Turf, and her form when third in both the Yorkshire Oaks and Prix Vermeille fits well enough in what looks a sub-standard renewal of the Turf. She’s a dual Group 1 winner at a mile and a half, though her 2024 level had been largely a smidge below that prior to the Vermeille bronze behind Arc winner Bluestocking. Fast ground is no problem and she’ll be reunited with Frankie Dettori for this swansong.

Far Bridge is very likely the pick of the American contingent. He’s unbeaten in two, both Grade 1’s, since stepping up to twelve furlongs and put a pair of Charlie Appleby aspirants (Measured Time, Silver Knott) in their place in the process. He also comfortably repelled the formerly smart mare War Like Goddess on his last start. Run style versatility is another asset having won from the front in the Sword Dancer before taking a lead in the Turf Classic.

Gold Phoenix has seen the back of a number of this field in recent outings but he did finish a close fourth in last year’s BC Turf as a 50/1 shot. Now six, it’s asking a lot for a repeat of that level but he rocks up off the exact same three race prep as then, and having clunked in the John Henry last year, too. His track record is four wins from six starts, including the last three renewals of the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap (1m3f). He’s worth a very quick second glance in the ‘underneath’ spots on the exotics.

Grand Sonata won the unbelievably valuable Grade 2 Kentucky Downs Turf Cup last time, his connections pocketing almost a million quid in the process. It’s hard to understand why no Euro horses contested such a valuable prize but, anyway, the merit of the form looks tenuous. He’d previously been bashed by nine lengths behind Far Bridge.

What to make of Jayarebe? He represents the Dangerous Midge (2010 Turf winner) connections of trainer Brian Meehan and owner Iraj Parvizi but comes with a very different profile. Midge had won the 1m4f Old Newton Cup by eight lengths (!) before taking Newbury’s G3 Arc Trial by four lengths on his last start before boarding the plane: he had proven distance form but a class question mark.

Jayarebe on the other hand comes here having not run beyond 1m 2½f, a distance at which he was beaten, but with a Group 2 verdict from the Prix Dollar on his most recent outing. Midge was a four-year-old with ten starts to his name, Jayarebe is a three-year-old with seven goes under his belt. Midge tended to stalk the pace, Jayarebe tends to make the pace. I deeply respect connections but am really struggling to see him winning: he has the class but does he have the legs?

No such question marks with Luxembourg, the sole representative from five Aidan pre-entries. A five-year-old now, he’s a veteran of 13 G1 starts, and four G1 wins, from 18 lifetime races. In most of his recent spins he’s made the pace, often for another Ballydoyle entry, and he’s never won in a bigger field than eight runners. I presume Ryan will be more patient on this occasion and try to deliver him late a la Auguste Rodin last year.

One of my favourite Breeders’ Cup stats is that no horse older than five has ever won the Turf. By my reckoning, that’s now 67 and counting, and it’s a number that includes some highly fancied horses such as, memorably (for all the wrong reasons personally), Flintshire in 2014. Can Rebel’s Romance be the first to defy that stat? Yes, he obviously can, though whether he’s a value proposition so to do is another question entirely.

Charlie’s Rebel arrives off the back of some serious Group 1 globetrotting, collecting top level pots in Hong Kong, UAE and Germany (as well as a G3 in Qatar). He’s won five of his last six and ran third in the legit top-class King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot in the summer. There he was beaten by a monstrous on the day Goliath and Arc winner Bluestocking.

He very likely has the best form in the race so, apart from his age, why else might he be opposable? Well, he’s been on the go a long time, and he’s added a lot of air miles to that full training schedule. He had his hardest race (King George aside) in the Grosser Preis von Europa at Cologne last time, scrambling home by a neck. In fairness, he was always holding the second but that push button acceleration of yore looks to be on the wane.

The Japanese are at almost every Breeders’ Cup party this year, and so much the better for the international appeal of the event; but it’s bloody hard trying to assimilate their form! Let’s start with the relatively better known of the pair, Shahryar, a six-year-old who might have won last year’s Turf but for running wide off the last turn, a manoeuvre that granted Ryan Moore and Auguste Rodin the perfect trip up the rail to win.

Shahryar still managed third, beaten only a length, and has since taken second in the Dubai Sheema Classic (behind Rebel’s Romance), in between fifth placed finishes in his native Japan. There’s not a lot of winning going on there: indeed, the last gold medal for this chap was in the 2022 Sheema Classic ten runs ago. His ship looks to have now sailed.

A year younger and far less well known, to me at least, is Rousham Park, in the same Sunday Racing ownership. He’s never run this far, but was a winner of the 11f G2 Sankei Sho, handily placed and quickening off what looked a fast enough gallop. His most recent two races have been unimpressive, though the three lengths tenth of 14 over a seriously inadequate nine furlongs can be written off as a prep; but before that he just failed to land the G1 Osaka Hai over a mile and a quarter, finishing best and beaten a diminishing neck. He’s an interesting dark horse in an open year.

Wingspan was mooted for the Filly & Mare Turf but takes her place here instead. Since Found won the Turf in 2015, both Tarnawa and Enable have followed up as fillies in the race. But this filly has never gone this far and her best form, achieved last time, was on a soft surface. She has a good chance to see the trip out but I’m not quite sold on her form credentials. Wayne Lordan rides, Ryan Moore opting for Luxembourg.

There Goes Harvard completes the field. A six-year-old and winner of just four of his 19 starts, he did claim a Grade 1 win at Santa Anita in May 2022 – but hasn’t won since. This will be a first run beyond a mile and a quarter and he’ll need to improve about a stone and a half for it.

Turf Form Contenders

This is a right pickle. Originally Aidan had five entries and the Gosdens’ Emily Upjohn was going to the Filly & Mare Turf; now Aidan has two and Emily comes here. Aidan’s two are Luxembourg, very good on his day and often the day is decreed not to be his, as he has to sacrifice himself for another in the same ownership; and Wingspan, a three-year-old ‘now’ filly whose best was achieved on very different underfoot.

Luxembourg’s win in the G1 Coronation Cup at Epsom puts him well in the frame here, and the fact his trainer has won the race seven times adds plenty to his case.

Emily Upjohn also has a Coronation Cup victory on her CV, hers a year earlier. She ran a mighty race at Longchamp last time and is a cut above most of her rivals if she brings her ‘A’ game.

I want to be against Rebel’s Romance, a move that might look daft post-race; but he’s been at it all year (and more), has a lot of air miles as well as track miles on the clock, and he’s six now. Did I mention that no horse of that age or older has ever won the Turf?! There won’t have been many with credentials as solid as his, to be fair, but 11/4 is tight.

I think I have to be against Jayarebe, too. Brian Meehan is a very good judge and is bidding for a third win at the Breeders’ Cup (Wilko the other one) so knows the craic. But this fella normally goes forward and has yet to prove his stamina beyond ten furlongs. Dalakhani as the damsire will offer hope to believers but I’m playing elsewhere.

The two I’m taking tiny tickles with are Far Bridge, easily the pick of the US team and unbeaten in a brace of Grade 1’s since upped to this trip; and Rousham Park, a wild card with big field fast ground G1 form. I might save on Emily too.

Fielding against the Euro’s in a race they’ve won in eight of the past nine years might seem folly – and it may very well be be folly! – but they look a beatable bunch, all sporting the ‘good on their day’ badge. If it’s one of their days, fair enough, but it’s a smarter woman than me who knows which way to side amongst them.

Breeders’ Cup Turf Results

Key: PP – post position; RS – run style (lengths behind leader: 4 <½L, 3 ½L- 1½L, 2 1¾L – 3½L, 1 > 3½L); Odds – return for a 1 unit stake; SR – Equibase speed figure

Noteworthy Breeders’ Cup Turf Winners

Theatrical (1987)

Trained by the legendary Bill Mott, Theatrical defeated the great Trempolino to secure his place in history, highlighting the international flavor of the competition.

High Chaparral (2002, 2003)

Trained by Aidan O’Brien to win back-to-back editions of the Turf, he solidified his status as one of the all-time greats having won the G1 Racing Post Trophy as a two-year-old, the Derby and Irish Derby at three, and the Irish Champion Stakes at four as well as his two Breeders’ Cup Turf victories. His second Turf win was a dead heat with the late-running Johar, a race that was close to being a three-way tie, Falbrav just a head back in third place! It was a fantastic horse race:

Conduit (2008, 2009)

Another dual winner, Conduit’s victories were notable for their sheer dominance, as Sir Michael Stoute’s colt won both times with plenty left in the tank.

Enable (2018)

The brilliant British mare Enable added the Breeders’ Cup Turf to her illustrious resume, which also includes two Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe victories. She is the only horse ever to win the Arc and Turf in the same season.