Ben Linfoot’s 2024 Breeders’ Cup Diary
Ben Linfoot is our man at the Breeders’ Cup this week and met with three trainers down in the barns on Tuesday.
Appleby wants to extend the Cup record
Charlie Appleby is 10 of 20 in the Breeders’ Cup. Ten out of twenty. That’s an incredible statistic that certainly won’t improve this weekend. That would mean he would have four or more winners among his seven runners.
But it’s a strong team again. Great opportunities and it is clear that the Breeders’ Cup has become an annual target for Appleby, unlike, for example, the QIPCO British Champions Day where he had not a single representative at Ascot earlier this month.
So it was great to meet him on my first morning at the Breeders’ Cup in his typically cheerful mood. After trains, planes and romantic comedies have filled my world for the last 24 hours, it was good to finally chat about racing before this weekend’s Del Mar spectacle.
“It’s a meeting we’re planning for the day after this weekend,” Appleby said when I mentioned his extraordinary record. “I always think we come here with the right horses and you need a bit of luck on your side, but we bring the right horses to be competitive.”
On Saturday, he was asked to pick his favorite big gun Rebel romance in the lawn and Remarkable speech In the mile, Appleby was diplomatic, as if he had been asked to choose between his children.
“My heart rules my head with Rebel’s, he has done it for us on so many occasions and of course I am ready for him to do it.
“Notable Speech is the best three-year-old we have taken to the Breeders’ Cup and he is a winner of the Guineas in 2000 and a winner of the Sussexes. It’s hard to separate them but I’m happy with the two and they look great.
“I am very confident [that we’ll see the Notable Speech that turned up at Newmarket and Goodwood]. I think the track conditions will suit him. To this day I don’t know what happened at Ascot and then the ground in France was just too soft.
“Even looking back at his last start at Kempton in the spring, many people commented that he had the potential to be a Breeders’ Cup Mile horse.
“To be fair, Rebel’s Romance, it ticked all the boxes. He celebrated his last victory here after a victory in Germany, which he now won again.
“We have been very pleased with the progress we have seen so far in Germany, so he is the horse I would choose – there is never a banker bet at this meeting – but the one who has had the perfect run-up is Rebels Horse.” Romance.”
Banker. We’ll come back to this later in the week. It feels like Appleby has a few of these up his sleeve again – it’s the Breeders’ Cup, after all.
Aries raid aimed at protecting family honor
Christopher Head is a man who has set himself the goal of writing his own Breeders’ Cup history.
The Breeders’ Cup Mile is synonymous with the Head family after his father Freddy won the race twice as a jockey on Miesque and three times as a trainer with the legendary mare Goldikova.
And now, after a tumultuous year that saw Big Rock and Blue Rose Cen leave his yard, Head Jr. has the opportunity to win the same race with his own star mare. Ramatuelle.
“This filly is incredible, she has done incredible things all season,” Head said Tuesday. “She traveled well. She is very relaxed and I am very optimistic for the next race.
“She has quite a change of pace. She has the ability to wait, to take the lead, she is an interesting and versatile mare.
“It’s a mile, but not really a mile. If we were able to almost win a Guineas competition in a straight line, we would do well in the two corners.
“We can win with any draw, it’s just a matter of getting a good position and I’m sure of that, Aurelian [Lemaitre] We will do the best job with the plan we have for the race.
“I just hope everything goes well for Ramatuelle, she deserves a win in the Breeders’ Cup.”
Justify’s daughter – yes, him again – could be one of the stars of the weekend. Either way, she’s an intriguing contender from the first box of the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Knight wants to befriend Frost
City Of Troy isn’t the only European-trained runner aiming for off-road glory this weekend.
William Knight runs Frost at dawn in the PNC Bank Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint on Saturday, with one Frankie Dettori booked for the ride at 33/1 odds.
Knight watched her canter on Tuesday morning and said: “She trained really well. She was at Keeneland competing in the Franklin Stakes and she ran very well there.
“She came here last Wednesday and has taken to her training brilliantly, we couldn’t be happier with her.
“At Meydan she ran well on the dirt and she trained well on it there, while here she really enjoyed it and progressed really well off it.
“The pace of the race will be a little different but she did two races on dirt in Meydan which gives you a bit of confidence.
“I’m really happy to be the underdog. She could run a big race, she has a nice draw, there is a top jockey in Frankie Dettori on board, I think she can keep up well.”
After running over five and a half lengths on turf last time out at Keeneland, things will be a little different for Frost At Dawn on Saturday.
But she ran well over seven furlongs on the dirt at Meydan and is an interesting underdog against high-profile American hopefuls Ways And Means and Society.
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Breeders’ Cup 2024 race times (GMT) and schedule
Friday, November 1st
- 9:45 p.m.: Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint
- 10:25 p.m.: Breeders’ Cup young foals
- 11:05 p.m.: Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf
- 11.45 p.m.: Breeders Cup Youth
- 00:25: Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf
Saturday November 2nd
- 7:00 p.m.: Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint
- 7:41 p.m.: Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint
- 8:21 p.m.: Breeders’ Cup distaff
- 9:01 p.m.: Breeders’ Cup Turf
- 9:41 p.m.: Breeders’ Cup Classic
- 10:25 p.m.: Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf
- 11:05 p.m.: Breeders’ Cup Sprint
- 11:45 p.m.: Breeders’ Cup mile
- 00:25: Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile
Winner of the British and Irish Breeders’ Cup for the last six years
2023 (Santa Anita): Auguste Rodin, Inspiral, Master Of The Seas, Unquestionable, Big Evs
2022 (Keeneland): Meditate, Mischief Magic, Victoria Road, Tuesday, Modern Games, Rebel’s Romance
2021 (Del Mar): Modern games, space blues, Yibir
2020 (Keeneland): Glass slippers, Audarya, Order of Australia, Tarnawa
2019 (Santa Anita): Iridessa
2018 (Churchill Downs): Area of responsibility, expert eye, enabling
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