By Brian DiDonato
Juddmonte homebred Expert Eye (GB) (Acclamation {GB}) finished with a flourish Saturday to provide Khalid Abdullah's powerhouse operation with a first GI Breeders' Cup Mile and sixth Breeders' Cup victory overall. The green and pink would add the GI Turf two races later with superstar mare Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}).
'TDN Rising Star' Analyze It (Point of Entry) was able to seize early command as race favorite Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy) missed the break badly and was back to last. Expert Eye, meanwhile, settled in in midpack under a tight hold while three deep. Foes took turns making runs at the pacesetter through splits of :24.68, :49.85 and 1:15 flat, with Catapult (Kitten's Joy) glued to Analyze It heading for home and Expert Eye beginning to get going out widest. The frontrunner seemed briefly to be finding another gear in upper stretch, and Expert Eye didn't look to be moving like an obvious winner to about the eighth pole, but he leveled off well in the waning stages to win by a widening half-length. Catapult got the better of Analyze It for second, with Divisidero (Kitten's Joy) another bob back in fourth.
“I'm thrilled with the win,”said rider Frankie Dettori after his 13th Breeders' Cup win. He also rode Enable. “[Trainer Sir] Michael [Stoute] deserves the credit for the training of the horse. He finished his race off so strongly.”
Saturday, Churchill Downs
BREEDERS' CUP MILE-GI, $1,786,000, Churchill Downs, 11-3, 3yo/up, 1mT, 1:39.80, gd.
1–EXPERT EYE (GB), 123, c, 3, by Acclamation (GB)
1st Dam: Exemplify (GB), by Dansili (GB)
2nd Dam: Quest to Peak, by Distant View
3rd Dam: Viviana, by Nureyev
1ST GRADE I WIN. O/B-Juddmonte Farms, Inc. (GB); T-Sir
Michael R. Stoute; J-Lanfranco Dettori. $1,100,000. Lifetime
Record: 10-5-2-1, $1,827,455. Werk Nick Rating: A+.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Catapult, 126, h, 5, Kitten's Joy–Gata Bella, by Storm Cat.
($235,000 Ylg '14 KEEJAN; $350,000 Ylg '14 KEESEP).
O-Woodford Racing, LLC; B-Breffni Farm (KY); T-John W.
Sadler. $340,000.
3–Analyze It, 123, c, 3, Point of Entry–Sweet Assay, by
Consolidator. 'TDN Rising Star' ($130,000 Ylg '16 KEESEP;
$190,000 2yo '17 OBSMAR). O-William H. Lawrence; B-P.
Headley & Nancy Bell & NATO (KY); T-Chad C. Brown.
$180,000.
Margins: HF, NK, NO. Odds: 5.90, 7.50, 6.50.
Also Ran: Divisidero, One Master (GB), Clemmie (Ire), Lightning Spear (GB), Happily (Ire), Gustav Klimt (Ire), Almanaar (GB), Mustashry (GB), I Can Fly (GB), Next Shares, Oscar Performance. Scratched: Polydream (Ire), Hunt (Ire). Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
A winner of his first two starts last year, including the G2 Vintage S., Expert Eye snapped a three-race winless streak with an emphatic score in Royal Ascot's G3 Jersey S. this June. He was second to Mile seventh Lightning Spear (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) in the Aug. 1 G1 Sussex S., and took the G3 City of York S. Aug. 25 before a close third in the G1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp Sept. 9.
“He's run a great race,” trainer Sir Michael Stoute said. “Last time at Longchamp, he did not get the rub of the green. I'd like to thank James Savage, who rides him out every day. He's done a great job with him. I thought down the back straight that Frankie may have just had him two slots behind, but was in control. We love coming to the Breeders' Cup. It's always great coming here.”
Stoute now owns eight Breeders' Cup wins himself–this was his first Mile victory as well.
When asked how long a trip to Churchill had been on the agenda for Expert Eye, Juddmonte racing manager Lord Teddy Grimthorphe said: “I think with races of this caliber, you have to have that in mind for quite a long time. I mean, the trainer, the whole schedule, the race schedule. You can't certainly wake up and think, 'Ooh, wouldn't it be nice to go to the Breeders' Cup?' And I think for the whole team, for Michael's team who were preparing him, we thought long and hard about it, especially in the summer, and of course when we look at these things in terms of what might suit, and we thought the track and the style of racing would certainly suit.
“It's been on the agenda for quite a while. We had him after he was unlucky at ParisLongchamp. We thought about the QEII, and the ground really was–they'd had a lot of rain into that–and then the Breeders' Cup became even more paramount for this horse because it's so important having shown so much promise as a 2-year-old, which he did. He was an exceptionally exciting prospect. To have that realized now is very, very important.”
Pedigree Notes:
Expert Eye is the first Breeders' Cup winner for Acclamation. His second dam is a full-sister to MGISW Sightseek (Distant View) and produced Europe's champion 2-year-old filly Special Duty (GB) (Hennessy). Expert Eye has an unraced 2-year-old half-sister named Clerisy (GB) (Kingman {GB}), a yearling half-brother by Dark Angel (Ire) and a weanling colt by Kingman (GB).
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