Aidan O’Brien spearheaded a dream start to the 41st Breeders’ Cup for Europe and himself when Lake Victoria won the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Henri Matisse followed up in the Juvenile Turf in Del Mar.
The double victory meant the Irishman drew level with D Wayne Lukas as the joint most successful trainer in the history of these championships.
Lukas is one of the legends of US racing and when a young O’Brien brought Giant’s Causeway for the Classic in 2003, the American explained to him how they used ponies to lead horses and ended up ponying Giant’s Causeway himself. They have remained friends ever since.
“Wayne rang earlier in the week,” said O’Brien. “Wayne is such a special man it’s an honour to share the record with him.”
Pushed along to get up with the pace from her inside draw, Lake Victoria was badly hampered on the first bend and it took an age for Ryan Moore to find a rhythm with her but, already a Group One winner over six furlongs and seven, she was always going to have the gears to retrieve it in the straight providing she stayed – and stay she did to give Irish-trained horses a double on the day.
“Ryan was very comfortable on her down the back straight although he was further back than he wanted to be after she got bumped on the first bend,” explained O’Brien. “For a filly to win three Group Ones, it’s very special.”
Moore, who is now one winner ahead of Frankie Dettori and now the most successful European jockey at the fixture, said: “All she needed was normal racing luck and we just about managed that. I didn’t have any concerns about her handling the turns, distance or track, to me there was no doubt she was suited to a mile here. She just needed a run, she got that and she was too good.”
In contrast, Henri Matisse took a wide route from his 13 stall here in California. Flat to the board most of the way he picked up in the straight to come home strongest to complete a European clean sweep of Turf races.
Earlier there was an Irish one-two in the Juvenile Turf Sprint and if there was a surprise about it, it was that it did not involve O’Brien.
The Ger Lyons-trained 125-10 shot Magnum Force, given a sublime ride by Colin Keane, played patience behind a brutal pace before slipping up the rail to pass eight in the short straight – and then hold on from the Adrian Murray’s fast finishing Arizona Blaze.
“They went real quick and I accepted it,” explained Keane, who is now two wins from four rides in Breeders’ Cups and is crowned champion jockey in Ireland for the sixth time at The Curragh on Sunday.
“It was also very rough up front for a furlong and a half. The pace collapsed turning in, the horse on the outside was falling away so I went down the inside. We thought we’d see a better horse on the quicker ground and round a bend, and thankfully we did.”
Lyons puts up a photograph of every winner he has each season in his office and then clears them out at the end of the year and starts with a blank wall again. That may be a motivational tool but Magnum Force might have booked a permanent spot on the wall.
“When he went past the line at Doncaster (in third – Big Mojo, fourth here, was in second) I thought the first three are going to be banging heads together for the next 18 months, I know the second is going to the Breeders’ Cup, I’ll be sick if I don’t go.
“Colin is humble and unassuming, he’s won two Breeders’ Cups and still no-one knows about him. With the right ammo he delivers on the big stage. I haven’t got the horses but I need the world to wake up to him.”
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
