Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Tips: O'Brien And Moore To Rule Again

The final race on the Del Mar Friday night / Saturday morning (for British and Irish readers) is the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and the race looks mega competitive. Despite being drawn in the car park out in 13, Billy Grimshaw can't resist supporting a clearly talented thinker from Ballydoyle...

With a phenomenal record in the race, claiming glory six times, my eye was immediately drawn to Aidan O'Brien's sole runner in here HENRI MATISSE. On each Ballydoyle success in this race, Ryan Moore has been in the saddle and unsurprisingly he will be here again, which is crucial for me in lending my support to a horse drawn as badly as you can be at Del Mar - 13 of 13. Being stuck wide can be a fatal blow to a horse's chances at Del Mar, but if anyone can work magic at the biggest show in Stateside racing, it is Ryan Moore.

I'm encouraged by the stats which state being on the pace is not beneficial at Del Mar on the turf, as I can't see how Henri Matisse will get to the lead early in here with the draw. The Waco Kid is drawn quite high but only knows one way to race, hard from the start, and Seagulls Eleven has also led on occasion this season. Of those two I'd much prefer the first named and perhaps rate him the main danger, with his cruising speed sure to be a massive help if he is going to attempt to make all.

Backing Henri Matisse brings with it further complications considering this horse is a bit of a thinker, to put it mildly. When discussing his chances, it is clear O'Brien has been contemplating how to get the best of this horse out of him when it matters most and they put him in a pair of blinkers last time out. This was a French flop as he was beaten favourite, but the team seem convinced the early sandwiching coupled with his blinkers meaning he couldn't see it coming frightened him out of the race. Not exactly the constitution of a champion, perhaps, but on his action and what we've seen on track the Longchamp soft ground will not have been to his liking that day either - firm at Del Mar should be.

It will take another otherworldly ride from Ryan Moore to get Henri Matisse up here as the horse clearly has his own mind, but his earlier season win over Hotazhell has now been franked as a piece of form following that horse's Doncaster win recently and with connections confident he'll stay a mile and having such a brilliant record in the race, I'd not be surprised to see Henri Matisse bounce right back to his best and then some to claim this prize once again for his team.

In my recollection plenty of Breeders' Cup races are won with swooping late runs and there's no one in the game better at threading the eye of the needle to produce his horse late than Moore, or indeed for taking him widest of all to run down the field. New Century beat Al Qudra last time out in a race in which both horses were slowly away, and with the former also in a high draws perhaps Oisin Murphy will be thinking of implementing similar tactics to Moore.

New Century's form probably stacks up better than Henri Matisse's, but with the draw I'd be siding with Al Qudra to reverse that form with James Doyle booked. Neither - in my opinion anyway - have the latent ability of our pick though, and for a team that have made this race their own over the last decade or so, I cannot look past Henri Matisse considering that (besides the draw) so many factors seem to have fallen in his favour here.