Breeders' Cup Turf Tips: Mostahdaf to shine once more at Santa Anita
There will never be consensus in racing about the best ever renewals of certain meetings or races. What is not up for debate, however, is that the 2023 iteration of Breeders' Cup Turf is one of the greatest of all time. The Europeans have sent a vintage batch of stars who have been clashing throughout the season, while the home team contains some high quality middle distance runners too.
Billy Grimshaw has been salivating about the race since a certain withdrawal on British Champions' Day and although respecting the power packed field, only has eyes for one runner...
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Like them or not, one thing that must be conceded when examining the Amo Racing ownership model so far is that they are not afraid to roll the dice. King Of Steel has been a tremendous servant to the team this year, winning at Royal Ascot and Champions Day while losing nothing in defeat when incredibly inexperienced and unfancied in the Derby at Epsom. After giving Frankie Dettori the fairytale British farewell he so evidently craved, most would've been content for the horse to either be retired to stud or put away for the winter and to be unleashed again in the spring of 2024 for a very exciting four year old campaign.
Amo however were always keen to send him Stateside and so Roger Varian and co barely had time to celebrate the Ascot triumph before preparations began for this stunning renewal of the Breeders' Cup Turf. Were King Of Steel to have had a longer break before this race, or indeed not had such a hard season behind him, the suspicion is his price would be shorter than 7/1 but coming here so soon after a mammoth effort to win the Champion Stakes, on ground he may not relish being such a huge stamp of a horse, he is one to avoid even with Frankie renewing the partnership.
In the aforementioned Derby he was of course second behind the Ballydoyle star of the season (at that stage of the year anyway before the emergence properly of Paddington) Auguste Rodin. It was a simply awe inspiring training performance from Aidan O'Brien to turn this Deep Impact colt around from his Guineas flop into a Derby winning star in just a few short weeks, but that is why O'Brien is the greatest of all time. This horse is clearly very smart indeed and with his superb pedigree, will be a hot property at stud as soon as he is retired. However, I am weary of backing him to back up a good performance, which he put in at Leopardstown in the Champion Stakes, as his consistency must be questioned.
Ornesto proved himself to be no mug with a fine third in the Arc at Longchamp last time out behind the now retired star Ace Impact, and that is perhaps one of the strongest form lines coming into this race. With the horse probably better suited by this ground than the soft he faced in France, he could be a good each way bet for those who want a reliable sort on side. On the other hand, if wanting to gamble a bit then backing Todd Plether's Up To The Mark for the home team brings more unknowns for we punters on this side of the Atlantic, although he is clearly a very smart turf performer in his own right.
There are other horses with claims in what is a brilliantly deep renewal, but I have mentioned the also rans long enough now so it is time to dive into my strong fancy; MOSTAHDAF. The Gosden colt has announced himself as an elite middle distance horse this season after some stunning successes, and his record on the back of a break means he has to be the best bet at the entire Breeders' Cup meeting. Throughout his career his record after a break of over 58 days reads 1-1-1-1-1-1. Pretty formidable.
When loading into the American stalls he will have had a break of 73 days, which means he will be cherry ripe to make that winning streak of a break hit a magnificent seven. Many believed his Prince Of Wales's Stakes win to be a fluke, despite the phenomenal style in which he romped to a 4.5 length victory as an unfancied outsider a Royal Ascot. This notion was thoroughly dismissed at York when there was certainly no fluke about his Juddmonte International success, in which he burst Paddington's bubble. Rattling fast ground Stateside should suit and his only defeat this campaign came behind the mighty Equinox. The worry is the trip, but there are few tighter tracks than Santa Anita around the world and 1m4f around here is pretty similar to the 1m2f he has been running over in Europe.