Stormy Liberal’s 119 one for the books

So what was the single best performance of the Breeders’ Cup? Well, there was the 2-year-old filly Newspaperofrecord ending the Juvenile Fillies Turf a few steps out of the gate, winning like she could win any grass race anywhere in the world some day. There was the great 4-year-old filly Enable and the 3-year-old filly Magical running away from the field in the stretch of the Turf, Enable edging away late to win her sixth consecutive Group or Grade 1 race while becoming the first horse to get the Arc-Turf double in the same year.

The Beyer Speed Figures confirmed what we saw, with Newspaperofrecord getting a 96, a serious number for a 2-year-old filly on grass in early November, and Enable earning a 114, the kind of figure that would be hard to top on grass in a normal Breeders’ Cup.

There was nothing normal about the Turf Sprint. Stormy Liberal, making the 30th start of his career, and World of Trouble, making just his eighth, went into another grass dimension. Stormy Liberal, claimed for $40,000 on Oct. 16, 2016, ran the 5 1/2 furlongs on a yielding course in 1:04.05, a time that computed to a 119 Beyer, the highest in Beyer history on grass. World of Trouble, a neck back, got a 118, which also would have been a record as trainer Jason Servis took his second brutal beat in two days after Uncle Benny, following a trip from hell, lost the Juvenile Turf by a half-length.

“I understand that the Beyer Speed Figure of 119 for the Turf Sprint may look ridiculous,” Andrew Beyer said. “It is the highest figure we’ve ever assigned to a turf race, and nobody would say that Stormy Liberal and World of Trouble are two of the all-time greats. But it was impossible to ignore the evidence that the two top finishers ran giant races.

“The time of the Turf Sprint, 1:04.05 for 5 1/2 furlongs, was extraordinarily fast in relation to the other races over the Churchill turf Saturday. However, there are occasions when we decide that a super-fast time is an aberration, particularly when most of the horses in a field show dramatic improvements over their prior form. In such cases, we’ll assign the race a figure that makes sense for the field.

“But that wasn’t the case in the Turf Sprint. Stormy Liberal and World of Trouble finished 7 1/4 lengths ahead of the field, and that margin equals 24 Beyer points at 5 1/2 furlongs. Every one of the other 12 horses in the field was capable of running in the mid-90s or better. So, the top two had to run figures in the vicinity of 120 in order to beat the field by that big margin.

“It’s certainly true that many of the horses didn’t care for the soft course, but some of them did have good form on soft going. Ruby Notion, who finished fourth on Saturday, had run the race of her life, a figure of 100, over a course at Saratoga this summer that was slower than the one at Churchill. Yet her figure on Saturday was only a 91. The figures for the losers in the Turf Sprint were so low that the winning number might even have been higher.”

Stormy Liberal got a 103 when he won the 2017 Turf Sprint at 30-1 and a career-best 105 in his 26th grass race when he won the Eddie D at Santa Anita, his final Breeders’ Cup prep. World of Trouble was always a nice dirt horse, but has turned into a turf monster with impressive wins in two grass starts prior to the Breeders’ Cup. He got a career-best 103 in his final BC prep.

So, there you go. Stormy Liberal not only won the Turf Sprint for the second consecutive year, he made Beyer history. The horse likely won’t make the Hall of Fame. But Stormy Liberal is now officially in the Beyer Speed Figure Hall of Fame with his 119, a grass figure that may be the standard for years.

In case you weren’t sure, the Friday Breeders’ Cup card confirmed that Bob Baffert is loaded with live soon-to-be 3-year-olds for 2019. Game Winner remained unbeaten with a solid win in the Juvenile, earning a 93 Beyer. Five races earlier, the Baffert-trained Improbable, making just his second start, got the same 93 when he crushed an overmatched field in the race just before the Breeders’ Cup races began.

Jaywalk actually ran .05 of a second faster than Game Winner when winning the Juvenile Fillies, earning a 94 Beyer. She was loose on the lead in very quick fractions while Game Winner chased a hot pace and came wide.

The Classic Beyer was as underwhelming as the race appeared visually, with none of the horses finishing with any force. The final quarter was run in 27.03 seconds, and winner Accelerate finished off a wonderful campaign at less than his very best, earning just a 105.

The Beyer Figures make you wonder what might have happened if City of Light, one of the most impressive winners on dirt over the two days, had run in the Classic. He destroyed the Dirt Mile field while getting a 110 Beyer.

Roy H came back to his best 2017 form just in time, defending his Sprint title with a 111, the same number he got when he won the Sprint the year before.

And Distaff winner Monomoy Girl gets the 2018 Beyer award for most consistent horse. Starting from the Kentucky Oaks, she went 97, 98, 98, 101, 96 – never super fast, but always fast enough to finish first.