Cody's Wish weathers inquiry in Dirt Mile
ARCADIA » Cody's Wish scored a popular repeat victory in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, but not without some bumps along the way.
Racing's feel-good horse, a 4-5 favorite, nosed out National Treasure and then survived a seven-minute stewards' inquiry into the stretch run before being declared the winner.
It wasn't an easy call, because Cody's Wish and jockey Junior Alvarado did bump National Treasure and Flavien Prat near the wire after the winner rallied from sixth on the backstretch to take the lead.
But it was a happy call for bettors who collected $3.60 for every $2, as well as non-gamblers who root for Cody's Wish, the 5-year-old named for Cody Dorman, a Kentucky boy born with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome.
Cody and his family were in the winner's circle at Santa Anita to help breeder-owner Godolphin LLC and trainer Bill Mott celebrate.
Last year at Keeneland, Cody's Wish won the Dirt Mile by a head over Cyberknife. His only loss in his past eight races is a third-place finish behind White Abarro and Zandon in the 1-1/8-mile Whitney at Saratoga. He is to begin his stud career in 2024 at Darley's Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Ky.
For Bob Baffert-trained National Treasure, the front-running, runner-up effort was his best in four starts since he won the Preakness in May.
Alvarado's take about the hard-fought finish was that National Treasure started it by coming out and brushing Cody's Wish.
“I just think at that point where he's brushing my horse, I had the bigger horse, and the mean horse, probably,” Alvarado said. “But I knew it was nothing really to change the outcome. My horse was already in front, and … he was never going to let that other horse go by again.”
Idiomatic keeps winning
Even when they make it look like hard work, Idiomatic and jockey Florent Geroux are hard to beat.
The 4-year-old filly has won five graded stakes in a row since Geroux began riding her, and is 8 for 9 this year after holding on to win the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff over Randomized, Le Da Vida and Clairiere in a close four-horse finish.
“She just put her head down and kept digging for me really hard,” Geroux said of Idiomatic, who paid $5.60. “She showed how great she was, and she deserved to be the champion just because of how much fight she showed today and how much heart.”
Replete in repeats
After Cody's Wish, two other 2022 winners did it again.
• Elite Power won the $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint to make it two in a row for him, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. and trainer Bill Mott and the third victory at this Breeders' Cup for both Ortiz and Mott.
Elite Power rallied to catch Gunite in the stretch and pay $5.40.
• Goodnight Olive and Ortiz won the $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint almost as convincingly as they did a year ago.
Goodnight Olive ($4.20) gave trainer Chad Brown his 18th Breeders' Cup victory, tying Bob Baffert for second alltime behind D. Wayne Lukas'
20. Brown's 17th came in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Filly Turf on Friday with Hard to Justify.
Ortiz's later wins riding White Abarrio in the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic and the Sprint later Saturday gave him 20 in his career at the event, taking second place in the all-time standings from John Velazquez (19) and pulling within seven of leader Mike Smith.
Home-track advantage?
California-based horses were shut out of the winner's circle in Breeders' Cup races while horses from New York dominated the main track and horses from Europe dominated the grass.
After Friday's victories by Big Evs in the Juvenile Turf Fillies and Unquestionable in the Juvenile Turf, Europe added wins Saturday by Auguste Rodin in the $4 million Breeders' Cup Turf, Master of The Seas in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Mile, and Inspiral in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf.
• Auguste Rodin ($7), bringing star quality as the English Derby winner, rallied along the rail to win for jockey Ryan Moore and trainer Aidan O'Brien, who had won with Unquestionable.
• William Buick and Charlie Appleby teamed up to win the Mile together for the third year in a row, and any Breeders' Cup race for the eighth time overall, when Master of The Seas ($8.60) got up in the last stride to deny Godolphin LLC stablemate Mawj and Oisin Murphy.
• Jockey Frankie Dettori made his 15th Breeders' Cup victory, and his fifth with trainer John Gosden, a dramatic one, guiding Inspiral ($7) through traffic to a neck victory as Warm Heart and Ryan Moore completed an all-European exacta.
Dettori, 52, racing's brightest two-legged international star, had planned to retire at the end of this year but said last month he intends to keep riding and will be based at Santa Anita this winter.
The longest shot
Nobals — the slyly named 4-year-old gelding — and jockey Gerrardo Corrales scored the biggest upset of the day, paying $26 to win the $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint.
A Mandella double
Richard Mandella-trained horses swept the pair of Grade II races before the Breeders' Cup action started Saturday, Salesman ($8.60) winning the 1 5/8-mile Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance with Prat riding and Seal Team ($16.80) winning the Twilight Derby on turf with Umberto Rispoli.
It was a bit of good news for Mandella, the Hall of Famer whose Breeders' Cup week saw Classic contender Geaux Rocket Ride suffer a fatal injury in a workout and oddson Juvenile Fillies favorite Tamara finish seventh behind Just FYI.
Counting heads
A crowd of 66,247 Saturday brought two-day attendance to 109,624, slightly more than the crowds totaling 109,054 the last time the Breeders' Cup was held at Santa Anita in 2019, according to figures announced by event organizers.
Betting handle for the two days was $176,281,989, slightly higher than the $174,628,986 wagered in 2019 but lower than the $189,060,373 gambled on the 2022 Breeders' Cup at Keeneland.