Accelerate captures Breeders’ Cup Classic
And Canadian-owned Shamrock Rose wins Filly & Mare Sprint
LOUISVILLE, KY. — Accelerate held off Gunnevera to win the US$6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic by a length Saturday, while Canadian-owned Shamrock Rose captured the $1-million Filly & Mare Sprint earlier in the day.
Owners Penny and Manfred Conrad, of Wellesley, Ont., watched Shamrock Rose win her fourth race in a row to open the big day of racing. Trained by Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Famer Mark Casse, Shamrock Rose was a late entrant to the Breeders’ Cup.
The owners paid $130,000 to get Shamrock Rose into the race after another win at Keeneland on Oct. 20.
“I thought her race at Keeneland was exceptional,” Casse said. “I thought she came out of it really well. But the man on my left (Manfred Conrad) and his wife Penny, I owe it to them, they put up. There wasn’t much said, but she wasn’t a Breeders’ Cup nomination, so they supplemented her. It was $ 130,000 for them to run and they had that much faith in me and I appreciate it. And I knew it was a tall task, but she’s an exceptional filly.”
Shamrock Rose’s winning streak also included the La Lorgnette Stakes on Sept. 8 at Woodbine in Toronto. She went off at odds of 25-1 at the Breeders’ Cup.
The Classic lacked the retired Justify, the 2018 Triple Crown winner, and left a wide-open field, which the chestnut fiveyear-old Accelerate eventually overtook after breaking from the No. 14 post as the favourite. Accelerate made a sweeping move in the far turn and was in charge at the top of the stretch, then held off Gunnevera for his fifth consecutive Grade 1 victory and sixth of seven overall this year.
That gave trainer John Sadler his first Breeders’ Cup win since his initial start 30 years ago.
As for Accelerate being named this year’s top thoroughbred, Sadler said he’d leave that up to the sports writers who vote on the Eclipse Awards. He noted his own bias, though.
“To me, he’s the Horse of the Year, no doubt,” Sadler said. “He’s won all those great races.
To win the Santa Anita Handicap (in March) was for me probably one or two on my bucket list.
“The Classic is a newer race, but a great race, and he won that so smashingly. He’s just a great horse and had a great year.”
Ridden by Joel Rosario, Accelerate covered 1 1/4 miles in 2:02.93 and paid $7.40, $6 and $4.40.
“He broke really well,” Rosario said of Accelerate. “I was on the outside and had to use him a little bit. I just wanted to get a position because I was way out there. I know I had a long run to the turn, but I wanted to be not too wide.
“When I got to the backside I tried to be in the clear, which is what he likes to do.”
The Classic triumph capped a successful Breeders’ Cup for the jockey, who also rode Game Winner and Jaywalk to victories on Friday in the Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies Turf, respectively.
Gunnevera returned $21.80 and $11.80, while Thunder Snow paid $8 in redeeming himself at Churchill Downs after a last-place finish in the 2017 Kentucky Derby. Off the board were Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s duo of West Coast and McKinzie.
They finished seventh and
12th, respectively, after projections of challenging Accelerate in the marquee race of the season-ending championships.
Gunnevera, Thunder Snow and early pace setter Mendelssohn made things interesting in a wide-open field, an upside to the absence of horse racing’s 13th Triple Crown winner from the Classic. Justify’s ankle issue led Baffert to retire the three-yearold in July, eliminating the opportunity to follow 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in pursuit of a rare grand slam.
Accelerate claimed his fourth race in a row and answered the question of if he could continue his roll after beating West Coast by 2 1/4 lengths in the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita.
And it followed other notable performances on the second day of the $30-million championships.
Monomoy Girl bolstered her case as the top three-year-old filly by winning the $2 million Distaff. The anticipated duel between the reigning Kentucky Oaks winner and her 2017 predecessor Abel Tasman never materialized, as Monomoy Girl made her move at the final turn and held off Wow Cat by a length for her sixth victory this season.
Peter Miller made Breeders’ Cup history as the first trainer to saddle two repeat winners in the same Breeders’ Cup races. Soon after Stormy Liberal outdueled favourite World of Trouble to retake the Turf Sprint by a neck, six-year-old Roy H swept past Promises Fulfilled and flew to a 3 1/4-length win in the Sprint. Jockey Paco Lopez earned his first Breeders’ Cup victory.
Enable followed up last month’s Arc de Triomphe victory by winning the $4 million Turf by three-quarter lengths over Magical. The four-year-old British filly became the first horse to win both prestigious races in the same year. She earned her
10th win from 11 career starts.