Auguste Rodin tops Irish team gearing up for Breeders’ Cup in California

Only renowned US trainers D Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert have trained more Breeders’ Cup winners than Aidan O’Brien, and Auguste Rodin will lead the Irishman’s team into this weekend’s 40th renewal of American racing’s $31 million showpiece event in California.

Last year’s action in Keeneland saw O’Brien secure a first ever hat-trick of victories which brought his overall Breeders’ Cup haul to 16 winners. That’s just two behind Baffert while veteran US horseman Lukas tops the list with 20.

The two-day extravaganza featuring 14 Grade One races is back at Santa Anita in Los Angeles for a record 11th time and starts on Friday with a ‘Future Stars’ programme confined to two-year-old races and set to contain significant Irish interest.

Co Dublin trainer Ado McGuinness will try his Breeders’ Cup luck once again with Tiger Belle in Friday’s opening Juvenile Turf Sprint. McGuinness’s former star sprinter A Case Of You was fifth at Del Mar in 2021.

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Tiger Belle’s race is also on the radar of Jessica Harington’s Givemethebetboys, as well as Valiant Force who gave Adrian Murray an unlikely 150-1 Royal Ascot success during the summer. Donnacha O’Brien’s own Royal Ascot heroine Porta Fortuna is on course for the Juvenile Filles event on Friday.

Once again, though, the bulk of the Irish team is made up of a Ballydoyle contingent topped by the dual-Derby hero Auguste Rodin, who is set to start favourite for the $4 million mile-and-a-half Turf on Saturday.

O’Brien has won this race a record six times, most recently with Highland Reel’s dominant performance at Santa Anita in 2016. Auguste Rodin could be joined by stable companions Broome and Bolshoi Ballet.

Warm Heart, winner of the Yorkshire Oaks and the Prix Vermeille on her last two starts, is also a leading player in the $2 million Filly & Mare Turf on Saturday. O’Brien pre-entered 13 horses for the meeting but his top Mile candidate Paddington has been retired after getting a respiratory infection.

Monday will see the entry stage with vital post positions drawn.

O’Brien’s Victoria Road was out of the money in Saturday morning’s Cox Plate in Australia, won by the Hong Kong star Romantic Warrior in a desperate finish with Mr Brightside at Moonee Valley.

The weekend’s global racing highlight, however, was a resounding victory for the world’s highest rated racehorse Equinox in Japan.

French rider Christophe Lemaire partnered Equinox to success in the Tenno Sho contest in Tokyo. It sets up the winner for a tilt at the upcoming Japan Cup where he could meet O’Brien’s St Leger winner Continuous.

It was a fifth Group One win in a row for Equinox who established his international reputation with a devastating victory in Meydan’s Sheema Classic last March.

The horse set a new track record on Sunday in becoming just the third horse to win the prestigious mile and a quarter contest back-to-back.

“First of all, I am relieved to have been able to show the world, which I know was watching how the race favourite would run, that he is indeed a deserving colt to be named the highest-rated colt,” Lemaire reported

“He’s not exactly what you call a horse with incredible speed, but he was able to keep up with today’s rapid pace and get into another gear at the end, but I was actually surprised when I realised that we had won in a record.

“He is a versatile horse that can run from any position, stay calm during the race and make use of his speed at the finish.

“He can also run at longer distances such as when he won the Arima Kinen, so although there was much pressure coming into such a prestigious race as race favourite, I was confident knowing what he is capable of.”

Sunny southern California and rattling ground at Santa Anita will be a long way removed from domestic conditions with the Bank Holiday Monday programme confined to Galway.

Sunday’s action at Wexford failed a morning inspection and almost half an inch more of rain saw Monday’s card quickly called off too. The Curragh’s Tuesday fixture is also under threat as HQ was unfit for racing on Sunday. Up to 15mm more rainfall is forecast before racing there.

The going will be heavy for Monday’s flat action in Ballybrit where the Ballydoyle team run a trio of fillies in the opening two-year-old maiden.

They include the impeccably bred newcomer Rubies Are Red, a sister to the Arc and Breeders’ Cup winner Found. Séamus Heffernan is on the apparent stable No 1 Everlasting, who will need to step up on her own Curragh debut if she’s to compete with the more experienced 92-rated Settlement.

Elsewhere, San Aer lines up for the following handicap off the same rating as he won the race a year ago.