Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Benvenuto Cellini won the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland on Saturday, giving Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien a 24th Breeders’ Cup victory. O’Brien came into this year’s 14-race, $34 million Breeders’ Cup festival in Lexington, Kentucky, tied with Bob Baffert for most wins by a trainer with 21. He bagged his third of the week after also saddling winners in the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Juvenile Turf on Friday.
Baffert also nabbed a victory on Friday, in the Juvenile, but Ireland’s O’Brien will depart Kentucky atop the Breeders’ Cup trainers’ table after an outstanding performance from jockey Ryan Moore aboard Benvenuto Cellini — the Irish Derby winner who had finished a disappointing ninth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe earlier this month. Moore was threading through the field as they turned for home in the 1 1/2-mile race and was on the rail heading into the final furlong, springing to the outside and powering to the front to finish ahead of Map of Stars and stablemate Diamond Necklace.
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“Ryan gave him a brilliant ride,” O’Brien said after bagging his eighth Turf win. “We’ve always felt he was a horse for this race. We felt he was very unlucky in the Arc, a lot more unlucky than anyone thought.” O’Brien was also pleased with Diamond Necklace, Europe’s leading three-year-old filly this year and a four-time group one winner. “Very difficult on a three-year-old filly after having the campaign she had, and (she) ran a stormer as well,” he said. “So what can I say? Delighted and thankful to everybody.”
Ethical Diamond, who pulled off an upset victory in the same race last year at Del Mar, was never a factor in the repeat bid, breaking from the inside post but enduring a tough trip under jockey Dylan McMonagle.
© 2024 AFP
