THE European and East Coast contingents headed west to California locked and loaded for the 40th Breeders’ Cup and looked even better after two days of racing and 14 World Championship events.

The Championship Saturday card proved especially fruitful for the European team, which came away with victories by Auguste Rodin in the $4 million Longines Turf, Master Of The Seas in the $2 million FanDuel Mile and Inspiral in the $2 million Maker’s Mark Filly and Mare Turf.

New Yorkers more than held their own, led by White Abarrio’s possible Horse of the Year clinching win in the $6 million Longines Classic, Cody’s Wish’s heart-tugging defence in the $1 million Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile and respective title defences by Elite Power and Goodnight Olive in the $2 million Qatar Racing Sprint and $1 million PNC Bank Filly and Mare Sprint.

Kentucky-based Idiomatic won the $2 million Longines Distaff and Chicago-based Nobals took the $1 million Turf Sprint.

The locals were blanked, marking the first time in 16 editions run at Santa Anita, Del Mar or the now closed Hollywood Park, that a California-based horse failed to win at least one race on the card.

Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf (Grade 1)

AIDAN O’Brien and Ryan Moore teamed up for a pair of wins, including a decisive score by Coolmore’s Auguste Rodin in the mile and a half Turf.

The 5/2 favourite in the field of 11 that also included leading American Up To The Mark, stablemate Broome, Juddmonte International winner Mostahdaf and Champion Stakes winner King Of Steel, Auguste Rodin raced eighth in the early stages before coming up the inside under Moore to take the lead from Balladeer in the stretch.

The three-year-old son of Deep Impact, who came into the Breeders’ Cup off a victory in the Irish Champion Stakes in September at Leopardstown, kicked clear in the lane and held off Up To The Mark’s late run to win by three-quarters of a length. Japan’s Shahryar finished third, with California-based Gold Phoenix fourth.

“The race didn’t go to plan,” said Moore, who won is fifth Turf and 14th Breeders’ Cup race. “The first part of the race was messy as everyone was in each other’s way and I didn’t really like where I was.

Find his rhythm

“All I wanted to do was get the horse to find his rhythm and he got there so quickly and easily and once he got to the front that’s all he does. Considering how the race went against him it was probably his best performance.”

“Going into the race it looked a deep field and now he’s won two Derbys, Irish Champion Stakes and now come here and beaten some proper horses. He’s vindicated himself now. He had things go against him today and he overcame them. Ending up the rail was like Plan F and I had to make the best of the opportunities.

“My horse was getting a bad trip, he won because he’s so good. I made the right call to stick to the rail but could have easily not been.”

O’Brien, winning his seventh Turf and 18th Breeders’ Cup race, called Moore’s ride on the Epsom and Irish Derby winner “brilliant.”

“After going three furlongs, the race was turned into havoc. Everybody wanted to be on the rail and off of the rail,” O’Brien said.

“It didn’t work out as we thought it was going to work out. Ryan found himself back. He’s a brilliant professional. He didn’t panic. He needed to relax.

“He knew the top of the bend before he turned off, where was he going to go? There were horses on his outside, so he didn’t have any option but to go down the inside. … He was just hoping the momentum he had when he went there, that he would keep going.”

Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic (Grade 1)

THE Turf preceded the Classic, which for the first time in Breeders’ Cup history didn’t close the card because of a broadcast decision. Two races were run after the Classic – the Turf Sprint and Sprint – but they are not expected to impact any season-ending voting for the Eclipse Awards.

White Abarrio, a four-year-old son of Race Day who was transferred from trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. to the embattled Rick Dutrow Jr. in the spring, picked up his second Grade 1 victory of the season in the Classic.

The winner of the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Race Course – at the expense of Cody’s Wish and Classic contender Zandon – White Abarrio put his name at the top of the list for champion older dirt male and Horse of the Year honours with a length win over Japan’s Derma Sotogake under Irad Ortiz Jr.

Ortiz, who won three Breeders’ Cup races to collect his fifth Bill Shoemaker Award for the meeting’s leading rider, tracked the early expected speed of Arabian Knight and Saudi Crown before taking control in the stretch.

White Abarrio opened up from there and held off the late run of 26/1 longshot Derma Sotogake with Godolphin’s Grade 1 winner Proxy third and Arabian Knight fourth. Japan’s top threat for the Classic, 7/2 third choice Ushba Tesoro, finished fifth.

Owned by C2 Racing Stable and La Milagrosa Stable, which opted for Dutrow when Joseph was suspended by Churchill Downs when two of his horses died prior to Kentucky Derby week, White Abarrio improved to 7-for-15 in the Classic.

Baggage

Dutrow came with his own baggage, after serving a 10-year ban for numerous medication and administrative violations.

“I don’t feel that I am back at the top, but I feel that the white horse is,” said Dutrow, who won the 2005 Classic with eventual Horse of the Year Saint Liam.

“I’m just hanging around him. As soon as I get stables like Todd (Pletcher) and Chad (Brown), then I’ll feel like I’m back on the top. Right now, I just feel like I’m lucky to be around him. He’s on the top, and I love being around good horses like that. It just makes you feel like a good horseman, and that’s always what I wanted to be.

“Hopefully it helps me pick up nicer horses and more higher and quality clients and stuff because I want to be around good horses. … I don’t have a stable packed with good horses, and that’s really what I want. I’m going to be striving for it.

“I’m going to be calling everybody tomorrow when I get done with Disneyland and say, ‘hey, I am ready for some horses here. Can you guys send me some horses?’ ”

Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (Grade 1)

GODOLPHIN’S Cody’s Wish delivered another heartwarming victory – which seemed all the more important a day later – when he outfinished a stubborn National Treasure to open Saturday’s championship events in the Dirt Mile.

Named for 17-year-old Cody Dorman, bound to a wheelchair for his entire life while battling the rare and debilitating genetic disease Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome, Cody’s Wish went into retirement with the victory that came after a brief stewards’ inquiry over alleged bumping in the stretch.

Cody’s Wish ended his career with 11 wins in 16 starts, including victories in the 2022 Dirt Mile and 2023 Churchill Downs and Metropolitan Handicap with Dorman and his family in attendance.

“It’s special winning his last race for him,” said Junior Alvarado, who delivered a masterful up-the-rail ride on the winner for trainer Bill Mott and the horse’s legion of fans around the world. “I’m glad we got it done today.”

Dorman, honoured with the Mr. Fitz Award as part of “Team Cody’s Wish” for typifying the spirit of racing during last week’s 63rd annual National Turf Writer’s and Broadcasters Awards Dinner, died after suffering a medical incident on the return flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta

Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (Grade 1)

THE European domination of the weekend’s grass races – which included victories Friday in the Juvenile Turf Sprint by Big Evs and the Juvenile Turf with Unquestionable – started early Saturday when Cheveley Park Stud’s homebred four-year-old Frankel filly Inspiral won the Filly and Mare Turf under Frankie Dettori.

Trained by John Gosden, Inspiral led a 1-2 finish for the Europeans with the Aidan O’Brien-trained Warm Heart second, Canada’s Moira third and Japan’s Win Marilyn fourth.

The 5/2 favourite in the field of 12, Inspiral added the Filly and Mare Turf to her victories in the Group 1 Prix du Haras de Fresnay Le Buffard Jacques le Marois in August at Deauville and Group 1 Virgin Bet Sun Chariot Stakes in October at Newmarket.

Inspiral won the Filly and Mare Turf in 1m 59.06secs in her first start at 10 furlongs, and her first beyond a mile.

“We were confident she’d get the trip, but she is notoriously slow out of the gate,” Gosden said. “As you saw, she was last early on. But Frankie did the one thing he could do, he got down toward the inside, followed William Buick (on With The Moonlight), saved every inch. And then he said: ‘I’ve only got one option. I’ve got to get out as soon as I can.

“The way she came and finished and the way she galloped out, she’s probably saying that the trainer has been running her over the wrong distance the last year. I knew she’d get the 1 1/4 mile well.

“She would have been an unlucky loser, I thought. Ryan Moore ran a beautiful race on Warm Heart and had his race won. … She’s a mighty filly to get there.”