THE feature on the dirt was the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic and this was won in emphatic style by the four-year-old Gun Runner, the Besilu Stables-bred son of Candy Ride (Ride The Rails) and the second winner of this race in his immediate family.

Gun Runner’s dam Quiet Giant (Giant’s Causeway) is a half-sister to Saint Liam (Saint Ballado) and this former Horse of the Year in the USA won the Classic in 2005. He suffered a freak accident following the completion of his first and only season at stud and had to be destroyed. His loss was immense as that sole crop included Horse of the Year Havre De Grace.

Saint Liam and Quiet Giant are out of the stakes winner Quiet Dance (Quiet American) and her other daughters include the unraced Beatem Buster (Honour And Glory), dam of the Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes winner Buster’s Ready (More Than Ready).

Misty Dancer (Lyphard), the third dam of Gun Runner, is a half-sister to seven winners and the best of these is a filly familiar to racegoers of a certain age. Minstrella (The Minstrel) was the best filly of her generation as a juvenile in 1986. That year she swept all before her for owner/bred Ned Evans and trainer Charlie Nelson. After winning the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot, she won three Group 1 races for two-year-olds, the Phoenix Stakes and Moyglare Stud Stakes in Ireland and the Cheveley Park Stakes in England.

Roy H was one of a pair of 2017 Breeders’ Cup winners for More Than Ready (Southern Halo) as the WinStar stallion also sired the juvenile winner Rushing Fall. Bred in Kentucky by Ramona S Bass, Roy H was twice a graduate of Keeneland Sales, this $115,000 yearling transforming into a $310,000 breezer. He has come into his own as a five-year-old and also won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship this year.

Roy H is easily the best of five winners for his multiple Grade 3 winning dam Elusive Diva (Elusive Quality) and her stakes winning siblings include Tropics (Speightstown), a Group 3 winner in England for Dean Ivory.

Battle Of Midway broke though at Grade 1 level with his victory in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, having previously been second in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby and third in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby. The three-year-old son of former dual-champion sire Smart Strike (Mr Prospector) is the second foal and first winner for his dam Rigoletta, herself a Grade 1 winner.

Rigoletta (Concert) won twice as a juvenile and this included victory in the Oak Leaf Stakes. She was also placed in the Grade 1 Darley Debutante Stakes. Battle Of Midway is not the first Breeders’ Cup winner in his immediate family. His dam is out of Almost Aprom Queen (Montbrook) and her eight winning siblings includes Candlelightdinner (Slew Gin Fizz), the dam of champion female sprinter and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint heroine Musical Romance (Concorde’s Tune).

Battle Of Midway was bred by Thor-Bred Stables and sold for $410,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale and enters stud in 2018.

Breeders, stallion masters and readers are invited to contact Leo Powell at leopowell@theirishfield.ie with news and updates for the column, and to visit our website www.theirishfield.ie for daily breeding news