THE Breeders’ Cup was played out to mixed reviews on its first visit to picturesque Del Mar in Southern California. The venue is spectacular and the meeting was doubtless a huge success commercially, but the dirt track has the shortest straight of major venues in the US, and the turf track is arguably too tight for championship racing.

Nevertheless, there were some top-class performances, notably by Classic winner Gun Runner and Sprint winner Roy H, and Europe came away with three winners – maybe one or two less than par, considering the record 34-strong contingent who ran. For the record, the raiders finished 3800015690068912580245670001368079.

Aidan O’Brien registered his 12th win at the meeting, and extended his world record to 27 annual group or graded wins. The next horse who wins Breeders’ Cup prize money will take him ahead of Wayne Lukas into second all-time, with leader Bob Baffert in sight.

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile

Fillies’ Turf (1m, turf)

THE final time was 1m36.09sec with four quarters of 23.04, 24.19, 24.70 and 24.16.

The first split was therefore testing for the leaders; the horses running 1-2-3 - headed by the John Gosden-trained Juliet Capulet and Frankie Dettori – tired badly and came home 11-12-10.

Rushing Fall brought the best speed figure into the race and won narrowly but impressively, circling the field in lane five and powering home. Note that the first three raced 9-8-14 early, and the winner’s calculated split-time was bang on an even 24sec for the first quarter.

Of Aidan O’Brien’s two runners, third-placed September fared a lot better than dual Group 1 winner Happily – the latter never had anywhere to run and finished last. September missed the kick and not surprisingly found this an inadequate test; she was last after a slow start and finished strongly – a great run.

Now You’re Talking (8th) and Madeline (13th) were fourth and third to Clemmie in the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket, but neither cut any ice over this two-furlong longer journey. The former kept on steadily from the rear and wasn’t discredited.

Breeders’ Cup Dirt

Mile (1m, dirt)

TWO turns represent a novelty for some of these, and the early pace was strong.

They went 22.94, 24.01, 24.18 and 24.07 – the first four were racing 5-1-7-9 early. Runner-up Sharp Azteca will take the world of beating if he returns for the Godolphin Mile on World Cup night; he is a threat to beat any horse, if his rider gets the fractions right.

Battle Of Midway was beautifully rated by the excellent Flavien Prat – leading rider at Del Mar this year. Third in the Kentucky Derby, he raced wide on what was probably the faster part of the dirt track.

Breeders’ Cup

Juvenile Turf

(1m, turf)

FASTER horses than in the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf, but the pace was stronger too. The four quarters were 22.83, 24.04, 24.42 and 24.68. Because he was the outstanding horse, Dewhurst runner-up Mendelssohn handled the pace, but the horses running 1-2-3-4-5-6 early finished 9-8-1-13-12-3.

Look no further for an advertisement of O’Brien’s skill; the son of Scat Daddy is a new horse in blinkers, and other trainers may have lost him after he was slow to learn.

For his part, Ryan Moore was superb, showing the iron fist to get a good position early from the inside gate, then the velvet glove to get his mount to relax.

Mendelssohn clocked a time only 0.12sec faster than Rushing Fall while saving more ground, but he had to run a lot less evenly (23.1 early to the latter’s 24.0). Racing Post Ratings gave Mendelssohn 115 and Rushing Fall 110.

This is an interesting colt; you might bet against him making a top-class turf horse, even with O’Brien at the controls, but he shows knee-curl and a good stride and could take off given a decent dirt foundation, especially as a half-brother to Distaff heroine Beholder. Incidentally, the $550,000 pocketed here is a decent return on the $3m he cost as a yearling.

Beckford ran well to finish fifth for Gordon Elliott; he was pinched back early and denied room for a cut at the leaders.

Masar, trained by Charlie Appleby, was a place behind but also caught the eye. He was on the wrong leg on the turn and forced to race wide.

The remaining strong British contingent of Sands Of Mali, James Garfield and Rajasinghe occupied the ninth to 11th spots.

The first-named colt, who won a decent renewal of the Gimcrack, showed bright speed.

Breeders’ Cup Distaff

(1m, dirt)

THE much-fancied Stellar Wind (last) ran badly, while hitherto improving Elate (fourth, beaten eight lengths) found conditions dissimilar to those in New York on which she had greatly impressed.

Forever Unbridled annexed the Eclipse Award in this division with her meritorious win.

She accelerated more sharply than the quirky runner-up Abel Tasman when both were getting into contention on the far turn, taking nearly two lengths off the Kentucky Oaks winner between four furlongs out and two furlongs out.

Abel Tasman finished well, but she was outkicked and not unlucky.

After all, the fractions were 23.79, 24.29, 24.42, 24.69 and 13.06 (pro-rated 26.12), so Abel Tasman gained her lengths when they were the cheapest to acquire – in the slowest part of the race at the end.