America's special showcase is truly a breed apart

EUROPEAN PROSPECTS RACE-BY-RACE GUIDE:A Breeders' Cup victory can open up so many windows of opportunity for European horses, writes BRIAN O'CONNOR

THE BREEDERS’ Cup, American racing’s grandiosely titled “World Championships”, may be without the reigning king and queen, but as thoroughbred challenges go tonight’s action in Santa Anita still bears comparison with most anything the sport has to offer.

Admittedly, Sea The Stars is already secure at stud, getting ready for a new stallion career after a foray to California was judged an unnecessary step too far in an already momentous season.

Rachel Alexandra isn’t in Los Angeles either, as the connections of the most popular filly to race in the US for years are loathe to switch her from dirt to an unfamiliar synthetic Pro-Ride surface.

And, by definition, their absence from the track means competition is diluted.

But when it comes to the Breeders’ Cup there are many more factors than just getting to the starting gate in one piece. If it were down to just that, American racing’s showcase event wouldn’t remain such a challenge to Europe’s best.

This year, as per usual, Aidan O’Brien is attacking the series of multi-million dollar races with a fervour that normally would carry all the hallmarks of a triumph of hope over experience.

Ireland’s champion trainer has thrown over 50 darts at the Breeders’ Cup board since Second Empire was his first runner in 1998, but only three have hit the bullseye: Johannesburg in the Juvenile (2001) and High Chaparral’s pair of Turf wins (2002-03).

Strewn by the wayside have lain the cream of Ballydoyle for the last decade, whether unluckily like Rock Of Gibraltar in the Mile, exhaustedly such as Dylan Thomas in the Turf or just plain tragically in the case of George Washington whose broken leg in the Monmouth mud two years ago remains a black moment for many racing fans.

That happened in the $5 million Classic, the mile-and-

a-quarter highlight that remains maddeningly elusive to the Coolmore team. When Giant’s Causeway was only narrowly beaten nine years ago, it seemed only a matter of time before John Magnier’s hugely wealthy team would secure America’s most prized all-aged race.

But since then the best of Ballydoyle have tried and failed to go one better. Galileo finished sixth in 2001, Hawk Wing seventh a year later, Oratorio could manage only 11th in 2005 and, of course, George Washington didn’t finish at all.

The lure of a Classic success for the world’s most powerful breeding operation always has been how the North American market would open up to a stallion proven on different surfaces on different continents.

Sure enough, this time it is their best three-year-old, Rip Van Winkle, who takes his chance, with hopes high despite continuing foot problems. After all, the switch to an artificial surface from dirt last year resulted in five European winners, including Raven’s Pass in the Classic who edged out O’Brien’s Henrythenavigator in a memorable one-two for the visitors.

The levels of grousing from the home team about how Pro-Ride has more in common with grass than dirt testifies to the new respect the Europeans will carry into today’s action. But if that is a plus, there remain many elements for European horses to overcome.

The chestnut about America’s different medication rules making the Breeders’ Cup really the “Bleeders’ Cup” may not be as much of a factor this year, as stringent penalties for positive tests are in place. Significantly, O’Brien’s horses are not declared for either bute or lasix. But overall, there does remain a different medication culture in the US.

Another pretty fundamental difficulty for the Europeans is the 6,000-miles involved in just getting there. O’Brien’s runners arrived at Santa Anita last Sunday after a trip that took almost 20 hours box-to-box.

They then were confined for 42 hours in the quarantine yard, before being allowed to step on to the track on Wednesday. The quarantine stay has also been increased this year for the European visitors. In a sport where success and failure can be measured in millimetres, every little negative becomes amplified.

O’Brien is aware of the possible pitfalls more than anyone, but he remains in thrall to the Breeders’ Cup concept.

“It is massive to the whole thoroughbred industry,” he says. “It brings the whole world together and that allows us get a handle on overall form – if they are all able to show their best.”

That is a pretty major “if”, and much of the problem in terms of Europe’s finest producing their best is the time of year when the Breeders’ Cup is run. Performances such as the Wolverhampton winner Gitano Hernando’s defeat of some of America’s top horses in last month’s Goodwood Stakes provides evidence of real vulnerability in the home team this year. But the fact remains that today’s action remains something of an after-thought to Europe’s best after an already long and busy season.

“At this time of year, you never really know,” O’Brien says. “Our horses look good, so we have to be hopeful, but it is coming at the end of a long season. The Breeders’ Cup is also a bit later than usual this year.”

The one constant about California, however, is sunshine, and while it may not be baking hot at Santa Anita today, the forecast for fine weather and 24 degrees makes it a very different climate to what O’Brien’s horses left in Ballydoyle last week.

Things have progressed compared to 20 years ago when some top European hopes, like Zilzal, were left sweltering in barely air-conditioned quarantine barns with the Miami sun beating down on them.

Nevertheless, the change in weather is always a factor with thoroughbreds who are on the verge of growing, or have already grown, their winter coats. Clipping them, in the style of jump horses, could be a necessity if trainers want to avoid their charges racing in what would effectively be warm jackets.

“It is a different climate and that is a big change when you come out here,” O’Brien says. “It’s not like when the Cup is held in New York, where the climate is closer to ours. There is a difference.”

Some will thrive in the sunshine though, and what every European trainer can realistically hope for is that the Pro-Ride surface shouldn’t be a problem. That is a plus that not every American trainer can bank on.

The Rachel Alexandra team also owned Curlin, who got turned over in last year’s Classic where his greatest dirt virtue, the ability to grind out a pace that nothing else could live with, was negated by the surface. Ever since, the track at Santa Anita has been dismissed by them as “plastic”. And they have a point, because it is different.

John Gosden won last year’s Classic with Raven’s Pass and spent 11 years training in California in the 1980s. His view of the Pro-Ride is unambiguous.

“If you have trained exclusively on dirt, it is a different ball game,” the Englishman said this week. “There is no doubt these surfaces favour what we could call high-class horses with a turn of foot.

“Those that grind it out are going to get caught by those that can get a hold of it. Curlin was the best dirt horse I’d seen in a long time. I think he just broke opponents. But on this surface I think the last quarter our horses put in is very difficult to answer.”

O’Brien may not be as emphatic but he recognises the importance of these new circumstances.

“It’s a safer surface and it does ride closer to turf than to dirt,” he says. “In an ideal world, if you’re racing on dirt you train on it too, and use it all the time. But on this surface you don’t have to train on it to act on it.”

JUVENILE TURF – 1m

Viscount Nelson (AP O'Brien)6-1

Awesome Act (J Noseda)20-1

Buzzword (Godolphin)6-1

Viscount Nelson is regally bred, by Giant's Causeway out of dual-classic winner Imagine. Buzzword looks below top-class and the big American hope is Interactif.

If O'Brien's hope handles fast ground, he will be a threat.

TURF SPRINT – 6½ furlongs

Strike The Deal (J Noseda)15-1

Kieren Fallon's mount faces a big task, but Noseda has a good Breeders' Cup pedigree.

DIRT SPRINT – 6½ furlongs

Fleeting Spirit (J Noseda)8-1

Beaten in the Turf sprint last year, the July Cup winner takes on the best Americans on their home patch. Looks too big a task.

JUVENILE DIRT – One mile

Alfred Nobel (AP O'Brien)20-1

Beethoven (AP O'Brien)20-1

Vale Of York (Godolphin)20-1

Radiohead (B Meehan)15-1

The odds look big for O'Brien's pair of Group One winners, especially Alfred Nobel who won the Phoenix Stakes and who acted well on fast ground when racing on the "wrong side" at Newmarket last month.

MILE – 1m

Delegator (Godolphin)3-1

Zacinto (M Stoute)8-1

Gladiatorus (Godolphin)20-1

Goldikova (F Head)8-5

Goldikova was a brilliant winner of this race last year and will be a European banker now despite being beaten in the Foret last month. The track should suit Delegator, while Zacinto's form with Rip Van Winkle from Ascot is strong.

DIRT MILE – 1m

Mastercraftsman (AP O'Brien)6-5.

The start could be vital. If Mastercraftsman gets a good break from stall one, he has the form to beat these.

TURF – 1m 4f

Conduit (M Stoute)7-5

Red Rocks (B Meehan)20-1

Dar Re Mi (J Gosden)3-1

Spanish Moon (M Stoute)5-2

Conduit is going for back-to-back wins while Red Rocks won in 2006. Spanish Moon is quirky. while Dar Re Mi is a filly taking on males. Nevertheless, she looks tactically more versatile than Conduit.

CLASSIC – 1m 2f

Twice Over (H Cecil)20-1

Rip Van Winkle (AP O'Brien)7-2

Just two European winners of this race, but one of them was Raven's Pass over this course and distance last year. Rip Van Winkle at his best looks better than him, but Zenyatta is a major threat.