O'Brien gets rough reminder of dirt demands as George fades

Breeders' Cup: George Washington will have to begin his stud career without that priceless Breeders' Cup Classic victory next to his name after Saturday night's foray into the heart of America proved several bridges too far for the Aidan O'Brien-trained star.

Despite a trouble-free passage to the Churchill Downs straight, that momentarily raised hopes of a hugely unlikely upset of the world's best dirt horses, the mercurial colt couldn't cope with the unfamiliar demands placed on him and faded to sixth behind the winner Invasor.

In fact, the nearest George Washington came to tasting victory was when Invasor brushed by him at the top of the stretch while beginning the run that propelled him past the heavy favourite, Bernardini. It was a rough reminder that treating the switch from grass to dirt as an after-thought parachuted on to the end of a career is an approach not best served to work.

In fact, free from the sentiment that has built up around George Washington throughout his career over here, the hard-nosed Kentucky locals wasted little time on the colt in the Classic build up and instead wondered about a mile opportunity that Miesque's Approval's earlier long-priced victory only emphasised more.

"What is this horse doing here?" queried one of the ESPN commentators on Saturday night as the Irish horse initially proved reluctant to load. His incredulity arose after George Washington's temperament again appeared to become as issue in the saddling boxes and on the pony down to the gates. And while raw brilliance on its own can sometimes be corralled into a career on this side of the pond, as O'Brien has so brilliantly proved this year, the one thing dirt racing in the US demands above all others is spit-in-your-eye grit.

It can hardly be a coincidence that the nearest Coolmore have come to bridging the turf-dirt holy grail was when Giants Causeway just failed six years previously.

He carried the "Iron Horse" tag with him: a horse with the monicker of "Gorgeous" was always long odds against to fancy a dirt scrap.

Nevertheless, both O'Brien and Michael Kinane expressed some satisfaction with George Washington's run.

"He ran a blinder and I was throwing him in at the deep end. Michael said he would love to ride him on it again but of course that can't happen. It was his first time on the dirt and horses can get a rough passage. But you could see his class as he travelled so well," the Ballydoyle trainer said.

If George Washington ran a blinder, then the language needed to describe Invasor's rise from champion in his native Uruguay to probable horse of the year honours in the USA would take us off the page.

But instead of Bernardini's owner, Sheikh Mohammed, worrying about a Coolmore challenge to his favourite, it was his brother, Sheikh Hamdan, that trumped him as 18-year-old Fernando Jara became the youngest Breeders' Cup winning jockey.

Nine years ago, Frankie Dettori reached the depths of his career when his panic on board Swain robbed him of a Classic victory. But the Italian jockey banished the memory in style on Saturday when becoming the first European to ride a Breeders' Cup double.

Ouija Board justified favouritism in some style to repeat her 2004 victory in the filly & mare turf and she was yesterday preparing to go to New York for a flight to Tokyo and the Japan Cup. After that, she has a date with the stallion Kingmambo. But if she was expected, then Red Rocks in the Turf was a marvellous bonus for Dettori and the colt's Co Limerick-born trainer Brian Meehan as he held on by half a length from Better Talk Now.

The O'Brien hope, Scorpion, ran okay to be fifth but the overall flavour of the race meant Meehan's subsequent description of the winner as being "the best turf horse in the world" can charitably be put down to the heat of the moment. Worryingly for the Breeders' Cup authorities though, there was some controversy over an apparent bias on the dirt track that saw the first four winners successfully scrape the paint on the inner.

But despite that, there was still no denying the impression Street Sense left in his 10-length Juvenile demolition that was the second longest winning margin in Breeders' Cup history and which makes him favourite for next year's Kentucky Derby.