The Breeders’ Cup celebrates its 30th anniversary at Santa Anita on Friday and Saturday, and OBS graduates have played a big part in making it racing’s grandest event. Seventeen horses sold by OBS won Breeders’ Cup races, many of them clinching Eclipse Awards.
In the Juvenile Fillies (G1), Dolly Green’s February graduate Brave Raj was the OBS’s first Cup winner, running away with the 1986 edition and earning a divisional title. Charles Cono’s March graduate Stardom Bound, sold after the race for $5.7-million, circled her field on the turn at the 2008 renewal and drew away to her Eclipse Award winning victory, and a year later Nancy Mazzoni’s April graduate She Be Wild got up in the final yards to earn victory and a championship. Concave and Secret Compass will try to add their names to the Juvenile Fillies honor roll this year.
Bond Holder, Conquest Titan, Dance With Fate and Mexikoma go in the Juvenile (G1), seeking win number three for OBS. David Milch, Mark Silverman and Jack Silverman’s Gilded Time wrapped up his Eclipse Award with a score in the 1992 running at Gulfstream, and when Joseph Lacombe’s Favorite Trick ran away with the 1997 renewal at Hollywood Park, his eight for eight campaign earned him the two-year-old championship and selection as Horse of the Year, the first juvenile since Secretariat so honored.
Turf races are a big part of the Breeders’ Cup and OBS grads have taken on the world’s best and come out on top. Quarter B. Farm’s Winter Mixed Sale graduate Buck’s Boy won a championship with a wire to wire victory in the 1998 Turf (G1) at Churchill Downs and Augustin Stable’s champion March graduate Forever Together earned her title with a big late run to capture the 2008 Filly & Mare Turf (G1) at Santa Anita. Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s April grad Stephanie’s Kitten won the 2008 Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) and went on to three more graded stakes wins and over $1.6-million in earnings. Unbeaten My Conquestadory will try to win this year’s edition of the race. Tale of a Champion will carry the OBS banner in the 2013 Turf (G1), Ontology goes in the Juvenile Turf (G1) and Boat Trip, Capo Bastone, Jeranimo, Reneesgotzip and Unbridled’s Note try the Turf Sprint (G1).
OBS grads are absent from this year’s Ladies Classic (G1) but two fillies earned championships in the race when it was called the Distaff. Richard J. and Martha J. Stephen and The Thoroughbred Corp.’s February graduate Jewel Princess earned her title with a victory over the great Serena’s Song in the 1996 Distaff at Woodbine and Adena Springs Farm’s Ginger Punch splashed to an Eclipse Award clinching victory in the slop at Monmouth in 2007.
The sprint races provide fireworks at every renewal of the Breeders’ Cup. Starship Truffles will try to follow in the footsteps of Pinnacle Racing Stables and Bill Kaplan’s champion Musical Romance, an OBS April graduate whose 2011 Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) victory earned her a division title.
OBS sold Bluegrass Hall’s Hightail (2012) and Michael E. Pegram , Karl Watson, Paul Weitman’s Secret Circle (2012), winner of the only two editions of the discontinued Juvenile Sprint, but Secret Circle and Majestic Stride will try to add their names to the roster of Sprint (G1) winners sold by OBS. That list includes Sherre Parbhoo’s April graduate Trinniberg, back to defend his title in the race he won last year at Santa Anita, but the first OBS grad to win the race was Jill E. Robinson’s Cherokee Run, a photo finish winner in 1994 en route to an Eclipse Award. Pegram, Watson and Weitman’s March graduate Midnight Lute won back to back Sprints, earning the 2007 sprint championship with a powerful performance at a muddy Monmouth Park and scoring an encore victory in 2008 at Santa Anita.
Flat Out takes on the best horses in training in the 2013 Classic (G1), trying to become the second OBS grad to win North America’s biggest prize. Carolyn Hine’s Skip Away had numerous highlights, including a victory over the mighty Cigar in the 1996 Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1). But his most devastating performance came in the 1997 Classic, taking over leaving the backstretch and drawing away to a six length victory, wrapping up an Eclipse Award.