Sun Goddess the headline act at 43rd Breeders’ Cup

Twenty-four Irish horses from will line up in the 43rd Breeders’ Cup in Keeneland, the majority on Future Stars Friday.

The first five of 14 Breeders’ Cup races, worth over $34 million in all, take place on Friday night at the Kentucky track hosting US racing’s showpiece event for a fourth time. As the tagline suggests, they are all two-year-old contests, three of them on turf.

Ten Irish-based trainers are represented in seven races across the two days, including Willie Mullins, whose Ethical Diamond will seek to defend his title in Saturday night’s $5-million Turf.

Jessica Harrington’s Hotazhell has his final start in the same race as the pioneering Kildare trainer pursues a first Breeders’ Cup success.

Also involved are Paddy Twomey and Willie McCreery, as well as Westmeath-based Brazilian handler Robson Aguiar. Johnny Murtagh will try to join a tiny elite that have ridden and trained a Breeders’ Cup winner.

Inevitably, with 10 runners, the bulk of the Irish challenge comes from Aidan O’Brien. His son Joseph has five hopefuls, while Donnacha O’Brien has a big chance with Comanche Brave in Saturday’s Turf Sprint.

But Friday’s action underlines a sense of the event’s ancien régime coming to the fore once again. O’Brien’s tally of 21 Breeders’ Cup races puts him level on the all-time list alongside Bob Baffert.

The California-based trainer is perhaps US racing’s most recognisable figure, adding to the reputational cost following his regular high-profile run-ins with authorities over medication rule breaches in recent years.

However, there’s no doubting Baffert’s resilience, as he saddles the hot evens favourite Hughes in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, for colts on dirt. He has the second favourite, Miss Monica, in the fillies’ equivalent.

If Baffert is often the one to beat on the main track, the same applies to O’Brien Snr on the lawn. Just two of his 21 winners have come on the dirt. But a tally of seven Turf victories is trumped by eight in the Juvenile, including the last four-in-a-row.

O’Brien has a quartet in the colts’ race this time out, with the final Grade One of Friday night’s action due off at 9.35pm Irish time.

But Ballydoyle’s headline act is unquestionably Sun Goddess, who will bid to secure a fourth Group/Grade One victory of the season in the Juvenile Fillies, off at 8.15pm.

Drawn in stall nine of the 14 runners, Sun Goddess is a 6/5 Morning Line favourite in the US, despite being odds-on with most layers this side of the pond. Those odds reflect a superb season that already contains top-flight successes in the Phoenix, Moyglare and Cheveley Park.

In the stall next to her will be the French star Amusingly, ridden by Colin Keane, who beat colts in the Lagadere on Arc day. Joseph O’Brien’s Green Empress landed the Boussac the same day and tops a three-pronged attack from her trainer. Murtagh runs the unbeaten Curracloe.

It’s a line-up that ensures Sun Goddess is no mortal lock, in local lingo. But O’Brien’s comparisons to Johannesburg, who won a fourth Group One in the Juvenile Dirt 25 years ago, makes the scale of her opposition’s task apparent, even if it’s her first try at the trip.

“He probably wasn’t as scopey as this filly,” said O’Brien. “She looks very unique in everything she does. She has a big, long stride. If they go a very high tempo, she has loads of speed, and a lovely mind.”

A low single-digit draw is always a plus around tight US grass tracks, but Sun Goddess did well compared to her stable companion Great Barrier Reef, who’s widest of all in 14 for the colts’ race.

Gstaad overcame a similarly wide draw a year ago, and, like him, Great Barrier Reef is a Coventry Stakes winner who looked a little unlucky when placed in the Dewhurst. Ryan Moore sticks with the colt.

Like the fillies’ event, this race is effectively a European contest, numerically at least, transferred to the Bluegrass state. The difference is in terms of the importance of the draw and, maybe more importantly, a quick break from the gates.

US horse How’s Al Today is a lukewarm Morning Line favourite, but even if the fillies have been generally more impressive this season, he will have to be top-notch to cope with a proven European Group One winner like Folsom Blues. Despite being drawn in 10, Joseph O’Brien’s National Stakes victor looks a major player, as does Haffner.

Magnum Force’s 2024 triumph for Ger Lyons is the only Irish winner in eight years of the Juvenile Turf Sprint.

Given their gate speed, it’s little wonder this is a grass event that US horses have largely dominated. But neither that nor the top British filly Libertango have prevented two Irish hopefuls lining up at 6.55pm.

Twomey’s Velozee is a 20/1 outsider, but Aguiar could have a realistic shot with Force Noir. Only a neck separated the Dundalk winner from Orthodox at the end of the Middle Park Stakes.

Nevertheless, given that Libertango was able to beat Sun Goddess at Royal Ascot, and chase her home in the Cheveley Park, it’s hard to get away from Flavien Prat’s mount as the big European hope to beat Bacio.

Closer to home, Paul Townend will partner the cross-channel raider Haiti Couleurs in the first Grade One of the new National Hunt season, Saturday’s Champion Chase at Down Royal. The partnership will face six opponents in the €160,000 feature.