Unrivaled Belle wins Ladies Classic for Kent Desormeaux
Kent Desormeaux put a nightmare few months behind him when Unrivaled Belle won the Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic.
In the summer he admitted to alcohol problems when he failed a breathalyser test at Woodbine Park prior to the running of the Dominion Day Stakes, where he was supposed to ride eventual winner Hold Me Back for WinStar Farms.
Then the jockey suffered a cracked vertebra when his mount Forest Whip fell in the straight at Saratoga in early September. But Desormeaux bounced back for a fourth Breeders’ Cup victory and his first since Corinthian in the Dirt Mile three years ago.
Blind Luck, trying for a sixth Grade One victory, was racing off the pace in her usual race style. However, once Life At Ten dropped herself out from the gates there was no natural pacesetter in the race and Desormeaux used that to his advantage. He had Bill Mott’s filly about fifth which left him in a prime position to kick off the slow pace.
Desormeaux took the lead early on the home turn and was about 10 lengths clear of Blind Luck. Joel Rosario started to stoke up Blind Luck and she rallied gamely but simply had too much ground to make up and not enough ground left between her and the winning post in which to do it.
One point that did appear to be proven was that it is not impossible for a late closer to be competitive with the way the track is riding, which has to be a factor for when Zenyatta defends her title in the Classic.
Unrivaled Belle had finished runner-up in three successive Grade One races since she has beaten Rachel Alexandra in the Grade Two La Troienne Stakes at Churchill in April. “I think it was the way Kent rode her today; the break and the way she settled," Mott said when asked what had made the difference. "She made an explosive move around the turn leaving the three-eighths pole and just took the lead away from everybody. I just have to give Kent the credit. He pulled the trigger and it worked out. We opened up on the field and left them in her dust.”
Frankie Dettori’s Breeders’ Cup meeting got off to the worst possible start when the Italian rode Sara Louise, one of Godolphin’s American-based runners, in the Sprint. The race might have been won at the start but Sara Louise certainly lost it from the gates. She missed the kick and was getting dirt kicked in her face for the rest of the first three furlongs.
At the speed end of the race, Gabby’s Golden Girl was in front on the rail but that was already looking to be the wrong place to be. When the meeting was last held at Churchill in 2006 the prime spot was right against the rail but results in the earlier races proved that the prime strip was probably about three wide.
That was precisely the ground that Jamie Theriot had Dubai Majesty running on as he came to pounce on Gabby’s Golden Girl and Champagne D’oro early in the stretch and then pull clear from Switch and Evening Jewel.
Theriot was winning his first Breeders’ Cup race at just his fourth attempt and trainer Bret Calhoun got to the winner’s enclosure with only his second runner. “This is a dream come true for me,” Theriot said. “It’s a big first win for me. I’ve been riding 13 years; it means the world.”
Dubai Majesty, who was running in claiming races at one point, made the most of home advantage as she was winning on the track for the fourth times from seven starts. “I knew she’d love it here,” trainer Bret Calhoun said. “She got the right trip, and when she made that move on the turn I got excited. She had been training extremely well, and Jamie gave her the right trip.”
http://www.senore.com/Shared-Account-wins-Filly-Mare-Turf-a39311
http://www.senore.com/More-Than-Real-wins-Breeders-Cup-Juvenile-Fillies-Turf-a39286
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