O’Brien claims Breeders’ Cup Juvenile double as Australian-bred Primetime Emmy finishes fifth
Trainer Aidan O’Brien reclaimed the outright lead in career Breeders’ Cup wins with a double at Keeneland, as he and Ryan Moore won two of the five juvenile races on the opening-day card.
Sun Goddess won the Juvenile Fillies Turf by three lengths on her first attempt at a mile, recording her sixth consecutive victory, before Justify colt Haffner took the Juvenile Turf by 1¾ lengths.
The double lifted O’Brien’s tally to 23, one ahead of Bob Baffert, who had drawn level at 22 when unbeaten Into Mischief colt Hughes won the Juvenile under Flavien Prat.
Australian-bred filly Primetime Emmy finished fifth in the US$1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.
The George Boughey-trained favourite Libertango won the race, which opened the championship programme, by 1¼ lengths.
Primetime Emmy is by Extreme Choice and is trained in France by Francis-Henri Graffard. She was ridden by Mickael Barzalona from barrier 12 and switched to the 1100-metre sprint from the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Her fifth earned US$30,000 for owner-breeder Matthew Sandblom, who paid US$200,000 to supplement her into the race.
Primetime Emmy was bred in Australia to Northern Hemisphere time for a European juvenile campaign.
In September she became Extreme Choice’s first Northern Hemisphere Group winner in the Group 3 Prix Eclipse at Chantilly. Sandblom remains her sole owner after a quarter-share failed to reach its US$500,000 reserve at the Breeders’ Cup Championship Sale on October 28.
She was the fifth Australian-bred to contest a Breeders’ Cup race and the first to run in one of its two-year-old events. No Australian-bred has won at the meeting, and Strawberry Road’s second in the 1985 Turf remains the best result.
Hell of A Spin ran second to Libertango, and Mussab was promoted to third after Harper’s Corner was relegated from third to eighth following an objection and stewards’ inquiry.
In the Juvenile Fillies, the Nyquist filly Emphatic stayed unbeaten in four starts under Tyler Gaffalione. She gave Brendan Walsh his first Breeders’ Cup win at his 14th attempt.
