They were once a natural end-of-season target for the elite turf 3-year-olds, two races that pitted the best of the classic generation in Europe and America against the cream of their elders. We had 3-year-old champions like Miesque and Goldikova, Dancing Brave and Manila, High Chaparral, Rock Of Gibraltar and Lure taking on outstanding older stars. Sadly, however, those days are now few and far between for the Longines Turf and the FanDuel Mile at the Breeders’ Cup.
This year’s event at Del Mar on November 5-6 is a perfect example. There’s not a top-class 3-year-old in sight in either of those two great races. And, to be realistic, it was the same last year - and the year before.
Indeed, if it wasn’t for Aidan O’Brien, the situation would be even worse. Over the past five years, 65 percent of all 3-year-olds contesting the Turf and the Mile have been under his care.
Next week, the Mile may go off without a single 3-year-old, and it looks as though no more than two will go into the gate for the Turf.
Those horses, the Godolphin runner Yibir and the German Derby winner Sisfahan, are deserving Turf contenders but probably quite the force of those champions of yesteryear. Rumour has it that Yibir has outworked stablemates Adayar and Hurricane Lane in the mornings, and he came from what seemed hopelessly too far back to win the valuable Jockey Club Derby (which TRC Global Rankings rates as a G2) at Belmont. Sisfahan ran subsequent Arc winner Torquator Tasso to a length in the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden in September but was a well-held third behind the English filly Alpinista in a Cologne G1 last time.
That’s not quite the sort of form Found brought to the party when winning the Turf in 2015. She is the most recent 3-year-old winner of the race. Only two of the past ten winners represented the classic generation. Like Found, the other was also trained by O’Brien - Magician in 2013.
The race has been won by a number of top-class 3-year-olds. Manila was the first, when Europe’s champion 3yo, Dancing Brave, surrendered in 1986. In more recent years, dual Derby winner High Chaparral and King George scorer Conduit stand out as notable 3yo Turf winners, both having gone on to triumph again at 4.
Tikkanen struck for the younger brigade when defeating Hatoof for an all French exacta in 1994, having landed the G1 Turf Classic a month earlier. Among the best Turf runners-up was the 3yo Arc winner Trempolino, who gave Theatrical a fright in 1987. Those were the days of top-level inter-generational clashes on the lawn.
In 2020, the Turf field included one 3yo - O’Brien’s Mogul (winner of the G1 Grand Prix de Paris, but often disappointing at the highest level). He ran fifth at the Breeders’ Cup.
In 2019, two 3yos took up the challenge, and again O’Brien was responsible for both, with the sub-standard Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck third, and Mount Everest, a listed winner, checking in fifth.
In 2018, the Turf also had just two 3yos, again both trained by O’Brien, who saddled Magical to be second to the year-older Enable and Hunting Horn, unplaced at big odds. Magical had won the G1 British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes at Ascot so was certainly a quality contender.
In 2017, two 3yos took part - O’Brien’s Derby runner-up Cliffs Of Moher (eighth) and the previous season’s BC Juvenile Turf winner Oscar Performance (ninth), both going off at long odds.
In 2016, there were two 3yos again, English G3 winner Ulysses (fourth) and Californian Ralis, who had been second in G2 company and was an 83/1 shot.
The past five editions of the Turf have attracted no more than nine 3-year-olds combined, and six of them were trained by O’Brien. None of them won.
Older horses dominating the BC Mile
The FanDuel Mile, won by top-level 3-year-olds like Last Tycoon, Miesque, Royal Academy, Lure, War Chant, Six Perfections, Goldikova and Karakontie in the past, and contested by superstars like world champion Rock Of Gibraltar in 2002, is lacking high-quality 3yos this year.
Last year’s 73/1 winner, Order Of Australia, was a 3-year-old, but he did not have 5-star credentials and needed a defection to draw into the field. He was trained by O’Brien, whose other 3yo contender, Lope Y Ferandez, managed third, having been unplaced in a pair of sprints on his preceding starts.
The 2020 Mile had four 3yo starters and only Guineas winner Kameko (seventh) came with a high profile.
2019: Circus Maximus, yet another O’Brien trainee and winner of two G1 mile events in Europe that season, ran fourth for the 3yos, with the far-less-accomplished Space Traveller (unplaced) the only other 3yo in the line-up.
2018: The Mile was won by Expert Eye, an English 3yo who had won a G3 and been second in a G1. Five other 3yos went for the Mile that year, four of them trained by O’Brien. None of his made the top five. Chad Brown’s 3yo Analyze It finished third. Like the winner, he had won a G3 and been second in a G1 previously.
2017: Two 3yos contested the Mile - both trained by O’Brien. Lancaster Bomber, who had been second to World Approval in the G1 Woodbine Mile, did the same at the Breeders’ Cup.
2016: This was blessed with a trio of 3yos. Two of them were trained by O’Brien, G1 winners Hit it A Bomb and Alice Springs. All three were unplaced. The third was Spectre, a G3 winner who had been second in a G1 in France - exactly what Expert Eye and Analyze It had achieved when they went for the Mile at 3.
The past five editions of the Mile have attracted 17 3-year-olds, 11 of them trained by O’Brien.
Over the past five years, 65 percent of all 3-year-olds contesting the Turf and the Mile were trained by the same man.
At one time, these races could have been expected to have attracted some of the year’s outstanding European 3yos - the likes of St Mark’s Basilica and Baeed, Hurricane Lane and Adayar, Poetic Flare and Dubai Honour. Sadly, with horses of that standard not even in the conversation nowadays, the two races are nowhere near as competitive as they once were.