It was a day that lives long in the memory - two of the finest Thoroughbreds, Invasor and Bernardini, going head to head down the straight in one of the most memorable Breeders’ Cup Classics we have seen.
Not only was it a thrilling finish between two champions, it also seemed to herald the beginning of an era for American racing, for it was also a face-off between two mighty owning and breeding empires - Shadwell and Godolphin, each owned by a Maktoum brother from Dubai, each giving notice that they were now setting their sights on the big prizes in North America too after years of domination in Europe.
Hopes were particularly high for Bernardini, a son of A P Indy and, the theory went, a stallion prospect par excellence, a sire to take America by storm.
That was just 15 short years ago, and the passing this year of two of the champions who took part in that race - Bernardini and the towering figure of Hamdan Al Maktoum, the much-loved owner of Shadwell - provides an opportunity to reflect on how those expectations panned out.
Here Todd Sidor looks back at that Breeders’ Cup Classic and examines what fate had in store for the principals.
Becoming acquainted with Thoroughbred flat racing while completing his studies at the prestigious Bell School of Languages in Cambridge, England, in 1967 and 68, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum started Shadwell Racing in 1981. In 1984, he purchased the Shadwell estate at Thetford, near Newmarket, where the Shadwell Court dates to the 18th century.
After featuring four times as British champion owner - in 1990, 1995, 2002 and 2005 - he also captured that title in North America after Invasor’s Horse of the Year campaign in 2006, which was also aided by a Belmont Stakes win by his homebred Jazil.
Hamdan’s younger brother, Sheikh Mohammed, won his first British owners’ championship five years before Hamdan - in 1985, the year of the English Triple Crown-winning filly Oh So Sharp, trained by Henry Cecil and ridden by American Steve Cauthen. (Oh So Sharpwas the second Triple Crown winner for Cauthen - after Affirmed in the U.S. in 1978.)
Sheikh Mohammed, now ruler of Dubai, didn’t found Godolphin until 1992, and its international operations began in 1994.
Godolphin have been British champion owners 13 times: 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2021. Sheikh Mohammed himself was British champion nine times - once, in 1997, after Godolphin’s arrival. So Sheikh Mohammed has been the leading UK owner 22 times in the last 36 years.
In North America, Godolphin have been named champion owners three times: 2010, 2018 and 2020. This year they are out on their own at the top of the earnings table and again in contention for the award.
Invasor, whose name means ‘invader’ in Spanish, won the 2005 Uruguayan Triple Crown and was undefeated in his first five races. He was the third horse to win the Uruguayan Triple Crown, which is contested at races run over 1600m, 2000m and 2500m. Only one horse has done it since.
Was he in the mold of 2002 Argentinian champion turf miler Candy Ride, who set a world record at 1:31 for 1,600 metres in the Gran Premio Joaquin S de Anchorena and holds the current track record at Del Mar for his win in the mile-and-a-quarter Pacific Classic on dirt? After winning the Uruguayan Triple Crown, Sheikh Hamdan wanted to find out. He purchased the colt for $1.4 million from the Vio Brado brothers, one of whom was reluctant to sell.
Showcased in Dubai
Sent to Kiaran McLaughlin’s barn at Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida, Invasor adjusted well. Sheikh Hamdan decided to showcase his new acquisition in the G2 UAE Derby at Nad Al Sheba, which he was still eligible for as he was a Southern Hemisphere 3-year old.
Invasor began his tenure with Shadwell inauspiciously, suffering his only career defeat to Sheikh Mohammed’s recently acquired Discreet Cat.
A month later, Darley homebred Bernardini, a son of champion stallion A P Indy and the stakes-winning mare Cara Rafaela, got his third start, his first stakes, in the G3 Withers Stakes, which he won easily by open lengths.
An older horse for North American purposes, Invasor ran in the G1 Pimlico Special eight weeks after returning to the U.S. He too pulled away from his competition easily in the stretch.
The following day, Bernardini made his presence known with a decisive win in the Preakness Stakes by more than five lengths after the ill-fated Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was pulled up.
Collision course
The two horses kept to their respective divisions, with Invasor taking the G1 Suburban Stakes by 4¼ lengths and the G1 Whitney Handicap over Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito’s hard-charging Sun King by a nose. Bernardini took the Jim Dandy and G1 Travers Stakes by more than 16 lengths.
The two division leaders were on a collision course for the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, but Invasor developed a fever and had to be scratched. Bernardini kept his undefeated season alive with a near-7-length win taking on open company for the first time. As is often the case, Horse of the Year implications were on the line in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Godolphin had come close to winning the Classic five years earlier, when Arc winner Sakhee took on defending champion Tiznow. Coming down the stretch, Sakhee appeared to have the race won after taking the lead in the stretch only to have Tiznow thread the needle between horses, getting up at the wire to win by a nose.
Invasor would attempt to do what no other horse had done prior or since in training up to the Breeders’ Cup Classic from a win in an early August race. This was a 3-month, 13-week lay-off. The only other horses successful with a particularly large layoff were after Invasor: American Pharoah in 2015 and Arrogate in 2016, who both had ten weeks between the Travers and the Classic, and Gun Runner, who had nine weeks between the Woodward Stakes and the Classic.
The site for the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Classic was Churchill Downs, hosting it for the sixth time. Neither horse had ever run at the track.
Talented group
Out of 13 entrants, 11 were G1 winners, and six were multiple G1 winners. Six had also won at ten furlongs or more. It was a talented group.
Bernardini drew the three post while Invasor was outside in 11. This suited both horses well - Bernardini liked to be on or right off the lead, while Invasor could close from mid-pack or race near the front. Bernardini was the morning-line and post-time favorite, with Invasor the third choice behind Lava Man, who had won five G1s during his West Coast campaign.
When the gate opened, Brother Derek went to the lead followed by Lawyer Ron, Lava Man and Flower Alley. Bernardini and Invasor settled mid-pack in sixth and eighth, 4 and 7 lengths off the lead. Both horses were waited with, but Bernardini swept by Lawyer Ron, Lava Man and Premium Tap into the far turn, taking aim at Brother Derek. Coming out of the turn, Bernardini took the lead by a head.
Invasor was fifth but less than three lengths behind the leader. He swung wide on the turn and was running in the fifth or sixth path down the middle of the track while Bernardini was in the two path.
Brother Derek tried to hang on for fourth, but Premium Tap passed him as Invasor and Bernardini battled on the front end with the Godolphin racer giving in just before the wire to lose by a length (see video below).
After the race, McLaughlin said, “It’s an unbelievable feeling to win for the right people. I’m just so happy with everyone associated with the horse - the groom, the exercise riders, and the whole organization.”
And he meant it. A protégé of D Wayne Lukas, he was with the Hall of Fame trainer as an assistant from 1985 until 1992. He was then jockey Chris Antley’s agent until Sheikh Mohammed invited him to train in Dubai in 1993 for the Maktoum family for half the year for ten years. He was leading trainer in Dubai three times (94-95, 95-96 and 2002-3). He also became a regular trainer of Godolphin horses when he returned to North America.
In 2020, McLaughlin became a jockey agent again for Luis Saez, who was on the rise having finished first in the Kentucky Derby with Maximum Security in 2019 before the horse became the first Kentucky Derby winner to be disqualified for a racing infraction.
Maximum Security, with Saez in the irons, finished the year strongly, becoming 2019 3-year-old champion male.
Since McLaughlin has taken over his book, Saez has hit another level, winning his first Breeders’ Cup race (the 2020 Juvenile with Godolphin’s Essential Quality), the Dubai World Cup aboard Godolphin’s homebred Mystic Guide, and the 2021 Belmont Stakes, also on Essential Quality, as well as becoming leading jockey at Saratoga this year for the first time. He is currently world #9 in the TRC standings.
Essential Quality’s Belmont win was a second Triple Crown race for the owners after Bernardini’s Preakness.
Bernardini’s trainer, Tom Albertrani, was the beneficiary of a training route similar to Kiaran McLaughlin. A former jockey became and then assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, in 1995 he became assistant trainer in Dubai to Saeed bin Suroor for Godolphin and the Maktoum family.
He is just short of 600 wins and his horses have won purses totaling more than $48 million. Albertrani’s work with Bernardini was masterful as the colt joined Man o’ War as one of three horses to win the Preakness, Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup. Damascus is the other horse to accomplish this feat. Triple Crown winner Whirlaway won all three races, but not in the same calendar year.
Bernardini himself, America’s champion 3-year-old that year, never quite lived up to expectations as a stallion, although his descendents are in the process of establishing an impressive record for him as a broodmare sire, as Carly Silver explains here.
Invasor, U.S. Horse of the Year for 2006, is now a stallion in Uruguay at Haras Cuatro Piedras Farm, where he has stood since 2015.
Invasor’s jockey, the Panamanian Fernando Jara, who was still a teenager when he won the BC Classic (he is only 34 now), last raced in North America in 2015 after 690 wins and earnings of more than $29 million. His two biggest wins were on Shadwell horses - Invasor and Jazil - and he moved his tack to Dubai in 2016, since when he has since averaged over $2.8 million a year in winnings.
Godolphin’s wait goes on
Bernardini’s jockey, Javier Castellano, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017 after winning four Eclipse Awards for outstanding jockey - in 2013, 14, 15 and 16. He has 5,000 wins and counting and has won over $364 million in purses.
This year, Godolphin were loaded with potential Breeders’ Cup Classic contenders. Mystic Guide had run a 108 Beyer speed figure in the G3 Razorback at Oaklawn Park before winning the Dubai World Cup; Essential Quality (TRC world #12) had missed by a length in the Kentucky Derby after a troubled trip before capturing the Belmont in the second fastest time in the last two decades, and the fastest final quarter in stakes history, beating even Secretariat’s final quarter.
While suffering his first loss, Maxfield (world #26) had finished within a length of the winner, Idol (#633), in the Santa Anita Handicap, running back on three weeks’ rest.
However Mystic Guide suffered a season-ending injury for conditioner Mike Stidham in the Suburban Handicap and Maxfield passed on the Classic after coming up short against frontrunners Knicks Go in the Whitney and Bernardini’s son, Art Collector (#61), in the Woodward Stakes.
Essential Quality became Godolphin’s only BC Classic entry, and he finished a non-threatening third after stablemate Knicks Go (subsequently world #1) was allowed to set the pace unchallenged on the lead, keeping the prestigious prize from Godolphin for at least one more year.
Todd Sidor, an attorney by trade, has produced equine law seminars, and has been a member of racing partnerships for a number of years. His more than two decades’ passion and respect for the sport of horseracing will always make him, first and foremost, a racing enthusiast with a penchant for racing history