Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds and trainer John Sadler don’t shy away from jumping the right horse up several class levels. It worked brilliantly with Flightline, who went straight from allowance to Grade 1 company en route to eventual Horse of the Year honors, and it worked again with Super Corredora in the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Oct. 31 at Del Mar.

Super Corredora, owned by West Point along with with Spartan Equine Racing, Robert Gardiner, and Michael Olszewski, actually took a bigger leap than Flightline, going from her maiden victory into the Breeders’ Cup. The boldness of the move may have caught some of the more seasoned runners by surprise.

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Bob Baffert had two powerhouse graded stakes winners in the race with Explora and Bottle of Rouge. Todd Pletcher brought double Grade 1 winner Tommy Jo, while Percy’s Bar had outfinished Tommy Jo in the Darley Alcibiades Stakes, only to be disqualified for interference. Bettors gave all four of those runners a better chance than they did Super Corredora, co-fifth choice with Frizette Stakes winner Iron Orchard.

Iron Orchard broke slowly and trailed the field for the entire race, while jockey Hector Berrios took Super Corredora right to the front. Sadler and Berrios had discussed that strategy prior to the race.

“He told me OK, let’s go to the lead,” Berrios said. “So, I go to the lead and the other people I see maybe decide, ‘Ah she is a longshot — you lead.’ She went to the lead and was very comfortable.”

Super Corredora was so comfortable that she was able to surprise the more experienced field. She clicked off quarter-mile fractions of :22.42 and :45.63 through a half-mile, seemingly with little effort.

“I feel that she’s very rhythmic — she’s got a beautiful stride,” Sadler said. “Even if she was going a little fast, I felt that if she was comfortable, she would keep going.”

Super Corredora wins Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (Eclipse Sportswire)

Super Corredora did indeed keep going. Explora, the 3-2 favorite and winner of the Oak Leaf Stakes Presented by Oak Tree Racing Association, came for her in the stretch. As Explora closed ground from fourth, Super Corredora fended her off, never letting the other filly get even with her. At the finish line, Super Corredora defeated Explora by three-quarters of a length, stopping the timer in 1:43.71. Explora proved best of the others, as her three-length margin to third-place Percy’s Bar demonstrated.

Berrios won his first Breeders’ Cup race, which would have been emotional at any time. He told reporters in both English and Spanish how special it was “with all my family here, my children.” He had come closest before in only his third of his 11 Breeders’ Cup attempts, finishing second by just a nose to Malathaat aboard Blue Stripe in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Sadler knows all about coming close without winning a Breeders’ Cup. It took 45 tries until he won the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Classic, Accelerate becoming Sadler’s first winner. Since then, Sadler won the 2022 Classic with Flightline and the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile with Full Serrano, who will try to repeat in that race Nov. 1.

“There was a time when they’d say, ‘He’s the best trainer that hasn’t won a Breeders’ Cup,’ and they stopped that after Accelerate,” Sadler said.

Sadler has trained for West Point for some time, and Finley had high praise for the conditioner.

“He’s one of the best trainers of all time — I truly believe that,” Finley said. “I think he should go to a ceremony at Saratoga in the coming years.”

Gstaad Takes Juvenile Turf for Record-Setting O'Brien

Irish training legend Aidan O’Brien, known as “The Master of Ballydoyle” and victorious in more than 400 Grade/Group 1 races, is now known for being the winningest trainer in Breeders’ Cup history.

On Oct. 31 on the first day of the two-day Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, the 56-year-old trainer surpassed late Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas for Breeders’ Cup victories when Gstaad swooped to victory under Christophe Soumillon in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. The victory gave O’Brien a record 21st Breeders’ Cup triumph, breaking his 20-win tie with Lukas, with Gstaad authoritatively scoring by three-quarters of a length over the stakes-winning California runner Stark Contrast.

O’Brien, far right, all smiles after Gstaad’s win. (Eclipse Sportswire)

“He’s simply a superb trainer,” co-owner Michael Tabor said of O’Brien, whose first Breeders’ Cup winner came in 2001 with Johannesburg.

Backed to 6-5 favoritism despite breaking from the far outside post in a field of 14 2-year-olds, Gstaad — under a heady ride from Soumillon — made his wide draw and a tardy break seem inconsequential. Ninth after the opening quarter-mile, as Outfielder shot to the lead on a firm course under pressure from Hey Nay Nay , Gstaad made steady progress, moving to seventh after a half-mile in :46.52 and to fifth after six furlongs clocked by Hey Nay Nay in 1:11.45 as the field neared the end of the second turn.

“When I came into the straight, I knew it was game over,” Soumillon said.

It was. He took the lead by midstretch and maintained a clear advantage over runner-up Stark Contrast, who had to await running room nearing the stretch to commence a stalking bid under Kazushi Kimura. Gstaad crossed the finish line in a final time of 1:34.93. He paid $4.40 to win.

Stark Contrast, trained by Michael McCarthy, finished 2 1/4 lengths in front of show finisher North Coast, another European shipper, this one conditioned by O’Brien’s son Joseph.

The victory for Gstaad was worth $520,000 and increased his earnings to $993,157 with a record of three wins and three seconds in six starts. The Juvenile Turf gave him his first Grade 1 victory after three runner-up finishes in top company overseas in Europe.

“We thought he would have won a couple of Group 1s at this stage,” O’Brien said. “But things just didn’t work for him. Little things went against him.”

Gstaad’s victory continued dominance by European-trained runners. They have now captured the last five renewals of the Juvenile Turf and 13 of the race’s 19 total runnings. O’Brien, who trains for Coolmore and their affiliated owners of Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier, and Tabor, is responsible for eight of those victories, including the last four.

“Obviously everyone knows that we’re in just this unbelievably privileged position,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien, closing in on his own calendar-year record of 28 top-level stakes wins from 2017, can add to his haul of 26 Grade/Group 1 wins on the season with three horses in competition in Breeders’ Cup races Nov. 1 at Del Mar.

The win provided Soumillon, who retained the coveted riding position for O’Brien this summer when the stable’s regular rider Ryan Moore was sidelined due to injury, with his first Breeders’ Cup victory since he won the Breeders’ Cup Turf in 2005 aboard Shirocco.—Byron King

Balantina Dazzles for Donnacha in Juvenile Fillies Turf

The Friday morning scratch of Aidan O’Brien-trained Precise, the heavy 6-5 morning-line favorite, left the $1 million John Deere Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf wide open. Yet, a brilliant performance was still in order, and you didn’t have to stray far from the family tree to find it.

Balantina wins Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (Eclipse Sportswire)

That replacement was none other than O’Brien’s son Donnacha, who earned his first career win in the World Championships Oct. 31 as Balantina dazzled over the Del Mar turf course.

Jockey Oisin Murphy, who picked up his second Breeders’ Cup win, rode the 2-year-old daughter of Ten Sovereigns to perfection, dropping to the rail from post-position 10 to save ground around the clubhouse turn. Japanese runner Switch in Love set a quick pace before him with quarter-mile splits of :22.33, :45.96, and 1:11.01. In the stretch, Murphy navigated briefly off the rail before ducking back to it to surge to the lead at the sixteenth pole.

At the finish line, Balantina was 1 1/4 lengths clear of the deep-closing Pacific Mission, with Ground Support running a strong race after sitting closer to the pace than the top two to finish third. Balantina completed the mile in 1:35.07.

“She took to the track very well,” Murphy said. “Donnacha was very upbeat the way she trained in the mornings, and she’s incredibly athletic. She handled the track like it was made for her.”

Balantina races for the partnership of Medallion Racing, Parkland Thoroughbreds, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, and Lissa Ann McNulty. Medallion also won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint with Cy Fair, in partnership with Swinbank Stables, Joey Platts, and Mark Stanton.—Sean Collins

Cy Fair Gives Trainer Weaver First Breeders’ Cup Win in Juvenile Turf Sprint

Multiple Eclipse Award-winning rider Irad Ortiz Jr. knows how to play a good hand when it’s dealt.

Ortiz expected to rate Cy Fair just a bit in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint but when the daughter of Not This Time broke well in the five-furlong test, Ortiz put her in a stalking position between horses early and then just behind front-running Schwarzenegger on the turn.

Cy Fair wins Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (Eclipse Sportswire)

Cy Fair then put Schwarzenegger away near the eighth pole and was not seriously threatened the rest of the way in scoring by three-quarters of a length in her first graded stakes start.

In just its eighth year, the Juvenile Turf Sprint has been a welcome addition to the Breeders’ Cup for Ortiz, who has won half of those races. At the other end of that spectrum, Friday’s race that kicked off five Breeders’ Cup races for juveniles provided trainer George Weaver his first victory in the World Championships.

“We’ve come a couple of times, and they’re really tough races to win,” said Weaver, who previously had earned placings in last year’s Juvenile Turf Sprint with Governor Sam and in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with Summer of Fun. “You’ve got to bring the right horse. You’ve got to have some luck. It’s an exciting thing for me, our team, my family, and [wife] Cindy. It’s why we do what we do.”

Racing for Swinbank Stables, Medallion Racing, Joey Platts, and Mark Stanton, Cy Fair completed the five furlongs in :56.02 on firm turf. Co-owner Reagan Swinbank noted that Cy Fair refers to the Cypress Fairbanks area of Houston where his mom’s family is from and his mother went to high school. Swinbank said everything felt right Friday in the Del Mar sunshine as his mother was wearing a Cy-Fair High School ring that had belonged to her mother (Helen). Swinbank’s aunt and uncle also made the trip.

“Honestly, it felt pretty good all day,” Swinbank said. “All it takes is a world-class horse, a world-class horse trainer, and a world-class jockey and a great trip. It all came together.”—Frank Angst