Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf

In April, Loves Only You helped make some history for Japan racing in Hong Kong. On a fall Saturday at Del Mar, she stood alone in a historic racing moment for her home country in North America.

Loves Only You became the first Japan-based horse to win a Breeders' Cup race when the 5-year-old daughter of the late sire Deep Impact split favored War Like Goddess and longshot My Sister Nat to win the $1,840,000 Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. That turned out to be a the first in a two-win day for Japan, as longshot Marche Lorraine, trained by Loves Only You’s conditioner Yoshito Yahagi, would upset the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff three races later.

"We've had so many horses challenge in the Breeders' Cup but we'd never had a victory at Breeders' Cup," said DMM Dream Racing director Takumi Nomoto through an interpreter. "That why I felt like it was a challenge to come in here and we got the big win."

Loves Only You won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Sha Tin back in April, leading home four Japan-based runners in that race. It marked the first time Japan-based runners had taken the top four spots in that top Hong Kong event.

Two weeks after that Hong Kong victory, Yahagi approached Nomoto about running in the Breeders' Cup and while they didn't completely commit to it at that time, they set on that path, which would be realized.

"The race looked like a really tough race, a competitive race, but before the race we thought our horse was Number One," Yahagi said through an interpreter. "It was a really great race but we believed in her and now she won this great race."

In the 1 3/8-mile Filly and Mare Turf, it would be a U.S.-based horse who would move first when jockey Julien Leparoux made a sweeping, six-wide move in the third and final turn aboard War Like Goddess to loom large entering the. Surging War Like Goddess would seize the lead in the stretch and carry that advantage past the eighth pole.

Chad Brown-trained My Sister Nat made a sweeping move of her own in the final turn and then engaged War Like Goddess in deep stretch. But it would be Loves Only You moving best of all in deep stretch. Prominently placed in fourth or fifth throughout by jockey Yuga Kawada, Loves Only You was patient as she encountered traffic in the lane before finding a seam inside the sixteenth pole to deliver her winning surge.

Loves Only You prevailed by a half-length over My Sister Nat; completing the 1 3/8-mile race in 2:13.87 on firm turf. War Like Goddess held third, 1 ½ lengths ahead of dual English classic winner Love in fourth.