Buy or Sell on Road to Breeders’ Cup: Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes Winner Rhetorical

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Rhetorical, Coolmore Turf Mile, Keeneland, Breeders’ Cup Mile, Win and You’re In, Wachtel Stable, Cheyenne Stable, Gary Barber, Will Walden, trainer, Irad Ortiz, jockey, Not This Time, pedigree, turf, speed figures, horse racing, gelding, ABR
Rhetorical handled his first graded stakes assignment impressively, posting a three-quarter-length win in the Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes at Keeneland Oct. 4. (Coady Media)

Rhetorical entered 2025 with only one win and two starts to his credit. Ten months and four victories later he’s one of the leading contenders for the $2 million FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile Presented by PDJF Nov. 1 at Del Mar.

Rhetorical scored a three-quarter-length upset win Saturday at Keeneland in the $1.25 million Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes, rewarding his backers with a $21.18 return on a $2 win bet and punching his ticket to the Breeders’ Cup Mile in the “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series race.

rhetorical

Trainer: Will Walden

Owners: Gary Barber, Cheyenne Stable, and Wachtel Stable

Breeders: Mallory Mort and Karen Mort (N.Y.)

Jockey: Irad Ortiz Jr.

Career Record: 6 starts – 5 wins – 0 seconds – 1 third

Earnings: $824,700

Stakes Wins in 2025: West Point Stakes Presented by Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes

Pedigree: Not This Time – Sheet Humor, by Distorted Humor

Accomplishments: A dark bay or brown Not This Time gelding, Rhetorical was an impressive debut winner July 26, 2024, in a one-mile turf race at Saratoga Race Course and finished third later that meet in his second start for trainer Will Walden.

He did not race again as a 3-year-old and returned 8 ½ months later with a five-length runaway victory May 18, 2025, in a 1 1/16-mile allowance race on turf at Aqueduct that opened some eyes.

“We just gave him time to grow and mature,” Walden said of the layoff. “It was just baby stuff – nothing major.”

Rhetorical was subsequently purchased privately by Gary Barber, Cheyenne Stable, and Wachtel Stable and has continued his upward trajectory. Rhetorical rolled by 2 ½ lengths July 19 at Saratoga in a 1 1/16-mile allowance race and then was tested in a stakes race and made easy work of five challengers in the 1 1/16-mile West Point Stakes Presented by Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, pulling clear by 2 ¼ lengths as the odds-on favorite.

The Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile was a challenging spot for Rhetorical’s graded stakes debut. He was one of six horses between 9-1 and 13-1 odds in a race with heavily favored European invader Diego Velazquez and U.S. multiple Grade 1 winner Program Trading the top two betting choices in a deep 11-horse field.

“He was doing so good and training better than he ever has,” Walden said. “We use a lot of metrics with our horses and he was just off the charts. We decided to take a swing at it.”

Rhetorical settled in fourth behind a swift opening quarter-mile in :22.40 and responded powerfully when given his cue by jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., covering his final quarter-mile in :23.08 and last eighth of a mile in :11.77 to hold off Program Trading by three-quarters of a length. He improved to five wins in six starts and his lone defeat came by three-quarters of a length in his second start. Rhetorical is all racehorse.

Speed Figures: Rhetorical topped out in 2024 with a 98 Equibase Speed Figure and an 82 Beyer Speed Figure. He boosted his career top to a 103 (Equibase) and 95 (Beyer) in the West Point and then blew those out of the water in the Turf Mile with a 120 Equibase Speed Figure and 101 Beyer Speed Figure after blitzing a mile in 1:33.61, less than four-fifths of a second off the course record.

Looking Ahead: I’m usually the first to dismiss U.S.-based horses in the Breeders’ Cup Mile – Europeans have won five of the last seven and had won four in a row until More Than Looks prevailed last fall at Del Mar. But Rhetorical has the ability to track a swift pace and still finish powerfully and he defeated two European Group 1 winners (Diego Velazquez and Woodshauna) and French classic-placed 3-year-old Jonquil in the Turf Mile at Keeneland. Seven of the last 13 winners of the Breeders’ Cup Mile prepped at Keeneland with five coming out of the Turf Mile Stakes. Rhetorical might not have an expansive track record of consistent success at the elite level like some of his peers, but he proved his class at the Grade 1 level Oct. 4 at Keeneland and he’s a rising star U.S. turf miler. It’s too early to determine if Rhetorical will be my win selection, but he’s a serious Breeders’ Cup Mile contender and so I’m buying his stock approaching the 2025 World Championships.

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