Recent history dictates that when trainer Charlie Appleby ships a racehorse to North America, the runner must be respected. According to Equineline stats, Appleby has won 40 races from 125 starters since the start of 2021 (32%) with 23 Grade 1 wins.

Appleby knows which horses in his stable will thrive on the firmer turf in North America as well as which ones fit against the best stateside horses, and Aug. 9 in the Grade 1 Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer Stakes Appleby’s entrants finished first and third in the $750,000 race at Saratoga Race Course.

America’s Best Racing is exploring leading contenders for the 14 races that comprise the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, and this week we evaluate El Cordobes after he punched his ticket to the Longines Turf Nov. 1 at Del Mar with a half-length Sword Dancer win.

Accomplishments: El Cordobes raced only once as a 2-year-old and twice in 2024 at age 3, winning a race on the all-weather surface at Kempton Park. He started out his 4-year-old season in Dubai and finished second in a pair of races, but El Cordobes really began to excel in the spring and summer with added distance.

He won a 1 ½-mile race by 3 ¼ lengths May 3 at Newmarket and finished third in the Group 3 Sky Sports Racing Aston Park Stakes at Newbury two weeks later. His breakout race came July 10 at Newmarket when he surged clear in the final furlong to win the 1 ½-mile Kingdom of Bahrain Princess of Wales’s Stakes by two lengths for his first stakes win.

Both the Aston Park and Princess of Wales’s Stakes came on good to firm ground in England, so the Sword Dancer provided an appealing option for Appleby and the Godolphin homebred.

El Cordobes got shuffled back a bit entering the stretch and was near the back of the eight-horse Sword Dancer field, but he accelerated powerfully and split horses in deep stretch to take command from between stablemate Nations Pride to his inside and runner-up Rebel Red to his outside. In the final yards under Flavien Prat, El Cordobes switched leads several times but still managed to finish his final quarter-mile in :22.98 and final eighth of a mile in :11.53, strong closing fractions for a 1 ½-mile race.

“He ran a massive race and Flavien gave him a peach of a ride,” Appleby’s traveling assistant Chris Connett said. “He’s not a small boy but he can be nimble when he needs to be and with someone like Flavien on, 99% of the time, if he’s got the horse under him, he’ll find a way to get to the front.”

Speed Figures: El Cordobes earned a 104 Beyer Speed Figure for the Sword Dancer, tied for the fastest of the year for a turf race at one mile or longer. He likewise earned a 119 Equibase Speed Figure, just two points shy of the best of the year for a two-turn turf race. He’s plenty fast.

Looking Ahead: Appleby has won three of the last four editions of the Breeders’ Cup Turf with Godolphin runners — Yibir in 2021 and Rebel’s Romance in 2022 and 2024 — and should have a very good chance again in 2025. Rebel’s Romance remains in training and won a Group 1 race Aug. 10 in Germany, while both El Cordobes and Sword Dancer third-place finisher Nations Pride look like legitimate contenders.

I loved the way El Cordobes rallied in the Sword Dancer, overcoming adversity near the top of the stretch and then splitting horses in the final furlong with a powerful late burst. He will be shipped back to England Thursday and his connections did yet not commit to the Breeders’ Cup Turf, but if El Cordobes is in the starting gate Nov. 1 at Del Mar he will be a serious threat to win. The sound you hear is me pushing my chips in on El Cordobes.