THE Breeders’ Cup Classic may have been knocked from its perch as the most valuable race in the world but it is still the showstopper for the two-day dollar-fest being held at Del Mar.
A year ago Arrogate won the Classic as part of the richest harvest of glittering prizes in the sport's history, adding both the Pegasus and Dubai World Cups to take his career earnings to a staggering £13m.
It was the rest of the racing world that was left staggered when Arrogate finished only fourth in his next run, at Del Mar in July, and then second to Collected over the same track in the Pacific Classic a month later.
Both horses are trained by Bob Baffert and meet again along with a third runner from the stable, West Coast, who has won his last five starts.
Throw in Gun Runner, who seems to have improved since finishing second in the Dubai World Cup, and two from Aidan O’Brien’s yard makes it a tough final race for Arrogate before he is retired to stud.
“We have to see him run the race that we’re all accustomed to seeing him run,” Baffert said. “And, right now, I just don’t see him not running well. After Dubai he came in with that bad race and then after that he had a decent race. He did get beaten by a pretty nice horse.”
Arrogate is not the type to thrill work watchers but as Baffert pointed out: “Before he won the Travers [Stakes last year] I used to work him here. The clockers never really gave him [much attention]. He’s just a big, long-striding horse – he would never light them up in the morning. That’s why he went off at 11-1 in the Travers.”
Arrogate won the Travers by 13½ lengths but Baffert sounded more hopeful than confident when he said: "You always worry if a very good horse gets beaten twice in a row. Physically he looks really healthy, so you just hope it's not something mental. But right now I'd say he's doing really, really well.”
O’Brien might well give up a few of his 26 Group One victories this year for a win in the Classic having finished second with both Giant’s Causeway (2000) and Henrythenavigator (2008) and runs Churchill and War Decree.
Churchill’s star has appeared to be on the wane since he won both the 2000 Guineas and the Irish 2000 Guineas in the spring and has been beaten on each of his four starts since. In many ways this is a shot to nothing before he goes to stud and O'Brien said: "With Churchill, I've always thought that he could end up in the Classic.
“I don't think we've seen the very best of this horse. The dirt is obviously the big question for him, but he's a big powerful horse and is built to handle it."
Even so it will be staggering if Churchill can knock America’s best off their perch.
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