Thorpedo Anna rips through another gallop in the dark, her 74-year-old exercise rider Danny Ramsey holding and hoping, fighting physics. Big Evs barrels down the horse path, head up, eyes wide, a ball of speed, back for another crack. Emily Upjohn measures each step like she’s trying on a new pair of Pradas. Rebel’s Romance floats along the turf course, a $9.1 million hovercraft. War Like Goddess, a 7-year-old mare still going strong, straddles the line of boil and boil over as her trainer Bill Mott tries to cajole her through another day. East Avenue, well, East Avenue stops you in your tracks; the days, the hours, the minutes can’t come quick enough for his trainer Brendan Walsh.
And the Aidan O’Brien battalion strolls and struts two circuits of the Del Mar paddock Thursday morning. Luxembourg leads City of Troy and eight stablemates with Porta Fortuna tagging along as the caboose. Two turns and out. Photographers, security guards, fans, owners, trainers, agents, writers and general hangers on funnel into the tunnel from the paddock to the track. I stopped counting at 87. Most seemed to be wearing City of Troy vests.
During a week of questions, there is one on the top of everyone’s mind, at the tip of everyone’s lips. Phrased differently but meant the same.
“Can he, or can’t he?”
“Will he, or won’t he?”
I’ve been asked by professional trainers and degenerate gamblers, lifelong horsemen and weekend warriors, my 90-year-old dad and my 15-year-old son. And, yeah, I’ve asked it a time or two, too.
In an era when sporting ventures seem fewer and farther between, Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore team lead the list of sporting ventures this weekend. A once-beaten turf horse takes on the world in the toughest 10 furlongs on the dirt.
Doug Cowans and Next are right there with O’Brien and City Of Troy. An over-achieving three-turn dirt horse, claimed and revitalized, a feel-good story, taking on the world.
The Breeders’ Cup Classic backs up its name. A classic. An international classic.
When the Breeders’ Cup was created, this was the concept, right? The best of the world converge – an away game for most, step up, take a risk, throw your chips on the table.
