DEL MAR — John Sadler remembers when people would call him the best trainer who had never won a Breeders’ Cup race. That wasn’t so many years ago. But a lot has happened since then.
After going 0 for 41 in his first three decades of trying at thoroughbred racing’s richest event, Sadler won the Breeders’ Cup Classic with champion older horse Accelerate in 2018, the Classic again with Horse of the Year Flightline in 2022, and the Dirt Mile with Full Serrano in 2024.
And Friday at Del Mar, Sadler added to his now-impressive legacy at the Breeders’ Cup when Super Corredora and jockey Hector Berrios won the $2 million Juvenile Fillies in front-running style to pay $19.60, holding off 3-2 favorite Explora and Juan Hernandez by three-quarters of a length.
The victory was a reward for Sadler’s aggressive moves, first to simply enter Super Corredora in the Juvenile Fillies only 20 days after she broke her maiden at Santa Anita on the third try, and then to instruct Berrios to send the daughter of Gun Runner to the lead early in the 1-1/16-mile race.
“She didn’t just break her maiden. She broke her maiden impressively. She won by 8½ (lengths), and she could have won by 15,” Sadler said of that Oct. 11 race, in which Super Corredora improved going 1 mile after two defeats in sprints.
Terry Finley, founder and president of co-owner West Coast Thoroughbreds, said he was “a little surprised” when Sadler suggesting running Super Corredora at the Breeders’ Cup.
“But he’s one of the best trainers of all time. I think he should go to a ceremony at Saratoga in the coming years,” Finley said, meaning the 69-year-old Long Beach native should be in the racing Hall of Fame.
Super Corredora became the first Breeders’ Cup winner for Berrios, one of Southern California’s leading riders but one better known for his success in turf races.
“It’s very special. I want to thank John Sadler for trusting me,” Berrios said.
It was the high point of the day for Berrios, who also won twice in non-Breeders’ Cup races Friday but had a disappointing outing with 5-1 Intrepido in the $2 million Juvenile, starting slowly and finishing fifth behind winner Ted Noffey.
Sadler noted that people stopped asking about his Breeders’ Cup drought as soon as Accelerate won in 2018.
“We’ve won a few of them now,” he said. “I’m very pleased with that.”
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SONS
Ireland’s Aidan O’Brien set the Breeders’ Cup record for victories by a trainer when Gstaad ($4.40) and jockey Christophe Soumillon rallied in the $1 million Juvenile Turf, giving O’Brien 21 wins to break a tie with the late D. Wayne Lukas.
Not only that. Aidan’s 27-year-old son Donnacha O’Brien earned his first Breeders’ Cup victory about an hour earlier, sending out Balantina ($43.20) and jockey Oisin Murphy for the biggest upset of the afternoon in the $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf.
That makes three members of the family to win Breeders’ Cup races. Aidan’s now 32-year-old son Joseph saddled Iridessa to win the 2019 Filly & Mare Turf.
Aidan’s filly Precise was the favorite for the Juvenile Fillies Turf before being withdrawn in the morning.
“Precise is a champion filly, so when she was scratched it made it a little bit easier for us. But it’s incredible (to win),” Donnacha said.
A MEANINGFUL VICTORY
The filly Cy Fair’s victory ($12) over colts with jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. in the $1 million Juvenile Turf Sprint was the first Breeders’ Cup win for New York trainer George Weaver and an emotional one for part-owner Reagan Swinbank.
Cy Fair, a daughter of Not This Time, debuted with a win at Saratoga six days after Swinbank’s 15-year-old daughter Ashley survived the flooding that killed 27 young people and counselors at a summer camp in Texas in July. Swinbank missed that race because he was attending funerals.
Of that race, Swinbank told the Thoroughbred Daily News in July: “There was some hugging and crying and some happy tears after a week of sad tears.”
QUEEN OF THE UNDERCARD
Michele Arthur and Ruben Islas were disappointed when the San Diego residents’ colt Intrepido broke slowly and finished fifth in the Juvenile, Friday’s main event. But they did win a $200,000 race earlier in the day when Jeff Mullins-trained Queen Maxima ($4.80) and Juan Hernandez came from sixth to win the Senator Ken Maddy Stakes, a turf sprint.
The previous win by Queen Maxima, a 4-year-old filly, came on the Kentucky Derby undercard at Churchill Downs last May.
HELP FROM ABOVE
The early undercard races were marked by stewards’ inquiries.
Sadler-trained Mohaven ($5.60), with Berrios aboard, won the $175,000 Golden State Juvenile Fillies for California-bred sprinters when stewards Kim Sawyer, Luis Jauregui and Grant Baker decided bumping with runners-up Cashed and Tyler Gaffalione in the stretch didn’t affect the order of finish.
A race before that, O.J. Jauregui’s Conducted ($5.40) and Berrios won the $200,000 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes for 2-year-olds on turf with Proton second and Plutarch third. The stewards flashed the number of Plutarch and Flavien Prat but decided their bump with Dr. Agne and Jose Ortiz near the finish didn’t merit a disqualification.