DEL MAR — Whatever talk there is in this country about horse racing usually is dominated by discussion of 3-year-olds, interrupted only occasionally by conversations about 2-year-olds. As in: “Who will be the next good 3-year-olds?”
But there are interesting stories elsewhere, particularly at the Breeders’ Cup, where two older horses – much older in one case – have come from England to Del Mar in search of historic victories.
Both are geldings, of course; colts or horses with this much ability almost always are retired at 3 or 4 for breeding.
The old gelding, the 7-year-old Rebel’s Romance, will be familiar to some, given his wins in the Breeders’ Cup Turf in 2022 and 2024. A victory Saturday would make him the first to win that race three times and put him with the mares Goldikova and Beholder as the only horses to capture any Breeders’ Cup race three times.
In 29 career starts, Rebel’s Romance has 20 wins, including nine in Grade (or Group) I races in six countries.
“It’s unusual in flat racing to see a horse of his age still running at the level he’s running at, and more importantly, running solid,” said his trainer, Charlie Appleby, who has 11 Cup wins from just 27 starters. “Most horses start to just sort of dip away there in their careers, but he’s still holding his own at a Grade I level.”
Conversely, very few fans here will have heard of the even older gelding, Khaadem, who will become just the fifth 9-year-old to contest a Breeders’ Cup race when he starts in Saturday’s Turf Sprint. Only one of the previous four won — Calidoscopio in the now-defunct Marathon (2012).
Khaadem has never competed in a Breeders’ Cup, and he has lost 32 of his 42 career starts. But he has won a pair of Group I races, and they came in back-to-back shock runnings of the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot when he was 7 and 8 years old.
“Some days you’d think, oh, he’s probably had enough. And then he goes and wins at Royal Ascot at 80-1,” said Tori Knight, an assistant to trainer Charlie Hills who has traveled with Khaadem for the past 3½ years. “You can’t ever actually get a gauge on him. He’s hilarious. He’s just a really happy horse, really cheeky, like he gives you an amazing feel when you eye him.”
Khaadem came to the United States last year and finished second in the Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint, but then returned to England rather than attempt the Breeders’ Cup. This year he finished third in the Kentucky Downs race but stayed and won the Woodford on Oct. 4 at Keeneland.
“We thought, you know what, it’s potentially his last year of racing, so why not give it a go here?” Knight said. “We’re kind of hoping we get sunshine and we get a quick ground (which they will). I think that just plays into his strength. And he loves a crowd as well.”
Appleby said the decision to bring Rebel’s Romance back for a third try in the Turf wasn’t difficult.
“He deserves to have a crack at it,” he said. “I could not leave this horse behind. You know, some people might say, well, look, he’s a 7-year-old taking on these horses. But if you were to see him at home and the way he trains, the enthusiasm that he shows, I’d have been pig-sick if I’d left him back at home, that’s for sure.
“So he goes out there in the condition of his life, I’m confident of that. And you know, if he achieves it, then fantastic. But it’s what he deserves. We’re just lucky to be piggybacking on the back of him, basically. But it’ll be great for racing, great for the horse and great for the Breeders’ Cup.”
It won’t be easy for either old gelding to win. Khaadem must deal with a deep field that includes Motorious (another 7-year-old gelding) and the 5-year-old mare Ag Bullet, who were second and third in the Turf Sprint last year. And while Rebel’s Romance has won 10 of 13 starts the last two years, he is the second choice on the morning line behind the talented 3-year-old Irish filly Minnie Hauk, who had a five-race win streak snapped when she was edged out by Daryz in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
“Obviously, he’s a great horse; Charlie’s done a great job with him,” Minnie Hauk’s trainer, Aidan O’Brien, said of Rebel’s Romance. “ … So we wouldn’t take him for granted for one minute and we know that he has a very good heart. We like that he’s running and we look forward to watching our filly run.”