Notable Speech did not win the Lockinge Stakes in May, nor did he win the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, and he definitely did not win the July Cup, checking in fifth. His very presence in the July Cup, a race over a six-furlong trip a full quarter-mile shorter than Notable Speech had ever run, told the tale: The colt’s connections, owner-breeder Godolphin and trainer Charlie Appleby, were looking for answers. Not that Notable Speech was stinking up the joint. He just had failed to finish off the Lockinge and the Queen Anne with sufficient verve. The turnback to a sprint didn’t help either, but in a fourth loss to start his campaign, Appleby and jockey William Buick found their answer. In the Prix Jacques Le Marois, Buick let Notable Speech drop toward the tail of an 11-runner field, allowing his mount to relax before beginning to slalom his way into contention. Passing rivals with increasing force, Notable Speech fell a neck short of victory while looking very much like the best horse in the race. Another defeat, but the colt now was on his way. :: Full list of 2025 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories Or was he? Notable Speech shipped from England to Canada for the Woodbine Mile in September and won by a comfortable margin at odds of 2-5. Yet his performance lacked the sparkle one expected following his Marois effort and on the basis of his career arc. Thus, Notable Speech traveled to Del Mar far less than a sure thing to win the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile presented by PDJF. Of course, Appleby and Godolphin would have loved to run the table in 2025, sweeping all the major European miles before the Breeders’ Cup. But in the end, the Breeders’ Cup Mile had been Notable Speech’s major goal all season. A year earlier, Notable Speech, the tepid favorite, finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, beaten less than a length, a 3-year-old still on his way to racehorse maturity, not quite ready to close the deal. Now he was prepared to deal with 2024’s unfinished business. Buick said after the dust had settled that the Breeders’ Cup Mile panned out just as he and Appleby envisioned, Notable Speech sitting mid-pack while saving ground, slipping through along the rail and bursting home to win easily, by 1 1/2 lengths. The 4-year-old version of Notable Speech clocked 22.38 seconds for his final quarter-mile in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, more than a half-second faster than he had come home in 2024. The in-season tactical change and the trainer’s patience had paid off, the sting from that string of European defeats to start the year barely a memory in the glow of Del Mar glory. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.