Breeders' Cup Mile: Karakontie eyeing a repeat

No Breeders’ Cup race has produced repeat winners like the Mile, and 2014 hero Karakontie remains on track to make it six times that a winner has returned to score again the following season.

Karakontie has more Mile history behind him. A France-based horse like Karakontie has won the Mile 10 times in 31 runnings, while Karakontie’s owner, the Niarchos family, has landed six Mile trophies with five different horses. Trainer Jonathan Pease, retiring at season’s end, trains Karakontie and trained the Niarchos-owned Spinning World to win in 1997.

It has not been smooth sailing for Karakontie, who won at Santa Anita last year at a whopping 30-1 owing to a pair of form-clouding performances leading up to the Mile. Karakontie didn’t race this year until August because of a quarter crack in his left-front hoof.

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“That took some time to come right and delayed his comeback,” said Niarchos family racing manager Alan Cooper.

Karakontie’s connections circled the 2015 Mile as a major goal not long after last year’s Breeders’ Cup, where he overcame post 14 under a beautiful ride from Stephane Pasquier to win by one length over Anodin, another French invader. Karakontie’s two starts this summer came over very soft courses that were less than ideal for him; he was sixth of 10 in the Group 1 Jacques Le Marois on Aug. 16 and finished third, beaten two lengths, after setting the pace in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin on Sept. 13. Karakontie is best as a hold-up closer.

“It was a very satisfactory result considering he was on a comeback mission, and Jonathan is pleased with how he came out of it,” said Cooper.

Karakontie raced last October in the Prix de la Foret but “will go fresh from the Moulin to the Mile,” Cooper said.

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The European group for the Mile could be excellent, with Esoterique, Territories, and Mondialiste all under consideration. Dutch Connection, second last out to the mighty Solow, heads to the Shadwell Turf Mile on Oct. 3 as a potential BC Mile prep. The Shadwell at Keeneland is one of two Mile prep races that weekend along with the Kelso at Belmont, while the West Coast prep comes this Sunday in the City of Hope Mile, headed by Avanzare, Talco, and Twentytwentyvision.