Breeders' Cup Mile: Notable Speech looks to become first repeat winner since 2013

The great Goldikova won the Breeders’ Cup Mile in 2008, 2009, and 2010, while the great Wise Dan pulled a BC Mile double in 2012 and 2013. Two horses won the Mile five times in six years, but there has not been a repeat winner since.

Notable Speech will be favored to end that drought Oct. 31 at Keeneland. In fact, the 5-year-old horse returned this year for a campaign with that goal as a primary objective.

His connections – Godolphin, trainer Charlie Appleby, and jockey William Buick – know something about winning the Mile.

Notable Speech finished third, beaten less than one length, in the 2024 Mile, and had he gotten up in time to win, Godolphin, Appleby, and Buick would have five straight victories in the race. Space Blues captured the 2021 edition followed by Modern Games in 2022 and Master of The Seas in 2023.

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Notable Speech suffered a nightmare trip finishing fourth as the best horse in the Maker’s Mark Mile this past April at Keeneland, then comfortably won the Group 1 Lockinge, Europe’s first important one-mile contest of the year. He ran below form at Ascot in 2024 and 2025, and did so again in June, but put a tame sixth in the Queen Anne behind him with a sharp score in the City of York Stakes on Aug. 22. Rallying into a sluggish pace through a less-than-ideal trip, Notable Speech rallied for a comfortable win in the Woodbine Mile on Sept. 12, the same race Appleby used as a prep for last year’s Mile.

At Woodbine, Notable Speech ran right past North America’s best middle-distance turf horse, Deterministic, who should’ve had plenty left after setting a comfortable tempo – a result that highlighted the wide gap separating top-class European grass performers and their American counterparts.

Notable Speech beat Lake Forest by almost three lengths in the City of York, and Lake Forest – a BC Mile hope himself – runs Saturday at Keeneland in the last American prep for the BC Mile, the Coolmore Turf Mile at Keeneland.

Deterministic leads the American contingent for the BC Mile, though Zulu Kingdom and Rhetorical, both in Saturday’s contest at Keeneland, aren’t far behind.

Still, the Saturday race with the greatest Mile implications comes at Newmarket in England, where Blue Bolt starts as an odds-on favorite against other older fillies and mares in the Sun Chariot Stakes. Blue Bolt, a Juddmonte homebred trained by Andrew Balding, has gone 5 for 5 this year and won three straight Group 1s. She possesses a dazzling turn of foot and will pose a greater threat to Notable Speech than any horse he defeated last fall at Del Mar.

Sunday’s Prix de la Foret at Longchamp often yields Breeders’ Cup runners, and while the Queen Elizabeth II at Ascot comes just two weeks before the Mile, horses consistently make both races. Gstaad and Ten Bob Tony each hold an early entry into the QE II; both are under consideration for the Mile and would rate a live chance if they show up.

California-based Cabo Spirit secured a BC Mile spot winning the City of Hope Mile last weekend at Santa Anita, while California-based Formidable Man and King of Gosford also could run at Keeneland.

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