Breeders' Cup: Wrote's win part of big day for Irish trainer O'Brien

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Wrote, the winner of the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Churchill Downs on Saturday, was among the 11 horses trained by Aidan O’Brien to van out Saturday night for O’Hare Airport in Chicago, from where they were flown back to O’Brien’s Ballydoyle base in Ireland.

Wrote, owned by the Coolmore team and ridden by Ryan Moore, was making his fifth career start in winning the Juvenile Turf by 2 1/4 lengths over longshot Excaper. For O’Brien, who entered the Breeders’ Cup with a 4-for-63 record, it was his first Grade 1 BC victory since High Chaparral, the sire of Wrote, dead-heated for win in the 2003 BC Turf at Santa Anita. (Man of Iron won the ungraded BC Marathon for O’Brien in 2009.)

“It’s great when it does happen,” said O’Brien, who later in the day won the BC Turf with St Nicholas Abbey. “But it’s very hard at championship races like this, they’re very competitive. All we can do is our best. But when it does work and it does happen, it’s a real thrill for everybody. We all feel very privileged.”

O’Brien said that Wrote would get some down time before being readied for the classic 3-year-old races in England and Ireland and that he believed the colt will improve with distance. He said Moore said “he hoped [Wrote] would stay further” and that Wrote “could be a horse trained for the tasks next year.”

Perhaps the worst trip in the BC Juvenile Turf came for Finale, the lukewarm 4-1 favorite who finished seventh after starting from post 13. Not only did he travel 79 feet farther than the winner, according to Trakus, in having a wide trip throughout, but he also checked sharply when in traffic down the stretch to lose all chance for a placing.