Golden Horn looking to pull off first Arc-Breeders’ Cup double

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Dancing Brave might as well have come to Santa Anita in 1986 for the third edition of the Breeders’ Cup Turf with a cluster of footmen and butlers stationed outside his stall. Royalty – that’s what the 3-year-old colt looked like, his bitter defeat in the Epsom Derby having given way to a blistering romp in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the official performance rating of which (141) cast Dancing Brave in an epic light.

He went off at odds of 1-2 in the Turf, and victory seemed absolutely assured all the way up to the point where jockey Pat Eddery started scrubbing on Dancing Brave a half-mile out and got very little response. The colt chunked home fourth and set off what has become nearly 30 years later an abiding Breeders’ Cup narrative: No Arc winner has come back the same season to win a Breeders’ Cup race.

However, the sample size remains small, with a mere six Arc winners running back a month or so later in a Breeders’ Cup race. The seventh such contender, Golden Horn, flew from London to Louisville last Saturday and has staked his tent on the backstretch at Keeneland, where he will try to put an end to the Arc-Breeders’ Cup drought in the $3 million Turf this Saturday.

Golden Horn not only won the Arc but also won the Epsom Derby, those prizes locked in owner and breeder Anthony Oppenheimer’s trophy case along with hardware from the Group 1 Eclipse and the Group 1 Irish Champion. It’s still hard to believe a neck loss to the unheralded filly Arabian Queen in the Group 1 International at York is all that separates Golden Horn from an undefeated career.

His official rating stamps him as less than an all-time great, but Golden Horn, on bare accomplishment, is the best 3-year-old to cross the Atlantic for a Breeders’ Cup race, a circumstance that would be more loudly trumpeted this week had the Classic not attracted its first Triple Crown winner in American Pharoah.

But where American Pharoah faces a host of fierce foes, Golden Horn could wind up the heaviest favorite of Breeders’ Cup weekend. In the Arc, he trounced the filly Found, the only other European entrant in the Turf. Flintshire finished second in the Arc, no match for Golden Horn, but swept aside Grade 1 rivals in the U.S. over the Turf’s 12-furlong distance when he traveled to Saratoga for the Sword Dancer in August. Second in the 2014 Turf, Flintshire was rerouted from an intended Turf start this year to the Japan Cup not long after the Golden Horn camp made it clear that, all things being well, Golden Horn would come to Keeneland for his career finale.

There appears only one realistic thing for Golden Horn to conquer here – the Arc-Breeders’ Cup 0-for, about which trainer John Gosden, who spent several years as an assistant and head trainer in Southern California, knows plenty.

“I was there for Dancing Brave in 1986,” said Gosden. “I’m well aware of all that.”

Asked in a phone interview how the mighty 3-year-old lost, Gosden gave the verbal equivalent of a shoulder shrug.

“He probably was, as we say, over the top by then, and he certainly wasn’t on his game,” he said. “It was the end of a long season.”

The relatively tight turns at Santa Anita might not have suited Dancing Brave, but the firm turf shouldn’t have troubled him. He’d won the Arc over unusually firm going for the race, setting a course record.

Dancing Brave, however, was really the only shocking Arc loser in a Breeders’ Cup race. In 1987, Arc winner Trempolino also went to Hollywood for the Turf and finished a good second, beaten a half-length by the favored Theatrical. Andre Fabre trained Trempolino, and he trained 1992 Arc winner Subotica, who was fifth that fall in the Turf at Gulfstream. The Florida heat and humidity hammered a horse ready for a northern winter, while Subotica, who had won the Arc over soft ground, now was racing on a short-cut, firm course. Arc winner or not, he was sent off at 7-1, with expectations mild at best.

“Both horses were beaten, but there’s no rule there about Arc winners,” said Fabre. “Trempolino ran a hell of a race.”

Saumarez won the 1990 Arc and finished fifth at Belmont in the Turf, a race won by the Fabre-trained In the Wings, who had been fourth in the Arc. But that was no vintage Arc, with the top finishers all varying shades of gray, and at Belmont, Saumarez raced among the early leaders in a closer-dominated race and was checked hard in the running, too.

After Subotica, no Arc winner ran in the Breeders’ Cup until 2001, when Sakhee, taking a different path, finished second by a nose to the great Tiznow in the Classic. No Arc hangover there, and in 2007, when Arc winner Dylan Thomas finished fourth at odds-on in the Turf, it came in an absolute bog that only romping winner English Channel truly could abide.

And that’s it – hardly the Chicago Cubs trying to win a World Series. And in Golden Horn, Gosden, and jockey Frankie Dettori, we find a team steamrolling into the U.S.

Gosden, 64, set a record for single-season purse earnings for a British trainer in 2015 and managed to send out the Epsom Derby exacta when Jack Hobbs, one of Europe’s best 12-furlong horses, clearly was second-best behind Golden Horn. Gosden’s second Epsom Derby win came 18 years after Benny the Dip gave him his first. This was Gosden’s first Arc winner, but he has won important races across the globe, including the 2008 Classic with Raven’s Pass, also ridden by Dettori.

Dettori has undergone a remarkable renaissance just a couple years after appearing firmly settled on the down slope of a hugely successful career. He was suspended in 2012 for a drug positive, a long and fruitful association with Godolphin ended, and though the retained rider for owner Sheikh Joaan al Thani, he lost the mount on the two-time Arc winner Treve.

The 44-year-old Dettori, who has ridden 11 Breeders’ Cup winners, denied Treve her third Arc win with a ride widely hailed as masterful. From a wide draw, Dettori kept Golden Horn far out on the Longchamp course, waiting nearly a furlong for pace and position to resolve before guiding his mount into a perfect spot, settled in second while being towed along by none other than Treve’s own pacemaker.

Golden Horn was happy to be there, skipping along close to the front. Dancing Brave swept to stunning victories with late acceleration, and that is how Golden Horn won the Epsom Derby, but he since has evolved into a horse most comfortable showing pace.

For what it’s worth, Dettori has called Golden Horn the best horse he’s ridden. Early on, Gosden also saw something special from the colt who failed to meet a reserve of about $292,000 at a yearling auction in Deauville, France, and was taken back home by Oppenheimer.

“He started doing strong work in August of his 2-year-old year, and it was apparent he was a natural athlete,” Gosden said. “Kingman, when he retired to stud, I didn’t hesitate to put this maiden winner in his stall.”

Kingman was named 2014 Horse of the Year at the Cartier Awards, no match on rankings for super-horse Frankel but one of the best-regarded European milers of the last several years.

Golden Horn goes to stud next year. If he were staying in training for 2016, he might well have stayed home rather than come to Keeneland. But the Arc win still sat warm on the stove when Oppenheimer publicly mentioned the possibility of a trip to the Turf, and hours after the Arc, the humans closest to the colt spoke of a horse who hardly looked stressed or fatigued. Golden Horn, who has worked twice since the Arc, has done nothing since to make Gosden reconsider the trip.

“He’s got a great constitution,” said Gosden. “He handles his racing well, puts weight back on very quickly. Not many times you expect to have a 3-year-old in full training in January go through a full season without a little time out and go through to the Breeders’ Cup, but at this stage, he’s giving us all the right signs.”

The same thing might have been said in 1986 of Dancing Brave, who was retired after his Turf loss in a haze of disappointment instead of a blaze of glory. It feels unlikely that a similar fate awaits Golden Horn. It feels like this is Gosden’s year, Dettori’s year, and Golden Horn’s year, and in all likelihood, the Arc streak will stop Saturday.