America has always prided itself on being the land of opportunity, the country where by sheer merit and hard work one can achieve wealth or power - or both. The results of this year’s Breeders’ Cup meeting, though, reflect a different kind of opportunity. When one sorts the results of the 14 Breeders’ Cup races, the number of winners by sire line is pretty much directly proportional to the number of stallions from each sire line at stud in the U.S. and Europe combined. The Northern Dancer male line accounted for half of the 14 races, Mr. Prospector five, A.P. Indy two, and Hail to Reason, which hangs by the thread of More Than Ready and perhaps Point of Entry, one. Not surprisingly, the Northern Dancers won five of the six turf races, the lone exception being the newly minted Juvenile Turf Sprint won by Bulletin, whose sire, City Zip is a grandson of Mr. Prospector. That dominance of the grass events is mostly the result of the export of Northern Dancer’s son Sadler’s Wells and grandson Danehill to Europe in the 1980s. Juvenile Turf winner Line of Duty is by Sadler’s Wells’s great son Galileo and Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Enable is by Galileo’s son Nathaniel. Danehill’s grandson Myboycharlie, by Danetime, is responsible for Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Sistercharlie :: DRF BREEDING LIVE: Real-time coverage of breeding and sales Two of the other grass winners are male line descendants of Northern Dancer’s grandson Storm Cat, by Storm Bird, whose best son, three-time leading American sire Giant’s Causeway, raced mostly in Europe. Giant’s Causeway sired one crop in Ireland before being reimported to stand at Ashford Stud, and that crop was led by champion Shamardal, whose son Lope de Vega sired impressive Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Newspaperofrecord. And for the second straight year, Stormy Liberal, by Storm Cat’s son Stormy Atlantic, won the Turf Sprint. Finally, the Breeders’ Cup Mile was won by Expert Eye, whose sire Acclamation is a grandson of El Gran Senor’s older full brother Try My Best, who was champion 2-year-old in Europe in 1977 but did not train on. Acclamation’s branch of Northern Dancer has enjoyed a revival in recent years primarily through the exploits of his son Dark Angel. The sole dirt win by the Northern Dancer line was in the Marathon, which doesn’t even carry the Breeders’ Cup name anymore. The winner, Rocketry, by Hard Spun, is a grandson of Danehill’s sire Danzig, by Northern Dancer. Descendants of Mr. Prospector captured four of the eight dirt events, headed by Accelerate’s victory in the Classic. Accelerate’s victory was a first Breeders’ Cup success for Smart Strike’s champion son Lookin At Lucky. The Fappiano branch of Mr. Prospector dominated the Juvenile colt and filly races with Jaywalk, by Fapppiano’s great-grandson Cross Traffic, running away with the Juvenile Fillies, and Game Winner, by another great-grandson of Candy Ride, a decisive winner of the Juvenile. City of Light, an impressive winner of the Dirt Mile, is by a grandson of Gone West, Quality Road, by leading sire Elusive Quality. The A.P. Indy male line’s two winners came through Monomoy Girl’s dominant win in the Distaff and Shamrock Rose’s upset victory in the Filly and Mare Sprint. Monomoy Girl’s sire, Tapizar, by Tapit, is a grandson of A.P. Indy’s first-crop son Pulpit, while Shamrock Rose, by First Dude, is a granddaughter of A.P. Indy’s son Stephen Got Even. Roy H. by More Than Ready, was a repeat winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. More Than Ready is a grandson of Hail to Reason’s leading sire son Halo. The 14 2018 Breeders’ Cup winners were sired by 14 different sires. Line of Duty is the fifth Breeders’ Cup winner sired by Galileo, and Roy H. is one of five winners of six Breeders’ Cup races for More Than Ready. Bulletin is the fourth Breeders’ Cup winner sired by City Zip, and City of Light is the third Breeders’ Cup winner for Quality Road in his burgeoning stud career. Game Winner is the second Breeders’ Cup champion for Candy Ride following Gun Runner’s Classic win last year. Stormy Liberal is the only Breeders’ Cup winner for Stormy Atlantic, though his two wins count a bit extra for him. Acclamation, Cross Traffic, First Dude, Hard Spun, Lookin At Lucky, Lope de Vega, Myboycharlie, Nathaniel, and Tapizar were all represented by their first Breeders’ Cup winners. As usual, all 14 winners were produced by different broodmares, and none of the winning dams had produced a previous Breeders’ Cup winner, although Enable’s dam, Concentric, by Sadler’s Wells, is a full sister to Dance Routine, the dam of 2016 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Flintshire, by Dansili.