WHAT did we do back in the day this time of year before we had the Breeders’ Cup? It must have been a low-key end to depart the flat after the Champions Stakes at Newmarket.

This year is the 43rd running of the Breeders’ Cup meeting and what a great finale it gives us. Even Willie Mullins is now a regular!

Overall, it’s a hectic but great racing weekend as we have one eye on ushering in the jumps, while the US action gives star appeal to end of the flat.

There’s a wide range of racecourse action between the potential in one sphere of a Skerry Hill at Down Royal to the clash of two Kentucky Derby winners to end the show tonight, but all of great intrigue to racing fans.

A huge team of 24 Irish runners, representing 10 stables from six different counties - Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Kildare, Meath and Westmeath - has descended upon Keeneland.

At the last running at Keeneland in 2022, Godolphin and Charlie Appleby won the two big turf races, the Mile with Modern Games and the Turf with Rebel’s Romance, while Aidan O’Brien had three winners in total, with Tuesday winning the Filly and Mares on the Saturday. This year, Blue Bolt is another European favourite for that race.

Kick things off

From the opener at 5.10pm, Ways And Means is a short-priced favourite to kick things off in the Filly and Mare Sprint. She might be worth taking on. Trainer Saffie Joseph has had an excellent season and could well get on the Breeders’ Cup podium, as his R Disaster has a win over Ways And Means at Churchill Downs in May in a Grade 1 and could be worth a wager at better odds.

The Turf Sprint has Bacio and Comanche Brave, winners of three Group 1s between them in 2026, and seemingly clear of the rest with Abbaye winner Miss Yechance drawn very wide.

Bacio looked so good at York, he’s hard to oppose on faster ground than Comanche Brave encountered in his Curragh five-furlong win. Previous winner Starlust might be the forgotten horse at decent odds.

The Dirt Mile will give an indication on how good the three-year-olds are with Further Ado favourite. But it’s not a race to get too involved in, Forged Steel for Saffie Joseph again worth a look, dropping back in distance.

Perfect season

In the Filly and Mare, Blue Bolt bids to conclude a perfect season with her seventh win, but over a furlong and a half further than she’s ever raced and drawn 12 of 14. When she was well beaten in the Sun Chariot Stakes over a mile by Fallen Angel last season, I certainly didn’t expect this CV for 2026.

When Tuesday won here in 2022, the first four were drawn, 5, 11, 1, 3. US Grade 1 winners Gimme A Nother, Kathynmarissa and Thought Process are well drawn and not dismissed.

Precise, having her ninth Group 1 run of the season, is also out wide but she was a bit unlucky in France and the distance could suit, if she holds her form. Brendan Walsh’s Expensive Queen could be the value outsider, and could improve on her last run, which came off a break.

Notable Speech is Timeform-rated 7lb clear of rivals in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. He beat the best of the US in Deterministic in Woodbine and stall eight looks fine. Lake Forest was unlucky behind Rhetorical last time and, if he got into the clear late, could make the frame.

We must salute the Ballydoyle three-year-old fillies, as True Love also comes here on her ninth start of the season, Gstaad, Constitution River, where are ye? But she has a tough task and it’s hard to see the wider drawn Puerto Rico and Moore improving on their season, even though Order Of Australia did beat two better-fancied stablemates at this track in 2000.

With Nitrogen standing out in the Distaff, that leaves the Turf and Classic. The Turf has nine of the 14 from Ireland or Britain. El Cordobes is surprisingly the only Charlie Appleby runner and needs to improve on his last outing, though he was third here last year.

Diamond Necklace’s Arc run makes her a worthy favourite. Are Hotazhell, Johanna Walsh and Tiffany good enough? Bay City Roller is, but this is his third top Group/Grade 1 in a short time and stall 13 isn’t ideal though perhaps over this distance, it’s less of a worry. Ethical Diamond had been trained for this day.

Two of the Ballydoyle winners, Highland Reel and Auguste Rodin, were the beneficiaries of great rides. You’d have to think Benvenuto Cellini needs something special to get out from stall two, he’d better not repeat the Derby behaviour. Diamond Necklace can see off Tiffany and El Cordobes.

And down to the Classic, 10.16pm is a civilised time for us Europeans. Can Forever Young make it a rare two in a row? Can the Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Golden Tempo add the Classic? Can 2025 Horse of the Year Sovereignty mark himself an outstanding horse? And what of Knightsbridge, the joker in the pack?

I think the three-year-olds are not perhaps the greatest and a top-form Sovereignty wins, but you’d never rule out Forever Young.

WHILE we are trying to convince governments and a wider public of what a great sport we have in racing, you might not want to look too far beneath the headlines over the last week for a few bizarre episodes of a none too professional nature.

Last Saturday at Cheltenham, as the runners came over the second last in the opening chase, we had the sight of an official scrabbling across the track on his knees, out of the way of the runners.

An enquiry was held to consider the circumstances why a member of the Veterinary Team appeared to be attempting to get up off the floor between the final two fences as the field passed. The Clerk of the Course reported that the staff member had lost their footing while crossing the track, as was their routine. They did not have time to move, the individual made the decision to remain on the floor until the field had passed.

Horsebox

Earlier in the week, Sedgefield racecourse had been fined £6,500 by the BHA after a jockey was transported to hospital in a horsebox at their meeting on March 19th earlier this year.

A jockey suffered a fall and was passed fit to continue to ride but later reported increasing pain and a transfer to A & E was required. All the ambulance crews had left and being unable in pain to board a car, he was taken in a horsebox to hospital, went the description.

“The “General Instructions” require proper transfer to hospital with accompaniment from qualified medical staff not, as here, being followed in a car,” was noted in the inquiry.

Then at Galway, while you might by now expect to find a few ‘stranger that fictions’ in Irish stewards inquires, finding trainer Eoin Griffin cautioned by IHRB stewards for using a ‘child’s rattler’ to help his horse to start at Galway is one for the ‘never have I’ notebook.

“Evidence was heard from the trainer concerned who stated that he had a child’s rattler in his hand in order to prompt his horse forward.”

More over, it was no surprise to find he was “of his clean record in this regard”. No more of this rattling racket!