Breeders’ Cup Turf

(Grade 1)

MARIA Niarchos’ homebred Main Sequence put the cap on a brilliant season, charging to victory by half a length over Arc runner-up Flintshire in the $3 million Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf.

The five-year-old Aldebaran gelding has now won four Grade 1 races in a row since relocating from David Lanigan’s Lambourn yard - the Grade 1 United Nations, Grade 1 Sword Dancer, the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Classic Invitational, and the Breeders’ Cup Turf - and is undefeated since arriving in North America to the barn of trainer Graham Motion this year.

“He did everything so well and so easily today,” Motion said. “He broke really well and went on from there and did everything great. It really was a team effort and the horse has been spectacular. He’s really suited to American racing and he just gets better and better.”

“I hadn’t even thought about Horse of the Year now, but I think he should be. Horses don’t win four Grade I races in a row like that. How many horses can do that? He has to be one of the best I’ve trained.”

Well back early in the field of 12 for the mile and a half turf race, Main Sequence and John Velazquez were content to settle off the pace as Imagining and then Hardest Core lead the field turning for home.

Hardest Core was tiring, however, and Main Sequence charged to the front to win impressively off the pace. Flintshire rallied well for second, Twilight Eclipse finished half a length back in third, while 8/5 favourite Telescope came in fourth.

“He’s run a good race, but the race wasn’t really run to suit him,” trainer Sir Michael Stoute said of the favourite. “He’s a long striding horse for a track like this.”

Main Sequence was a Group 3 winner in England in May of 2012 but never broke through at the highest level, despite a runner-up finish in the Group 1 Epsom Derby that season.

Owner Maria Niarchos said the win was an emotional one for her family’s stable.

“This win means a lot because, as you know, we bred the stallion, Aldebaran, and we also bred the mare,” Niarchos explained. “So this is a kind of pure family homebred horse. And the good teamwork between David and Graham makes it unique.

“I’m overwhelmed and would like to thank everyone here.

“And I’m very glad that my family was here, my children, and my nieces and nephew, because they’re the future of the sport, and we’ve got to get the young interested.”