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Great results for Japan and Godolphin's Appleby-Buick team

And a not-so-great scorecard for the Del Mar officials.  That is due to the appalling mix-up in the Juvenile Turf when Albahr reared up in the stalls, just managed to avoid serious injury to jockey Frankie Dettori and while he was being extricated his neighbour and stablemate Modern Games had the front of his stall opened by an attendant and so he did what he was trained to do and jumped out but jockey William Buick got the horse back under control and they were taken to the back of the stalls and prepared to re-enter.  For some reason one of the vets announced that Modern Games was scratched, but the horse had no injuries and had no problem going back into his stall.  It may have been the jockeys Godolphin Blue caused the confusion – who knows?  Since there was a 15 minute delay to the start of the race they had time, one would have thought, to just say that was an error.  Instead they said the horse could run but just for prize money and all bets would be refunded.  Oh well.  Modern Games behaved perfectly as did William Buick and they found themselves the winner of a race where they got the prize money and a lot of angry punters got nothing.

So to the racing itself – Twilight Gleaming led all the way to take out the Juvenile Turf Sprint as did Echo Zulu in the Juvenile Fillies over 1700m which she won by 5 ½ lengths.  The Juvenile Fillies Turf was a thrilling finish with Pizza Bianca got a fantastic ride (he had the jockey cam on so we could watch it on replay) from Jose-Luis Ortiz to just get his nose in front of Malavath and Haughty, and Corniche had no problems in winning the BC Juveniles in the absence of Jack Christopher.

No surprises in the first two races on Saturday – Lone Rock defeated Tizamagician in the Alliance, and the top three in the Goldikova were Going Global, Zofelle and Princess Grace.

Then Ce Ce under Victor Espinoza lowered the colours of Gamine in the f&m Sprint with the odds-on favourite only third.

Golden Pal put on a top performance to win the Turf Sprint and Life is Good took out the Big Ass Fans in the way an odds-on runner should winning by 6 lengths from Ginobili.

And then it was the first of Japan's big moments when Loves Only You won the f&m Turf under a top ride from Yuga Kawada, to become the first Japanese winner of a Breeders' Cup race.  The Yahagi-sensei trained mare has raced in Dubai and Hong Kong and seems to have a wonderful temperament as well as ability no doubt inherited from her sire Deep Impact.

Aloha West 12/1 caused an upset in the Sprint winning by a nose from Dr Schivel and then it was the turn  of Godolphin to take centre stage again with one of their two runners, Master of the Seas, playing up in the barriers and being scratched.  However their other runner, Space Blues, was unmoved by all this and under the unflappable William Buick went on to win which was even more special as it was his last race.

Another mega-upset in the Distaff when Japanese runner Marche Lorraine 50/1 won in a very tight photo from Dunbar Road.  The Yahagi pupil had Oisin Murphy in the saddle this time.

And another upset in the BC Turf when another Appleby-Buick Yibir won in a tight photo with our beloved Broome with Teona third.

And then it was the Classic and Knicks Go said let's go and controlled the race the whole way to win from Medina Spirit and Essential Quality.  Knicks Go was bought by the Korean Racing Authority as a future stallion but he has done so brilliantly this year he will now retire to Three Chimneys in Kentucky, one of the major stud farms.