Aidan O'Brien wins 6th BC Juvenile Turf with Unquestionable

Favored Unquestionable ($5) surged past My Boy Prince at the eighth pole and held off stablemate Mountain Bear by 1 1/2 lengths to win the 17th running of the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) for 2-year-olds in the final Breeders' Cup race on Friday.

Trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by Ryan Moore for Al Shaqab Racing, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor et al, Unquestionable covered the mile on a firm turf course in 1:33.65. For O’Brien, it is his 17th World Championships victory and the 13th for Moore. The trainer-jockey combination now has won this race six times with other victories coming with Wrote (2011), George Vancouver (2012), Hit It a Bomb (2015), Mendelssohn (2017) and Victoria Road (2022).

Air Recruit set the pace from the inside while being tracked by My Boy Prince with Unquestionable getting a ground-saving trip behind the top two. Leadership went unchanged to the top of the stretch where Moore swung Unquestionable off the rail and into the three path for clear running.

Unquestionable hit the front at the eighth pole, opened a daylight margin and had more than enough to hold off Mountain Bear, who finished a head in front of My Boy Prince.

“He’s a very tough horse who we’ve always had a lot of faith in,” O'Brien said. “Ryan (Moore) gave him an unbelievable ride in a great position from an early stage from a tough draw. He won very well in the end and I’m delighted. He did everything right in the preparations going into the race so for him to go and win is brilliant.”

The victory was worth $520,000 and increased Unquestionable’s earnings to $671,394 with a record of 6: 2-2-1. Unquestionable is a son of Wootton Bassett out of the Sea The Stars mare Strawberry Lace.

Second-place Mountain Bear was vanned off after the race with an injury to his left front leg. According to a statement from Breeders' Cup, he was taken to the Southern California Equine Foundation for evaluation. O'Brien stated in a post-race press conference that "it was a non-displaced condylar fracture...he'll get a cast on him for four weeks and should be fine.  He's down in the barn and settled in now."

O'Brien also addressed the Friday morning veterinary scratch of River Tiber. He said "the vets thought he was a little bit stiff this morning... nobody wanted to take any chance and we respected that."