Auguste Rodin gets the trip in Breeders' Cup Turf

Arcadia, Calif.

After 1 1/2 miles, the finish between two likely champions came down to trip.

Dual derby and Irish Champion winner Auguste Rodin slipped up the rail and held off American three-time Grade 1 winner Up to the Mark to win the Breeders' Cup Turf.

The connections of Auguste Rodin cautioned against attributing the win to circumstance, though, saying that nothing went according to plan early in the race.

"The rail move was actually plan 'F' at that point," jockey Ryan Moore said. "It wasn't our plan to be that far back early, but we got squeezed and that's where we ended up. I didn't like where we were, but I wanted to get Auguste Rodin into a nice rhythm. Overcoming that first half shows how good he is."

Auguste Rodin was 8 of 11 through slow fractions of :24.85, 48.79 and 1:12.66 before making his blitz up the rail. Up to the Mark had position on the favorite, but was three wide when starting his rally and went further outside for the final run. Three-quarters of a length decided the finish in 2:24.30.

"He was too far back early, but Ryan [Moore] didn't panic, and we saw the talent of both horse and rider there," co-owner Michael Tabor said. 

In his last nine starts, Auguste Rodin has 7 wins-5 of them Grade or Group 1 triumphs. His two losses, though, were absolute clunkers: finishing 12th of 14 in the English Guineas at 8-5 and last of 10 in the King George & Queen Elizabeth at 11-5. Trainer Aidan O'Brien took special pride in overcoming those disappointments.

"We knew Ascot might be trouble because of the [soft] ground, which was what he encountered in the Guineas," O'Brien said. "Ryan [Moore] is so good with horses, he could feel it wasn't his day and took care of him. We also had flown him in that day. We've been [at Santa Anita Park] all week and saw how beautifully he was doing."

The star-studded Turf field included ten Grade or Group 1 winners. Japan-based Shahryar finished third to complete a truly international trifecta.

Up to the Mark's second-place finish may be enough to earn him champion turf male, as the horse he beat last out, Master of the Seas, won the Breeders' Cup Mile earlier on the card.

"We had a lot of people questioning whether we picked the right race, and we picked what we thought was the right race for our horse despite the fact you could argue this was tougher than the mile," Up to the Mark's trainer Todd Pletcher said. "I think he showed that he belongs with all the tough turf horses in the world. He lost nothing in defeat."

"We'd have loved to have gotten the win, but he ran tremendous," Bill Farish said of the colt his family's Lane's End Farm will stand next year. "To win at 8, 9, and 10 furlongs and then just miss against a world-class horse going 1 1/2 miles shows his talent. Maybe trip made the difference. We're proud of him."

Up to the Mark will retire, but Auguste Rodin's co-owner M.V. Magnier left open the possibility of their now-five-time Grade/Group 1 winner running as a four-year-old with the Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar a potential career-ending target.

"He has a very international type of pedigree, and we think he could be very attractive to American breeders," Magnier said of Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Lexington. "We'll let the dust settle and enjoy this and regroup about next year."