Idiomatic proves her heart with game Breeders' Cup Distaff win
Arcadia, Calif.
The way she dug in through the last furlong, fighting her way to win the Breeders' Cup Distaff on Saturday at Santa Anita, it was as if Idiomatic said she was not done running.
The way her connections were talking after the 1 1/8-mile thriller, it sounds like the soon-to-be-anointed 2023 champion older, dirt female is not done racing.
“I’ll be asked my recommendation,” Juddmonte USA general manager Garrett O’Rourke said. “(Trainer) Brad (Cox) will be asked his recommendation. I know what my vote will be, and I’m pretty sure Brad’s will be the same. I would hope that we keep her in training.”
In an era when horses are raced to breed rather than bred to race, Idiomatic was that rare case this week of a triumphant champion authoring a storybook finish. In this case, though, it was to the race and apparently not her career.
After stalking to the outside of early pacesetter Randomized for most of the race, jockey Florent Géroux set Idiomatic (9-5) down for a burst of speed and a show of power in the homestretch. She got her head in front at the eighth pole and opened a small gap that Randomized (7-1) tried valiantly to close only to come up a half-length short.
“When I needed her the most in the last eighth of a mile, when I really went after her, and I asked her and give her the indication of going forward, she just put her head down and started digging for me really hard,” Géroux said. “She was all heart in her victory.”
It was a little different from the last two races for the 4-year-old, Juddmonte homebred by Curlin. She had won the Personal Ensign (G1) and Spinster (G1) by at least four lengths each. It also was the first time she did not have the lead in the final turn since her last loss. That was in May, five consecutive wins ago.
“Prior victories have been very easy for her,” said Géroux, who is 5-for-5 riding Idiomatic. “But this one she had to earn it. She showed how great she was.”
For Grade 1 winner Randomized, a 3-year-old Nyquist filly owned by Seth Klarman and trained by Chad Brown, the loss provided equal parts frustration and hope.
“Florent applied a little bit of pressure early, and it worked out for him,” Randomized’s jockey José Ortiz said. “I think both fillies ran very good. My filly is a 3-year-old, so she’s just getting better and better.”
Randomized established the pace with strong fractions of 22.31, 46.26 and 1:10.16. Idiomatic was within a half-length at every call. When Idiomatic seized the lead, she had gone the first mile in 1:36.52. Her winning time was 1:50.57 on a fast, main track drenched in 83-degree sunshine.
As the post-time favorite, Idiomatic paid $5.60, $4.00 and $3.00. Randomized returned $7.20 and $5.00. Le Da Vida (16-1) made a late run from eighth to finish third another nose behind and paid $7.20 to show. Clairière (3-1) had been last in the field of nine before making her run to take fourth. Desert Dawn (43-1), Search Results (8-1), Adare Manor (9-2), Wet Paint (9-1) and Hoosier Philly (28-1) were fifth through ninth in that order.
Idiomatic, who began her busy 9: 8-1-0 year with two synthetic-track victories at Turfway Park, already made an irrefutable case to be her division’s champion, especially with five graded-stakes wins. Cox thinks she is even better than all that.
“She definitely deserves some votes for horse of the year,” Cox said. “It’s a serious record. Once again it’s horse of the year, not horse of the fall, horse of the summer, horse of the spring, horse of the Breeders’ Cup. She’s had a tremendous year from start to finish. Today was just the icing on the cake.”
Where Cox was reminding would-be voters of the curriculum vitae, Géroux was underscoring what was inside Idiomatic.
“She deserves to be the champion just because of how much fight she showed today and how much heart,” he said. “Sometimes that’s what makes the difference between good horses and great horses, and I think she’s one of the great.”