Spun to Run upsets Omaha Beach in Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile
Spun to Run, perhaps overlooked given his last out stakes win came at Parx Racing, brought a big speed figure into Saturday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and backed it up in an upset of odds-on Omaha Beach.
The second-ever Breeders’ Cup starter for trainer Carlos Guerrero was hustled from the gate by Irad Ortiz Jr., spread out the pack and left Omaha Beach too much to do.
As fractions clicked off in 23.05 and 46.51, chased by the Korean entry Blue Chipper, Spun to Run never came back to the rest.
Omaha Beach rallied for second but was never catching Spun to Run. Both horses, by the way, missed the Triple Crown series due to surgery to repair a throat issue. And here they were running 1-2 on the first Saturday in November, not May.
“I really expected him to go wire-to-wire today,” Guerrero said of the Hard Spun colt. “I just wanted my rider to let him run and show how he can run. A horse who can do what he can do, you’ve just got to let him run.”
Robert Donaldson campaigns Spun to Run, who has looked like a different horse the second half of this season donning blinkers. He hit the board off the bench in the Haskell Invitational (G1), then annexed Parx’s Oct. 12 M.P. Ballezzi Appreciation Mile when earning a 110 Beyer Speed Figure, best for a 3-year-old this season at a mile or farther.
“When I put the full cup blinkers on him (before the Haskell), the next day he galloped so perfect I thought ‘Wow, this is going to be a fun road with him,’” Guerrero said. “He was a different horse after I put the blinkers on.”
Spun to Run was off at 9-1 and returned $20.20 to his backers.
Blue Chipper held on for third in the field of 10 at Santa Anita Park. Notable horses to miss the board included Kentucky Derby post-time favorite Improbable, four-time graded stakes winner Mr. Money and reigning Godolphin Mile (G2) hero Coal Front.
Omaha Beach entered as the Dirt Mile’s headliner and went off at even money four weeks after returning off a five-month layoff to win the Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G1).
Under jockey Mike Smith, Omaha Beach broke sluggishly and ran seventh of 10 early. He moved up through the field by passing rivals on the outside through the far turn but never threatened Spun to Run.
“Mike thought he was much the best,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “He just stumbled and didn’t get away good. That’s part of racing. That’s why we put them in the gate and line them up.
“It doesn’t matter what people think of them. You have to get the job done on the race track. But he came on at the end and ran his race.”
Third-place Blue Chipper made history Saturday as the first South Korean entrant in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. Flavien Prat piloted the 4-year-old Tiznow gelding, who came to the U.S. off back-to-back graded wins back home.
“That was a great job,” said Ryu Seungho Ho, representative of trainer Kim Young-Kwan. “We had really hoped at best to finish third and we did. We’re really, really pleased.”