Ben Linfoot selects his three to follow from Team Europe that have a chance of upsetting the odds at the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar this weekend.
Team Europe have a strong hand at the Breeders’ Cup this year, headed by Ribchester and more in the Mile and Ulysses and more in the Turf.
Aidan O’Brien has a big team going over, too, as the world record holder hunts down more Grade Ones including the big one itself, the Classic, with Churchill.
However, with 33 horses set to represent European-based yards over the two days our ‘Value Bet’ tipster Ben Linfoot has selected his three to follow for the Friday and Saturday extravaganza at Del Mar…
BECKFORD – Juvenile Turf
Sky Bet odds: 10/1
Gordon Elliott has had some desperately bad luck recently including the sad loss of star mare Fayonagh, last season’s sparkling Champion Bumper winner that suffered a fatal injury on the gallops.
However, the County Meath handler has started the Irish jumps season with a real bang, highlighted by his recent Punchestown six-timer, as he bids to topple Willie Mullins in the Irish trainers’ title having got ever so close to the feat last campaign.
Mullins is no stranger to success on the Flat himself, but a Breeders’ Cup juvenile winner is alien even to him and that’s something the bookies rate Elliott a 10/1 chance to achieve with Beckford.
Drawn in stall five, with Joel Rosario booked, that’s two big ticks for him already and the return to a faster surface should help him, too. The mile trip is a new factor, but he’s bred to get it, so all-in-all he appears to have a good chance in what looks a wide-open contest.
WASHINGTON DC – Turf Sprint
Sky Bet odds: 16/1
Sent off the 4/1 favourite for the same race at Santa Anita last season, Washington DC was soon fighting a losing battle in the rear.
That race was over six-and-a-half furlongs on Santa Anita’s downhill sprint track, but he faces a very different test on the turning five furlongs at Del Mar on Saturday.
He’s four times the price he was last year, too, but things just might drop in his favour this time around as he loves coming off a fast pace and they are going to go hell-for-leather in this.
He loves faster ground, as well, and he has bits of form with Marsha that puts him in with a squeak of troubling Sir Mark Prescott’s filly and the lightning quick Lady Aurelia.
If Wesley Ward’s flying machine is at the top of her game then they are most likely racing for second, but, as long as he doesn’t get too far back too early, and he might not do from stall five, Washington DC has a live each-way chance on favourable conditions.
WUHEIDA – Filly & Mare Turf
Sky Bet odds: 8/1
If you watch Matt Brocklebank’s interview with Charlie Appleby above you’ll hear the Godolphin handler being fairly bullish about the chances of Wuheida and it’s easy to see why.
This daughter of Dubawi fared much the best of the British and Irish contingent in the draw stakes and her keeping on second in the Falmouth Stakes showed that faster ground holds no fears for her.
The big thing with her, though, is the potential for more to come. She’s only had six career starts and her last two races have been her best even on ground that was probably a bit too soft for her in the Prix de l’Opera at Chantilly last time.
The way she travelled that day was encouraging ahead of her return to a faster surface and it’s good to hear all is well with the filly following her Keeneland defection.
This nine furlongs at Del Mar might just be ideal for her and, considering Queen’s Trust (stall 10) and Rhododendron (stall 14) are breaking from out wide, she might just be the pick of the European team breaking from stall five.
