Bricks And Mortar wins the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf for Chad Brown and Irad Ortiz Jr

Following the defections of Enable and Magical, trainer Chad Brown made the late decision to point his Arlington Million winner towards the Turf and not the Breeder's Cup Mile, asking him to race over 1m4f for the first time in his career following a magnificent campaign that had already seen him prove himself the best Turf horse in the United States.

It was a move that was to be an inspired one as Bricks And Mortar once again stole show to sign off from his racing career in much the same way he has spent so much of it; utterly dominant.

Despite proving keen for much of the early part of the race and then having to wait in his run as a number of runners mounted their challenges entering the straight, Bricks And Mortar (11/8 fav) proved a class apart, producing his now customary late finish down the outside to win snugly from United.

Bricks And Mortar now finds himself firmly in line for America's coveted Horse of the Year award, his position strengthened by earlier defeats for Sistercharlie, Midnight Bisou and Omaha Beach, and he finishes his racing career firmly established as one of the finest turf horses to have graced this side of the Atlantic.

For Anthony Van Dyck it was a case of what might have been, Ryan Moore getting a good tune out of the Epsom Derby winner who looked certain to contest the finish until finding his run blocked, forcing Moore to snatch up his mount and then switch to the inside while Bricks And Mortar was enjoying clear sailing on the outside.

To his credit, Anthony Van Dyck did rally and ran on well for third but his winning chance had gone with that interference, bringing to a close another frustrating Breeder's Cup for Ballydoyle.

In a rough race, Europe's other principal hope, Old Persian, was trapped wide early and never able to land any sort of blow.

Brown, who earlier took the Mile with Uni, said: "The mile and a half was the big question mark.

"He had trained so well it just came to me in the final weeks to make that decision.

"Irad rode a great race. It looked like he was losing a bit of ground on the final turn. I was quite worried he was not kicking on.

"I think the horse just needed a clear path and when he got in the clear he grabbed the bit again and ran on."

O'Brien said: "It looked like we were checked at a vital stage of the race, which impaired his momentum and in the circumstances he's run a very good race to finish third.

"Mount Everest was taking a big step up in class and will be a lovely horse next year."

Appleby said of Old Persian: "It's been a thread for the last two days that there's been no pace in the majority of the races, and he was further back than we would have liked.

"We'll just have to put a line through it, and he lives to fight another day."

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