At the time of writing, Ballydoyle trainer Aiden O’Brien has recently extended his already impressive record in the Breeders’ Cup Turf by saddling Auguste Rodin – who, like his namesake, has lived a life full of contrasts – to win the $4 million showpiece for the seventh time. The Breeders’ Cup Turf was inaugurated in 1984 and, not altogether surprisingly, the mile and a half contest has proved a happy hunting ground for European trainers, particularly those from Britain and Ireland, with the likes of Clive Brittain, Saeed bin Suroor, Brian Meehan, John Gosden and Charlie Appleby among the names on the roll of honour.
Aiden O’Brien aside, though, Sir Michael Stoute is the most successful trainer in the history of the Breeders’ Cup Turf, with four winners to his name. Based at Freemason Lodge on the Bury Road in Newmarket, Stoute, 78, is well into the veteran stage of his training career, having first taken out a licence in his own right in 1972. Of course, he will forever be associated with the brilliant, but ultimately ill-fated Shergar, but it should not be forgotten that he has saddled 16 British Classic winners, including six Derby winners, and won the trainers’ championship 10 times between 1981 and 2009.
As far as the Breeders’ Cup Turf is concerned, Stoute opened his account with the outstanding middle-distance colt Pilsudski, who beat stable companion Singspiel at Woodbine in Toronto, Canada in 1996. Two years later, Stoute was knighted for the promotion of sport tourism in his native Barbados and, in 2000, doubled his Breeders’ Cup Turf tally with Kalanisi – owned, like Shergar, by Aga Khan IV – at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. Later the same decade, he completed his quartet of wins, courtesy of Conduit, who recorded back-to-back victories at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California in 2008 and 2009.