Godolphin’s Notable Speech delivers Del Mar masterclass in Breeders’ Cup Mile

Notable Speech provided Godolphin with a fourth G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile success in the space of five years with a sensational display at Del Mar on Saturday.

Charlie Appleby and William Buick had teamed up to win the race with Dubawi homebreds Space Blues (2021), Modern Games (2022) and Master Of The Seas (2023), with Notable Speech, also by the same sire, having finished a length third 12 months ago.

Notable Speech returned to California having overcome a slow start to take the G1 Woodbine Mile in September but the four-year-old broke on terms this time and soon tracked the leaders in sixth on the rail.

Formidable Man relegated Notable Speech to seventh at the halfway point before William Buick started to make stealthy headway approaching the home straight.

Longtime leader One Stripe shifted out at the top of the lane, allowing Notable Speech to quicken up the inside rail to mount his challenge. Last season’s G1 2,000 Guineas and G1 Sussex Stakes winner unleashed his customary electric turn of foot, reeling in Rhetorical entering the final half-furlong before streaking clear to score by an easy length and a half over Formidable Man.

Hugh Anderson, Managing Director of Godolphin (UK and Dubai), said: “What Charlie and Will have done with Notable Speech over two or three years now is fabulous. They have completely worked him out. Well done to Will for using that amazing final furlong [speed] – the pace was extraordinary. I am delighted for the whole team and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. We love Del Mar and we love the Breeders’ Cup.”

Appleby said: “Notable Speech was the highest-profile horse we had ever brought to the Breeders’ Cup when he ran last year and he’s tailor made for this track. I think his experience of Woodbine last time out has been the making of him coming into today’s race.

“Will’s ride around there was copybook. He got the horse out and got a nice pitch. We said we could be two or three back and I was confident turning for home because I knew, once the cutaway came, he would be able to use that electric turn of foot we have seen throughout his career.”

Buick added: “I have been everything on this horse, a hero and a villain, but Charlie always fills me with great confidence. When your trainer gives you that confidence to do what’s right by the horse in the race, it helps.”

Meanwhile, Forever Young won the Breeders’ Cup Classic, holding off defending champion Sierra Leone to give Japan a first triumph in the showpiece of the $34 million Breeders’ Cup racing extravaganza.

“I can’t believe it, he is an amazing horse,” said jockey Ryusei Sakai, who was also aboard when Forever Young finished third in the Classic on the same Del Mar track near San Diego last year and in a third-place finish at last year’s Kentucky Derby.

This time around, the globe-trotting Forever Young got his nose in front coming off the final turn and had enough to hold off late closing Sierra Leone and Fierceness -- last year’s runner-up.

“We got the number one in America,” said trainer Yoshito Yahagi, who nabbed a third Breeders’ Cup triumph after saddling the first two Japanese trained and campaigned Breeders’ Cup winners back in 2021.

“In horse racing, this is like the Japanese team winning the football World Cup,” he said.

With the return of last year’s top three, the $7 million Classic featured a formidable field despite the withdrawal of this year’s Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Sovereignty.