Highland Falls & Immersive ensure spectacular end to summer at Saratoga

Highland Falls and Immersive secured a G1 double for Godolphin on the closing weekend of Saratoga’s Summer Meet, victories that earned the Brad Cox-trained duo a crack at some heavyweight autumn targets.

Four-year-old Highland Falls posted a first top-level success with a decisive victory in Sunday’s Jockey Club Gold Cup, a race that has gone the way of some of North America’s best horses during its illustrious history.

In beating Pyrenees by four lengths, Highland Falls receives an automatic place in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar in November, and the homebred will be hoping to emulate both his parents at the meeting.

Curlin followed up his Jockey Club Gold Cup win in 2007 with victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, before capturing the 2008 Dubai World Cup, while Round Pond was a dominant winner of the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Immersive also has the Breeders’ Cup on her radar after storming home to take the Spinaway Stakes on Friday. The unbeaten daughter of Nyquist looks set to take in the Darley Alcibiades Stakes on the opening day of Keeneland’s Fall Meet before a possible trip out to California for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

A good recent spell for Godolphin’s two-year-olds has also seen winning introductions in the US from Tessitura and East Avenue, who is out of a half-sister to Cody’s Wish. In the UK, Magical Trail scored on her debut at Newmarket, while Midnight Thunder was an easy winner at Windsor.

Henri-Alex Pantall enjoyed a pair of Listed wins in Europe, with Magical Hope continuing her unbeaten summer in Wednesday’s Baden-Baden Cup and Mountain Song gamely scoring at Longchamp on Sunday.

Dubai Millennium, the best horse to wear the Godolphin silks, was inducted into British Flat Racing’s Hall of Fame after coming out on top over Daylami, Giant’s Causeway and Montjeu in a public vote.

A brilliant winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, Dubai World Cup and Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, Dubai Millennium continues to wield a huge influence through his outstanding son Dubawi, the most successful sire ever to stand in Britain.  

Dubawi colt Notable Speech will be hoping to add further lustre to his family line when the 2,000 Guineas and Sussex Stakes victor bids for a third G1 success in this Sunday’s Prix du Moulin de Longchamp.