Rebel’s Romance & Immersive make it a Breeders’ Cup to remember
Racenews
4 November, 2024
International standard-bearer Rebel’s Romance and up-and-coming star Immersive ensured Godolphin enjoyed glory at the Breeders’ Cup for a fifth successive year.
Rebel’s Romance had previously scored at the meeting, taking the G1 Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland in 2022, and the six-year-old became the first horse to win non-consecutive renewals of the race as he fended off Rousham Park.
A seven-time G1 winner, Rebel’s Romance boasts a remarkable CV, with wins on the all-weather, dirt and turf in six different countries. His story could yet continue, with next year’s G1 Dubai Sheema Classic, a race he won in March, a potential target.
Immersive has only made four starts but the daughter of Nyquist has already posted three G1 wins before turning three. A decisive scorer of the Spinaway Stakes and Darley Alcibiades Stakes, the homebred showed her dominance again with another emphatic success in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. She looks the standout candidate for Champion Two-Year-Old Filly honours at the Eclipse Awards in January.
There were several strong efforts in defeat over the two days at Del Mar, with Cinderella’s Dream flashing home to fill the runner-up spot in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf and Notable Speech coming home a close third in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Aomori City finished strongly to grab third in the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, while East Avenue can be forgiven his ninth in the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile as he stumbled badly leaving the stalls.
Saturday’s Golden Eagle in Australia had a distinctly international flavour of its own, with Tom Kitten going down by half a length in third behind European challengers Lake Forest and Lazzat in the lucrative Rosehill contest.
At Flemington, Zeitung posted a first G3 success as she comfortably prevailed in The Vanity, earning the three-year-old a possible crack at the G1 Thousand Guineas later in the month. Zardozi shaped with promise in the G1 Empire Rose Stakes on the same card in preparation for Tuesday’s G1 Melbourne Cup.
