DEL MAR, United States (AFP) – Gun Runner won the $6-million Breeders’ Cup Classic in dominant style on Saturday, leading from wire-to-wire as defending champion Arrogate disappointed in his final race.
The 1 1/4-mile race on the dirt track at Del Mar – hosting the $28- million Breeders’ Cup extravaganza for the first time – was billed as a final showdown between the Steve Asmussen-trained Gun Runner and Bob Baffert’s Arrogate.
Arrogate, who sent California Chrome into retirement with a defeat in last year’s Classic at Santa Anita, chased down Gun Runner for a thrilling win in the Dubai World Cup in March.
But he had been unimpressive since, in fourth place and runner-up finishes in Del Mar, and he was never really in the hunt in a race that saw Gun Runner, with jockey Florent Geroux aboard, spring from the fifth stall and power to a fourth straight victory – all Grade One stakes.
“He’s just a beast,’’ Geroux said of Gun Runner, who fended off a challenge from Baffert’s Collected to win by 2 1/4 lengths. Another Baffert three-year-old, West Coast, was third.
“I was feeling pretty good, honestly,’’ Geroux said of the pressure applied by Collected.
“My horse was very comfortable from there, and flopping his ears back and forth, it shows a sign that he was relaxing nicely for me while going quick.
“He’s just a fast horse. From there, at the quarter pole, it was just a two-horse race between me and Collected and the best horse won the race.’’