{"id":854,"date":"2008-10-25T19:37:29","date_gmt":"2008-10-26T00:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=854"},"modified":"2008-10-25T20:04:42","modified_gmt":"2008-10-26T01:04:42","slug":"ravens-pass-upsets-curlin-in-breeders-cup-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=854","title":{"rendered":"Raven’s Pass upsets Curlin in Breeders’ Cup Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raven’s Pass, who has raced exclusively on the turf in Europe and had never gone past a mile, upset defending champion Curlin<\/a> this afternoon in the $5 million, 1 1\/4-mile Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park.<\/p>\n

Four-year-old Curlin, North America’s all-time leading money earner, was sent to post as the 4 to 5 favorite under his regular rider Robby Albarado. Albarado made his bid in the turn, drove clear on the outside, but was overtaken by Raven’s Pass, at 13 to 1 under Lanfranco Dettori, in the stretch. Henrythenavigator, another European runner, placed second at 19 to 1 in the 12-horse field; Tiago at 4 to 1 was third; and Curlin finished fourth.<\/p>\n

“It was a turf race, it wasn’t a dirt race,” said a disappointed Steve Asmussen, who conditions Curlin for Stonestreet Stables. There had been some concern that Santa Anita’s synthetic surface would be a handicap for horses like Curlin, which had never run on the surface\u00a0and that are bred for and accustomed to dirt. While this was also Raven’s Pass first time to race on a synthetic surface, his turf background, it was theorized, might have given him, as well as turf specialist Henrythenavigator, an edge.<\/p>\n

Raven’s Pass, a 3-year-old colt by Elusive Quality, was bred in Kentucky by Stonerside Stable, and is trained for Jordan’s Princess Haya<\/a> by John Gosden. The Breeders’ Cup Classic was also his first race around two turns and his first on a left-hand course.<\/p>\n

“He trained beautifully and I thought one and a-quarter wouldn’t be a problem,” said Gosden, who lives in Great Britain but apprenticed at Santa Anita in the 1980s. Raven’s Pass’s won the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes in England on September 27, before shipping to the US for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, which was his sixth win in 12 lifetime starts.<\/p>\n

Curlin, 2007 Horse of the Year<\/a>, has 11 wins in 16 starts, including his last two starts: the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont on September 27 and the G1 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga on August 30. He also claimed the $6 million Dubai World Cup<\/a> on March 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Raven’s Pass, who has raced exclusively on the turf in Europe and had never gone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}