DEL MAR — Sometimes the Breeders’ Cup anoints greatness, and just as often horse racing’s championship event adds to it.
Although two-time national champion trainer Brad Cox has developed some of America’s top fillies and mares in the past decade, none was as far along in the fall of her 2-year-old season as Cox’s new star Immersive is.
“For 2-year-old fillies, she’s the best we’ve had,” Cox said, which is saying something, since the 44-year-old Kentuckian’s prominent females include Monomoy Girl, Idiomatic, British Idiom and Shedaresthedevil.
Cox spoke, accurately, after Immersive’s 4½-length victory over the tenacious California filly Vodka With a Twist in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar on Friday.
The win with jockey Manny Franco kept Immersive unbeaten in four starts, with Grade I victories in New York, Kentucky and now California making her a lock for the 2-year-old fillies Eclipse Award.
Just as Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert added to his achievements with his 19th Breeders’ Cup win in 34 years when Citizen Bull and Gaming ran 1-2 in the $2 million Juvenile later Friday, Cox added to his with his 11th Breeders’ Cup win in 11 years of entering horses when Immersive won the afternoon’s second biggest race.
Immersive, a daughter of 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, was running in the middle of the nine-horse field on the backstretch of the 1-1/16-mile Juvenile Fillies as Nooni ran out to a 4½-length lead in a too-fast 44.99 seconds for a half-mile.
Cox said he was concerned that Immersive might not be handling the Del Mar track – until he saw that fraction.
“I thought, ‘This race has to fall apart,’” Cox said. “Actually, at that point my concern as someone could be coming behind her.”
Immersive got the lead in the stretch and pulled away. She paid $6 to win.
Vodka With a Twist and Irad Ortiz Jr. battled on to get second for trainer Phil D’Amato. Quickick and Dylan Davis finished third.
“Excited about what she accomplished, proud of her,” Cox said of Immersive, “and looking forward to next year.”
Juvenile Turf: Irish training legend Aidan O’Brien and English star jockey Ryan Moore, who have morning-line favorite City of Troy in Saturday’s $7 million Classic, won two races together on the Breeders’ Cup’s “Future Stars Friday,” the second with Henri Matisse in the $1 million race at one mile on turf.
The two Breeders’ Cup victories gave O’Brien 20, tying D. Wayne Lukas for the career record for trainers, with Baffert one behind. O’Brien has horses in five of Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup races, Baffert three, Lukas one.
Henri Matisse (who paid $9.80) surged on the grandstand side to win by a neck over Iron Man Cal, D’Amato’s second runner-up of the day. Aomori City finished third, New Century fourth, the latter surviving an inquiry into an incident in the stretch that nearly dumped Al Qudra jockey James Doyle.
Juvenile Fillies Turf: O’Brien and Moore showed America a brilliant filly in Lake Victoria ($3.40), who saved ground from the inside post position, rallied from seventh in mid-race and spurted away to a 1½-length win over the previously undefeated New York filly May Day Ready in the $1 million mile.
D’Amato-trained Thought Process, one of California’s top hopes going into Friday, led with jockey Hector Berrios but finished ninth.
Juvenile Turf Sprint: The expected European domination of Breeders’ Cup grass races began in an unexpected way as Irish product Magnum Force ($27), with jockey Colin Keane, scored his second win in a five-race career in the 5-furlong race worth $1 million.
Arizona Blaze, also from Ireland, ran second at 27-1 with California-based jockey Umberto Rispoli. Favored Ecoro Sieg, from Japan, was never close and finished eighth.
• Twirling Queen ($5) and Luis Saez gained on the rail to win the 3-year-old filly’s California debut by a neck over Just Nails and Frankie Dettori in the $200,000 Ken Maddy Stakes, one of Friday’s non-Breeders’ Cup races.
Trainer Jose D’Angelo expects big things from Twirling Queen, who had won four of her previous five races, all on the East Coast.
“I’m very sure that next year she’s going to be in the best races of the country for fillies on the turf,” D’Angelo said.
• Chasing Liberty ($15.60) and Irad Ortiz Jr., sent west from Kentucky by trainer Rob Atras, helped to keep California winless in open races on the undercard by beating the East Coast’s Test Score and Cavallo Bay in the $200,000 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance for 2-year-olds on turf.
• Speedy Wilson ($10.80) and Armando Ayuso held off favorite R Heisman and Juan Hernandez to give D’Amato the win in the $175,000 Golden State Juvenile. D’Amato’s Shea Brennan finished third. This was a 7-furlong sprint, and D’Amato said he looks forward to running Speedy Wilson longer next year.
• Tequilaandtherapy ($24), overmatched by Thought Process last time out, came from off the pace with jockey Edwin Maldonado to win a head-bob over Grateful My Love and John Velazquez in the $175,000 Golden State Juvenile Fillies for California-breds. Winning trainer Doug O’Neill’s better-regarded horse, Pavel Is Appealing, finished fourth.
