Uni (GB) stormed down the stretch to win Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1), defeating rival Got Stormy by two lengths in 1:32.45 on the firm turf.
Uni’s win made More Than Ready the first sire in the 36-year history of the Breeders’ Cup to sire the winners of seven Breeders’ Cup races, putting him ahead of Unbridled’s Song and Sadler’s Wells, who each have six.
Coming into Saturday’s race, Uni’s only loss was to Get Stormy in the Fourstardave S. (G1). She turned the tables in the Mile with a crafty ride from Joel Rosario from post nine in the 13-horse field. As she usually does, Uni dropped well off the pace and was tenth through a half-mile in :45.32.
Rosario kept the 5-year-old wide and out of trouble around the final bend, moving up outside of Get Stormy to set the stage for the stretch drive. The two distaffers pulled away from the field in mid-stretch, with Uni going much better and pulling away late for the win.
“When we got alongside of (Got Stormy), she fought back a little,” Rosario said. “For a minute I thought, ‘Uh oh,’ because she’s a very nice filly who beat us this summer. But my filly still had more left and we pulled cleared her in the last sixteenth.”
Uni, trained by Chad Brown for Michael Dubb, Head of Plains Partners, Robert LaPenta and Bethlehem Stables, is 9-1-2 in 14 starts and has earned $2,314,893. She has five graded stakes wins, including the Matriarch (G1) and First Lady S. (G1).
Pedigree Notes from the TDN:
It has been a tremendous Breeders’ Cup weekend for the outstanding dual-hemisphere shuttler More Than Ready-the sire of 24 Grade I/Group 1 winners-who serves as the broodmare sire of Friday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Structor (Palace Malice) and of GII Juvenile Turf Sprint hero Four Wheel Drive (American Pharoah). Uni is bred on a cross over Danehill or his stallion sons that has been responsible for the likes of Australian G1SWs Prized Icon (Aus), Sebring (Aus), Perfectly Ready (Aus) and Benicio (Aus). Produced by a half-sister to Italian Group 3 winner Whazzis (GB) (Desert Prince {Ire}), Uni is a half-sister to the 2-year-old colt Bring Him Home (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) and a colt foal by Almanzor (Fr).
More Than Ready’s previous Breeders’ Cup race winners:
More Than Real (Juvenile Fillies Turf, 2010)
Pluck (Juvenile Turf, 2010)
Regally Ready (Turf Sprint, 2011)
Roy H (Sprint, 2017)
Roy H (Sprint, 2018)
Rushing Fall (Juvenile Fillies Turf, 2017)
