Arrogate beats California Chrome to win Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert won his third consecutive Breeders’ Cup Classic race Saturday at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, with the lightly raced 3-year-old colt Arrogate spoiling 2014 Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome’s perfect season this year.

Arrogate — who now has won five races in a row — finished a half- length ahead of California Chrome in the $6 million race before a Santa Anita Breeders’ Cup record crowd of 72,811.

Fans loudly applauded the two horses and their jockeys as they returned to the grandstand area after the race.

“To run down a great horse like California Chrome, that’s what the Breeders’ Cup is all about, Baffert told reporters after the race. Watching races like that. They’re just the best. The cream just rises to the top.

Hats off to California Chrome,” Baffert said. “He tried so hard. I mean, he’s a great horse. I’ve been chasing that horse for two years … I still can’t believe that we caught him.”

Baffert also trained the last two Breeders’ Cup Classic winners: 2015 Triple Crown victor American Pharoah at Keeneland last year and Bayern at Santa Anita two years ago.

Every year I’ve been so lucky,” Baffert said. “I always say. `How am I going to top this year? “It’s incredible that I’ve been so lucky.”

Baffert lauded California Chrome trainer Art Sherman for the work he has done with the horse who won the Derby and Preakness two years ago and drew a legion of followers who call themselves “Chromies.”

I even became a fan of that horse,” Baffert said. “Any time you see two horses like we saw yesterday with (Breeders’ Cup Distaff first- and second- place finishers) Beholder and Songbird, it was like you sit there and you really don’t want to see a loser. Even today in the stretch, you really don’t.

But I could hear the whole grandstand was just screaming and yelling, and I know most of them were screaming and yelling for Chrome, and I can’t blame them because he’s done a lot for racing,” Baffert said.

Arrogate’s jockey, Mike Smith, won the Bill Shoemaker Award for the winningest jockey of the Breeders’ Cup weekend, with three victories, giving Smith a record 25 Breeders’ Cup races. However, he said his defeat aboard Songbird by a nose to Beholder in Friday’s Distaff still hurts and it’s always going to hurt. You hate to get beat, especially the matter of maybe an inch.”

As for Saturday’s winning ride on Arrogate, Smith called it “incredible.”

“This horse ran a race today that just don’t see from a young 3-year- old that’s only run five times. He literally was prancing after the race was over,” Smith said.

California Chrome — who was third in the Classic when it was last run at Santa Anita in 2014 — had been undefeated in six starts this year and led throughout the race until he was caught by Arrogate as they approached the finish line.

California Chrome’s 79-year-old trainer, Art Sherman, said the 5-year- old chestnut colt “ran his race but just got beat in those last couple of jumps.”

(Arrogate) is the real McCoy,” Sherman said. “I knew he was the one we had to beat, but I didn’t know how good he was. We had no excuses.”

California Chrome’s jockey, Victor Espinoza, said, “I was all by myself in the front and thought I could save something for the end. Thinking back, I should have just let him run early, but he ran great.”

Keen Ice came in third, marking his best finish in a graded stakes race since he handed American Pharoah one of only two career defeats in the Travers in August 2015.

Arrogate’s stablemate, Hoppertunity, was back in fourth.

Arrogate — the bettors’ second choice behind California Chrome — completed the 1-1/4th-mile race in 2:00:11 before a record Santa Anita Breeders’ Cup crowd of 72,811.

A win bet on Arrogate paid $5.40, with a place bet paying $2.80 and a show bet paying $2.60.

In other Breeders’ Cup races:

–Queen’s Trust defeated the year’s comeback queen, Lady Eli, by a nose in a photo-finish in the $2 million Filly & Mare Turf. Lady Eli, winner of the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita, was sidelined for just over a year after stepping on a nail in July 2015 and developing a potentially life-threatening hoof condition called laminitis.

Queen’s Trust — who shipped in from Great Britain for the race — paid $18 to win, $8.40 to place and $5.80 to show. The Southern California-based Avenge finished in third for trainer Richard Mandella, who trained Friday’s Distaff winner Beholder.

–The lightly raced Southern California-based Drefong won the $1.5 million Sprint by 1 1/4 lengths after battling another Southern California horse, Masochistic, who went off as the favorite. Longshot Mind Your Biscuits came in third.

“It was almost like watching Beholder and Songbird Friday,” Drefong’s trainer, Baffert, said of the Distaff stretch duel, telling reporters he was lucky he happened to be on the winning end of it. Drefong paid $9.80 to win, $4.80 to place and $3.80 to show.

–Two other Southern California horses also came in one-two in the $1 million Turf Sprint. The 8-year-old Obviously — the oldest horse in the field, who had four prior starts in past years in the longer Breeders’ Cup Mile — won by a nose over Om in the grass race, with Pure Sensation in third.

“That’s one for the old guys,” one of Obviously’s owners, Tony Fanticola, said after the race. Trainer Philip D’Amato called him “a wonder horse.” Obviously paid $9.60 to win, $5.20 to place and $3.60 to show.

–European shipper Highland Reel — who had just one win in seven starts before the Breeders’ Cup this year — won the $4 million Turf by 1 3/4 lengths over Flintshire, a European import who raced in New York this summer. Highland Reel’s stablemate, Found, had defeated Highland Reel in the Arc de Triomphe in France, but came in third to him this time around. Highland Reel paid $9.60 to win, $5.20 to place and $3.40 to show.

–Classic Empire — who had won all but one of his four previous starts – – was victorious in the $2 million Juvenile. It was a neck back to Not This Time in second, with Practical Joke coming in third.

“All week long, (Not This Time’s trainer) Dale Romans has said we were going to run one, two, him and I, and I said, OK. I’m just glad I was 1,”Classic Empire trainer Mark Casse said. Classic Empire paid $11 to win, $5 to place and $3.80 to show.

–Along with his win aboard Arrogate and his victory on Tamarkuz on Friday in the Dirt Mile, Smith was in the winners’ circle for the $1 million Filly & Mare Sprint with Finest City. Defending champion Wavell Avenue finished 3/4 of a length back in second, with Paulassilverlining in third. Finest City paid $19.40 to win, $10 to place and $6.60 to show.

–Tourist won the $2 million Mile in his third try in the race. He came in a half-length ahead of defending champion Tepin, with Southern California- based Midnight Storm running third. Tourist paid $26.80 to win, $9.40 to place and $6.20 to show.

–Champagne Room kicked off the day’s Breeders’ Cup races with a three- quarter length win in the $2 million Juvenile Fillies at odds of 30-1. She paid $69.20 to win, $26.60 to place and $13 to show.

The second day of the Breeders’ Cup marked the highest attendance for any Breeders’ Cup day since 72,730 people were on hand at Kentucky’s Churchill Downs in 2010 to see 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Zenyatta in her final race, Cup officials said.

This year’s two-day attendance figure was 118,484, the highest in Breeders’ Cup history, officials said.

The Breeders’ Cup will return to Southern California again next year, with Del Mar set to host the event for the first time ever.

— City News Serivce