Where Is The Breeders' Cup This Year? Day two is being run at Keeneland, and the first race is set for 5.10pm GMT, or 1.10pm ET. The card is already delivering the race most closely watched on the undercard, the Breeders’ Cup Turf, a Grade One test over 1m 4f that ended with Benvenuto Cellini charging through to win for Ryan Moore and Aidan O’Brien.
Moore was on the rail with a furlong left, then pulled outside and found a path through the field from the home turn. Benvenuto Cellini, sent off at 4-1 on the tote, got the better of the finish after Diamond Necklace, the 9-2 local favourite, had been the marginal pick despite drawing 12. Moore did not dress up the moment after the race. “I don’t really want to go home,” he said.
That result answers the search readers are making today: the Breeders’ Cup is at Keeneland this year, and the Turf is the race that has framed the coverage so far. It also explains why so much attention sat on Europe before the race. The top eight with the British bookies all came from European stables, with Aidan O’Brien holding the first two in the market in Diamond Necklace and Benvenuto Cellini.
But the betting picture was not the whole field. There were still three US-trained runners and one runner from Japan in the Turf line-up, a reminder that the race was not a closed shop even as the market leaned heavily one way. Tiffany and Ethical Diamond were also among the runners being discussed, and Bay City Roller was in that mix too, while last time Burnham Square had been soundly beaten behind Tiffany and Ethical Diamond in the Kentucky Turf Cup Invitational at Kentucky Downs.
Benvenuto Cellini had already been a story before this week after being the beaten favourite-that-wasn’t in June’s Derby, and the win at Keeneland gives the day a sharper edge than a simple host-city answer. The better question now is not where the Breeders’ Cup is being staged, but whether this is the day O’Brien and Moore turn market strength into a result that runs through the rest of the card.
