Cheveley Homebred Inspiral Rockets to F&M Turf Win

When jockey Frankie Dettori found the outside with Inspiral  and let her loose in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1), the wire was fast approaching and it appeared as if she simply had too much to do. Or did she?

Her connections know what Inspiral is capable of accomplishing. They've been watching it unfold throughout her native England, almost exclusively in group 1 company. But this was Inspiral's first U.S. performance, around tighter turns than she has ever experienced, and a quarter-mile longer than her mile specialty.

Inspiral has been a fighter from birth. Give her an insurmountable problem and she will solve it, which is just what she did in the Santa Anita stretch. Despite Warm Heart  getting a dream inside trip under jockey Ryan Moore, Dettori let loose the monster that is Inspiral, who roared up with even more perfect timing to nail the valiant Warm Heart by a neck.

"She's very opinionated and very strong-minded," said John H.M. Gosden, who trains Inspiral with his son, Thady, for owner/breeder Cheveley Park Stud. "You go with the flow with her. There's no point ever getting in an argument with her because you'd lose. She's got a great will to do what she wants when she wants to."

Fortunately, in a race, Inspiral wants to fight for victory. That fight arrived in the Filly and Mare Turf's final stages, after the field had gone the mile that Inspiral usually travels. Prior to that, she lagged well back of the pace set by In Italian , who went right to the front and toured the first quarter-mile in :22.95.

"She's always slow out of the gate," said Dettori, who has ridden Inspiral in every one of her races except her first outing. "She jumped good. I got squeezed out. I got on the fence. She's a filly that needs a quarter of a mile to get really top gear. I thought I better not try to go for gaps."

Dettori, who was winning his 15th Breeders' Cup race, got to the outside so that Inspiral could start to find that top gear. She reached it in deep stretch, ahead of just three horses and with eight ahead of her. Inspiral flew past them to grab the win, stopping the timer in 1:59.06. Then, maybe to prove emphatically that she wasn't "just" a miler, she kept going.

"Past the line, she was flying," said Dettori.

Inspiral has so much talent that her team was able to pivot when the ground for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (G1) on British Champions Day came up too soft.

"She was in the race," said Gosden, "but we didn't even declare her to run. We said, 'Right, we're coming here.' We were confident she would get the trip, but she is notoriously slow out of the gate."

Gosden praised Dettori for saving ground inside early and then swinging Inspiral to the outside.

"The way she came and finished and the way she galloped out, she was probably saying that the trainer has been running her over the wrong distance for the last year," deadpanned Gosden. "I knew she'd get the mile and a quarter well. She would have been an unlucky loser. I thought Ryan Moore rode a beautifully timed race."

Warm Heart saved second by a length over Moira , an Ontario-bred based at Woodbine who kept North America from getting swept in the Trifecta. Moira was the only Canadian-bred running in the 12-horse field, which included four bred in Great Britain, four in Ireland, one in France, one in Argentina, and one in Japan.

Inspiral comes from the oldest stud farm in Newmarket, England, Cheveley Park Stud, now operated by the Thompson family.

"This is some special feeling, winning the Breeders' Cup with Inspiral," said Richard Thompson. "To have a homebred filly win the Breeders' Cup is the pinnacle of what we strive for at Cheveley."

Chris Richardson, Cheveley's managing director, noted that Inspiral will race next year at age 5.

"I was very concerned for the pace," Richardson said. "But Frankie gave her a beautiful ride. And John's done a magnificent job in getting the filly—who is quite a high-strung filly and always has been ever since she was a foal—to perform today. It's a huge accolade to Patricia Thompson and the Thompson family."

Cheveley Park bred Starscope , a homebred by Selkirk , to Frankel   to get Inspiral. Cheveley Park has bred Inspiral's first three dams. Starscope placed in three stakes for them, including the 2012 One Thousand Guineas (G1). All four of the mare's starters have won, one being stakes-placed Celestran , a son of Dansili . Starscope foaled a full sister to Inspiral this year.

Europe's current leading sire, Frankel has also sired such 2023 group 1 winners as Kelina , Westover , Jannah Rose , Ylang Ylang , and Mostahdaf . The stallion stands at Banstead Manor Stud in Newmarket, with his 2024 stud fee to be announced. Frankel stood for 270,000 pounds in 2023.

REPLAY: Inspiral (GB) wins the $2 Million @MakersMark #BreedersCup Filly & Mare Turf! Congrats to her connections! #BC23 pic.twitter.com/CmTKJupCj9

— Breeders' Cup (@BreedersCup) November 4, 2023

Video: Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T)