More Than Looks Surges to Victory in BC Mile
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Photo: Skip Dickstein
More Than Looks wins the Breeders' Cup MIle at Del Mar
The rivalry between Carl Spackler and More Than Looks had been one-sided.
They had met three times in a graded stakes, with e Five Racing Thoroughbreds' Carl Spackler winning each time for trainer Chad Brown.
More Than Looks, owned by Victory Racing Partners and trained by Cherie DeVaux, was no worse than third in each matchup, finishing second in the last two meetings, which came in the grade 1 settings of the Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes (G1T) and the Fourstardave Handicap (G1T).
"With his running style, which is difficult, as a closer, everything has to kind of fall into play, right?" said Anthony Bartolo, head of Victory Racing Partners, about the 4-year-old son of More Than Ready. "We know he likes a fast track, a fast turf, a firm turf. Basically a couple times he got a little bit of a softer ground, going without speed in front of him."
Though the third time wasn't the charm for More Than Looks, the fourth surely was.
In their most important meeting of all, it was More Than Looks' turn to shine as he flew home from eighth in the final furlong to capture the $2 million Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) as Carl Spackler endured a wide trip from post 10 and finished sixth Nov. 2 at Del Mar.
"Redemption is a big deal," Bartolo said.
For DeVaux, there was supreme satisfaction in winning her first Breeders' Cup race since she stopped working as an assistant to Brown and opened her own stable in 2018.
During her time there she developed a friendship with Bob Edwards and his wife, Kristine, who own e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, and their daughter Cassidy, who is married to jockey Tyler Gaffalione, Carl Spackler's regular rider.
"The rivalry is good-natured. I am very close with the Edwards family and Tyler. It's been an interpersonal relationship. We joked about when we would turn the tables on them. It's special when you can have those feelings at this level. I'm happy when they win and I hope they are happy for me today," DeVaux said.
Cherie DeVaux enjoys her first Breeders' Cup win as trainer
Getting More Than Looks to Saturday's race took a sensational training job by DeVaux and her staff. Third to Carl Spackler last year in the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (G2T), More Than Looks ended 2023 by closing from 13th at the eighth pole in the Breeders' Cup Mile and winding up sixth, beaten by two lengths.
That spawned high hopes for a 4-year-old campaign for the colt bred by Hinkle Farms in Kentucky, but the year started on a sour note.
"He's a horse who had shown a lot of talent and even ran a sneaky impressive race in the Breeders' Cup," DeVaux said. "With trainers and horses, plans never go as you want them to and he hurt himself in a stall incident in March. But the tendon healed and he hit every goal to get to the Breeders' Cup, which is rare. The great feeling of just getting there is not lost on me."
After his scheduled 2024 debut in the ungraded Lure Stakes failed to materialize when the race was washed off the turf, More Than Looks debuted with a second, 3 1/2 lengths behind Carl Spackler in the Fourstardave, and followed that up with a length loss at Keeneland.
"(Due to the injury), we had to call an inaudible and Cherie did a great job with that," said Bartolo, whose group includes 12 partners and notched its first grade 1 win Saturday.
Longshot Goliad set the pace with a :22.73 opening quarter-mile in the Mile, but the race belonged to the closers.
Carl Spackler, who broke from the outside post, made a menacing four-wide move for the lead on the final turn, but could not sustain it.
Meanwhile, Ten Happy Rose , a mare who had been second, led by 1 1/2 lengths at the eighth pole but Cuyathy's Johannes and Godolphin's 2-1 favorite Notable Speech were gaining on her. But before they could strike the lead, Jose Ortiz and More Than Looks, who were 10th and last after the opening quarter and eighth in midstretch, flew past all of them to win by three-quarters of a length and give DeVaux her prized Breeders' Cup win.
"It hasn't really set in. It's kind of a whirlwind," DeVaux said. "It's very exciting and I'm just waiting for it to sink in."
The More Than Ready 4-year-old covered the mile in 1:32.65 and paid $15.80 to win.
Jose Ortiz and More Than Looks finish fastest of all to win the Breeders' Cup Mile
Johannes, a son of Nyquist trained by Tim Yakteen, was second by a head over Two Thousand Guineas (G1) winner Notable Speech, a Dubawi 3-year-old trained by Charlie Appleby.
Out of the stakes-winning Harlan's Holiday mare Ladies' Privilege , More Than Looks is the first of her five foals and initial stakes winner. She also has a yearling Gun Runner colt and a 2024 Upstart filly.