Getting to Know Mondialiste

Mondialiste wins the 2015 Woodbine Mile and a spot in the Breeders' Cup Mile starting gate. (Photos by Eclipse Sportswire)
When Mondialiste crossed the wire first in the Sept. 13 Ricoh Woodbine Mile he gave his sire Galileo an exacta of sorts by beating Lea, who is out of a daughter of Galileo. But perhaps even more important is that Mondialiste earned a spot in the Breeders’ Cup Mile due to his winning effort, potentially giving Galileo his 21st Breeders’ Cup starter and first in the Mile.
Since Mondialiste isn’t well-known in North America and is looking like he’ll be back for the Breeders’ Cup, let’s get to know him a little better.
Race Résumé
Mondialiste was a hard-luck runner early in his career, taking eight starts and over a year to break his maiden but being second or third by less than two lengths in five of those starts, including the 2013 Group 1 Prix Jean Prat.
Mondialiste went through the sales ring in the summer of 2014 after breaking that maiden, selling for $259,901 but not racing again until late March of this year. Making his first start for trainer David O’Meara and owners Geoff and Sandra Turnbull, Mondialiste finished second by a neck followed by thirds in two more races during the spring.
Running in the 30-horse strong Royal Hunt Cup, Mondialiste finished 14th at Royal Ascot but something seemed to click in his head after that. He came back about a month later to win the Pomfret Stakes by a solid 10 lengths then won his first group stakes race next out in the Group 3 Strensall Stakes by a neck.
That leads us to Mondialiste’s North America debut.
The horse was in the back of the pack throughout the Woodbine Mile, as far back as 14 ¾ lengths off the leading Obviously at the half. Even with a little over an eighth of a mile to go, Mondialiste was still five lengths behind Obviously with a lot of work to do. It took the entire long stretch of Woodbine for Mondialiste to get to the leaders but just when it looked like Lea would get the win, Mondialiste burst through the hole between him and Reporting Star to win by half a length.
2015 WOODBINE MILE

Video courtesy of Breeders’ Cup World Championships
"The game plan was always to take our time, come with a late challenge, and just hope they would come back on the soft ground, and that's exactly what happened," jockey Fergal Lynch told Blood-Horse. "He had plenty left but it was the way the race developed today, really, that made him shine through—and he's got an electric turn of foot."
The Breeders’ Cup Mile is a little bit of a confusing race this year. There are a nice group of horses who may line up for it with Ironicus training up to the Mile after setting a track record at Saratoga in the Bernard Baruch at 1 1/16 miles, and Lea and Obviously showing that they are competitive in the Mile division with their results in the Woodbine Mile. Last year’s winner Karakontie is a wildcard after putting in a sixth and third place finish, respectively, in his two races this year and Mshawish is also a horse to watch if he comes to the race.
At this point, Ironicus seems like he’s probably the “scariest” horse Mondialiste will be taking on especially since he will be coming from the back of the field too. While we don’t have a solid Equibase Speed Figure base for Mondialiste due to his European schedule, Ironicus’ mile run in the Fourstardave was four points higher than Mondialiste’s Woodbine Mile. However, to be fair, that run came on ground labeled as firm while the Woodbine Mile was run on yielding ground.
MONDIALISTE AND CONNECTIONS IN THE WOODBINE WINNER'S CIRCLE

Before I put Mondialiste behind any other horse in the Mile, I want to see how the field shapes up. But in a race that looks pretty wide open at this point I definitely think he’ll be a European to watch as you start to handicap the race in the days leading up to the Breeders’ Cup.
Pedigree
Galileo doesn’t need much of an introduction as a sire with 10 leading sire titles to his name in England and Ireland. He is a sire of nine champions and 201 stakes winners as of Sept. 17 including European champion Frankel and U.S. champion Cape Blanco.
Somewhat surprising is that from the 20 runners sired by Galileo to run in the Breeders’ Cup, only two (Red Rocks in 2006 and Magician in 2013) have won Breeders’ Cup races with both of those coming in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. If Mondialiste runs in the Breeders’ Cup Mile he will be the first son of the stallion to run in that specific race.
Mondialiste’s dam Occupandiste has proven to be quite the producer both as a dam and grand dam. She was a high-weighted older mare on both the European and French lists and won two Group 1 races but she was even better in the breeding shed.
From the nine foals she has produced (her last coming in 2013), seven have made it to the track with all seven winning races including four stakes winners. Mondialiste is her most accomplished but his half-sister Impressionnate is a Group 2 winner and was second in the one-mile French 1,000 Guineas. That mare produced French Derby winner Intello, who is also by Galileo.
Mondialiste also has a connection to U.S. racing with his third dam Elle Seule being a half-sister to U.S. champion and Preakness winner Timber Country. Overall, under his first three dams, Mondialiste is related to 18 stakes winners with nine of those being group winners, including an Irish 1,000 Guineas winner.
In a race that has no standout, Mondialiste is one of the top contenders and with his experience on yielding North American turf may shoot up to the top of the pack should bad weather roll into Keeneland and add a little grab to the turf course for the Breeders’ Cup races on Oct. 31.