European Connections You Should Know for Breeders' Cup

Trainer Aidan O'Brien is among the European Breeders' Cup contingent. (Photos by Eclipse Sportswire)
An international event, the Breeders’ Cup attracts some of the best horses, trainers and jockeys in Europe. While some of the trainers and jockeys who come over for the event are regulars at the Breeders’ Cup, others are newer to the event and even United States racing. Listed below are most of the jockeys trainers you’ll see at the Breeders’ Cup who have flown in from the other side of the pond to ride and train the nearly 30 European horses entering the gates on Friday and Saturday at Keeneland.
Jockeys
Making his first start in the United States when riding Mondaliste in the Breeders’ Cup, Daniel Tudhope has made his mark in Europe in 2015 with seven stakes wins, including two on Mondialiste. Overall, the jockey has 15 group stakes wins to his name with his first group stakes win coming in 2008 according to Equineline.
One of the most recognizable jockeys in the world, Frankie Dettori first rode at the Breeders’ Cup in 1990.  That ride started a Breeders’ Cup tradition that has seen the Italian on 82 mounts at the event with 11 winners, including on Hootenanny in 2014. The jockey, whose flying dismount is his trademark event after a win, has won 520 group or graded events in his career according to Equineline. In 2015,  Dettori has won 26 group stakes, including the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Investec Derby on Breeders’ Cup entrant Golden Horn. Overall, Dettori will be riding seven horses in Breeders’ Cup races this weekend.
FRANKIE DETTORI

One of the stable jockeys for Godolphin, jockey James Doyle is riding in his third career Breeders’ Cup race on Friday when he rides Birchwood in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Doyle took over as one of Godolphin’s top riders in 2015 and this year has won 16 group stake races including five Group 1 races. In 2014, Doyle rode for Juddmonte and was aboard some of their best horses, including multiple Group 1 winners Noble Mission and Kingman.
Jamie Spencer made his first start in the Breeders’ Cup in 2000 aboard Arkadian Hero in the Mile. Since then, he has ridden in 18 Breeders’ Cup races but is still chasing his first Breeders’ Cup win. The rider was the 2005 and 2007 British flat racing champion jockey and has won multiple European classic races during his nearly 20-year career.
Finishing second in Breeders’ Cup races each of the last two years, Maxime Guyon has quickly risen to one of the premiere riders in the world in only seven years of having his professional license with 98 group stakes wins including multiple European classic races. This year, Guyon has two chances to win the Breeders’ Cup with mounts in both the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf and the Breeders’ Cup Mile. If Guyon wins one of those races, he’ll also notch his first North American victory.
Olivier Peslier is best known in Breeders’ Cup history as the rider of three-time Breeders’ Cup Mile victress Goldikova but the rider also has a fourth win, which came on 2001 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Banks Hill. Peslier has won major races in 19 countries on mounts such as Goldikova, Cirrus des Aigles, Ouija Board, and Zenno Rob Roy among many others. He will be looking for another win in both the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf and the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Bawina and Make Believe, respectively, on Saturday.
OLIVIER PESLIER

Based in France, Pierre-Charles Boudot is coming into the Breeders’ Cup with 18 stakes victories this year, including two Group 1 victories on his Breeders’ Cup mount Esoterique. Since 2008, Boudot has won 21 group stakes races with four Group 1 wins, including three on Esoterique.
Arguably one of the best jockeys in the world, Ryan Moore has six Breeders’ Cup wins, including a Breeders’ Cup Turf double on Conduit in 2008 and 2009. Moore is the retained rider for Coolmore in Europe and also regularly rides horses for trainer Sir Michael Stoute. Among Moore’s many wins was a victory for The Queen on her mare Estimate in the 2013 Ascot Gold Cup and wins on Adelaide in both the Secretariat Stakes in the United States and the Cox Plate in Australia. Moore is also responsible for multiple European classic victories, including on Breeders’ Cup mounts Legatissimo and Gleneagles this year. Moore will be on nine horses in this weekend’s Breeders’ Cup races.
RYAN MOORE

A regular on trainer Aidan O’Brien’s horses, Seamie Heffernan will be aboard one of that trainer’s horses in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup. This year, the jockey rode Highland Reel in the Secretariat Stakes and guided the colt to a 5 ¼-length romp in the event. He has multiple group stakes wins in Europe with more than 10 European classic wins to his name. In the Breeders’ Cup, he will be riding Shogun in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
Riding his first race in 1994, Stephane Pasquier had won nearly everything there was to win in France including the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe when he traveled over to the United States in 2014 for the Breeders’ Cup. The trip proved to be worth it with his mount Karakontie winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile and giving him his first United States victory. He is looking to make it two-for-two at the Breeders’ Cup this weekend with Karakontie on Saturday.
Named one of the stable jockeys for Godolphin in 2015, William Buick has padded his already extensive resume. The 27-year-old was champion apprentice jockey in 2008 and won his first Group 1 race aboard Lahaleeb in 2009, one of nearly 100 group or graded stakes wins for Buick. This year, he has won 25 group races, including the Dubai World Cup on Prince Bishop and the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby on Jack Hobbs. Buick has ridden in nine previous Breeders’ Cup races but will be searching for his first win this year with mounts on Cymric in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and Talmada in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
WILLIAM BUICK

Trainers
The trainer of four Breeders’ Cup winners, including 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Raven’s Pass, John Gosden comes into the Breeders’ Cup off a strong year with his horses winning both the Investec (English) and Irish Derbys in addition to six other Group 1 races. Gosden comes into the Breeders’ Cup with a strong hand that includes the aforementioned Investec Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Golden Horn as the probable favorite for the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf.
Aidan O’Brien is represented by six entries in this year’s Breeders’ Cup event. Ireland’s leading trainer every year since 1998, O’Brien has won eight Breeders’ Cup races and made history with his son Joseph when the pair won the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Turf with St. Nicholas Abbey, the only father-son trainer-jockey combination to win a Breeders’ Cup race. Among O’Brien’s entries is Classic contender Gleneagles, who looks to give O’Brien his first Classic victory. O’Brien has had three horses finish on the board in the Classic, including 2000 European Horse of the Year Giant’s Causeway.
Taking over his father’s training license in late 2013 after being his assistant for many years, Richard Hannon has enjoyed success in his two seasons of training with eight group stakes wins according to Equineline. The trainer had one starter in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup with Toronado finishing eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (Osaila ran under his father’s name in the Juvenile Turf Fillies) and is sending over Group 2 winner Illuminate to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf this year.
RICHARD HANNON (RIGHT) WITH JOCKEY RICHARD HUGHES

Jeremy Noseda is returning to the Breeders’ Cup for the first time since 2012. The trainer has had 12 starters in the event, starting in 2004 with Wilko at Lone Star Park. Wilko won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile that year and sent horses to the event every year from 2004 to 2009 and again in 2012. This year he is represented by Nemoralia in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
After a 15 year absence, Carlos Laffon-Parias is returning to the Breeders’ Cup with two starters in 2015. The trainer’s only other entrant in the Breeders’ Cup was Goldamix in the 2000 Filly and Mare Turf where the filly finished 10th.  The winner of seven stakes in 2015 according to Equineline, Laffon-Parias is bringing both Impassable and Bawina to the Breeders’ Cup for the Breeders’ Cup Mile and Filly and Mare Turf, respectively.
David Wachman looks to break a stat he would rather forget exists in the Breeders’ Cup history with Legatissimo on Saturday. Wachman has run three horses in the Breeders’ Cup in previous years with all three of those finishing 11th. The trainer is having one of the best years of his career in 2015 with Grade 1 winners Legatissimo and Curvy in his barn, with both fillies breaking the stakes win drought he experienced in 2014.
A champion steeplechase jockey before becoming a trainer, Andre Fabre has been champion French trainer 24 times, with the trainer dominating the top spot every year from 1986 to 2007. Fabre has won 635 group or graded stakes races as of Oct. 26, including eight Group or Grade 1 races in 2015. From his 45 starters in the Breeders’ Cup, Fabre has won four races and is represented by three runners in this year’s event.
ANDRE FABRE

Freddy Head is the only trainer in Breeders’ Cup history to win multiple races as both a jockey and a trainer. As a jockey the French trainer guided the filly Miesque to victory in the 1987 and 1988 editions of the Breeders’ Cup Mile, and 20 years later trained Goldikova to three straight Mile victories (2008-2010). The trainer has only made seven starts in the Breeders’ Cup as a trainer with a record of 7-3-1-1 with all of those coming since he ran Goldikova here for the first time in 2008. This year he will be represented by Queen’s Jewel in the Filly and Mare Turf, his first time sending a horse over to compete in a route distance Breeders’ Cup race.
Ralph Beckett is in the middle of his best year as a trainer with seven group stakes wins to his credit, including the English classic Ladbrokes St. Leger with Simple Verse. Beckett won the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Marathon with Muhannak, one of four starters he’s run in the Breeders’ Cup. This year, the trainer brings Secret Gesture to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. The mare was fifth in the Filly and Mare Turf last year and crossed the line first in this year’s Beverly D. at Arlington Park but was disqualified to third.
RALPH BECKETT

In his last season of training before he retires, Jonathan Pease is looking to get his second consecutive Breeders’ Cup Mile victory with last year’s winner Karakontie. A trainer for 37 years, his major wins include winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with Bago in 2004 and three Breeders’ Cup races. As the major European flat races are over, Karakontie’s Breeders’ Cup Mile will be Pease’s final big event.
After waiting 21 years to run his second horse in the Breeders’ Cup after finishing third with Quest to Fame in the Breeders’ Cup Turf in 1991, Roger Charlton isn’t waiting nearly as long to make his third appearance. The trainer is running Time Test, who he has won two group stakes with this year, in the Mile. Since winning the 1990 French Derby with Sanglamore as his first stakes victory Charlton has won 54 group stakes races, including four this year.