Our favorite Breeders' Cup moment

What is your favorite Breeders' Cup moment of the past 31 years? That question was posed to the editors at Brisnet.com and here are events they found most memorable.

Kellie Reilly: As an ardent fan of Personal Ensign from the very beginning, through her early promise at two, to the crushing blow of her career-threatening injury, to her encouraging late-season efforts at three, and her remarkable campaign at four, I was desperate for her to retire unbeaten. So the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) had me on the rack much of the way. Every racing fan knows that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when your rooting interest just doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. It was already a matter of concern that reigning Kentucky Derby (G1) heroine Winning Colors was enjoying a comfortable lead, while Personal Ensign wasn’t exactly traveling with enthusiasm well off the pace in the mud. That concern turned into positive alarm when Randy Romero was nudging Personal Ensign along nearing the far turn, and there was little discernible response. “She just can’t do it from there, she’ll lose, she won’t be perfect anymore.” Even as Personal Ensign began to inch closer down the stretch, I had a horrible fear that her bravery, in these wretched conditions, wouldn’t be enough to catch Winning Colors at the scene of her biggest triumph. But the farther they went, the more Personal Ensign willed her way forward, and there was a glimmer of hope amid the clouds. “Could she still…can she really…is she getting there???” Somehow, the legends find a way to win. Personal Ensign proved that she was one.

Vance Hanson: You know Thoroughbred racing is a sport when you begin to act like it is one. That moment when, as if it were a team or player, you start rooting for the ones you love to win and rooting for the ones you despise to lose. I was an opinionated pre-teen with a mere 2 1/2 years of racing exposure behind me when a horse came along that, as best I recall, I actively rooted against with all my being. What I considered the hyperbole surrounding Easy Goer throughout the winter and spring of 1989 stuck in my craw. The comparisons to Secretariat, and there were some, to me seemed way over the top in light of his Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) loss the previous fall. Even noted Baltimore Sun journalist and racing fan Jack Germond, on PBS’ The McLaughlin Group the night before the Kentucky Derby, predicted Easy Goer would win the Triple Crown. I can’t say I was a huge Sunday Silence fan, but so much was I in the anti-Easy Goer camp that I took extreme delight in his losses to Sunday Silence in both the Derby (John McLaughlin had a good laugh at Germond’s expense the following week) and later in the Preakness (G1). As the summer turned into fall, and Easy Goer compiled victory after victory (the Travers [G1] reduced me to tears), it was evident that only Sunday Silence was capable of defeating this behemoth. I can’t say I was as nervous as the connections of the two protagonists going into the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), but it was an agonizing afternoon as I waited what seemed like forever for that fourth showdown between the two to occur at Gulfstream. I’m sure the stress and sweat was the result of my fear that Easy Goer would blow the doors off his rival just as he had in the Belmont (G1). As we all know, Sunday Silence won everything that was on the line that day with Easy Goer a fast-closing but too-late second. With time and maturity, my dislike for Easy Goer waned considerably. In fact, compared to what I’ve witnessed from nearly every three-year-old in the intervening 25+ years, I having nothing but complete admiration for what Easy Goer accomplished – the way he was campaigned, the races he won. The 1989 Classic remains my favorite Breeders’ Cup moment, but mister we could use a horse like Easy Goer again.