Breeders’ Cup: How longshot Storm The Court won the Juvenile

ARCADIA >> Sometimes the information a jockey offers his trainer after the race is more important than the ride he just put forth.

Ask trainer Peter Eurton, who saddled 45-1 longshot Storm the Court for a win in the $2 million Juvenile on the first day of the 36th Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita on Friday in front of an announced crowd of 41,243.

After the colt’s last start, a third-place finish in the Grade I American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 27, jockey Flavien Prat suggested to Eurton that he add blinkers to the son of Court Vision in his next race.

Presto.

Storm the Court went gate to wire under Prat, holding off an oncoming Anneau d’Or (28-1) by a neck while running the 1 1/16 miles in a very good 1:44.93 over a track that’s been playing extremely slow. Juvenile Fillies winner British Idiom ran the distance in 1:47.07 two races earlier.

“Last time he was a little green,” Prat said. “He broke well and he was kind of (fooling) around down the backside, losing his focus. He kind of dropped back so I thought the blinkers would help him.”

Prat also felt the fact Storm the Court had a two-turn race under his belt was a deciding factor.

When Anneau d’Or came charging home, perhaps putting a head in front of the winner halfway down the stretch, Eurton knew his horse would battle and not cave in.

“I knew he would fight, but I didn’t know how much,” he said. “When (Anneau d’Or) put his head in front, I knew it would be interesting to the wire.”

Eurton didn’t know going in how competitive his colt would be against the likes of the highly-touted Dennis’ Moment, the even-money favorite, and second choice Eight Rings (3-2). But Dennis’ Moment stumbled badly at the start and finished last and Eight Rings, who challenged Storm the Court from second through fractions of 23.49, 47.07 and 1:11.60, faded badly in the stretch and wound up sixth in the field of eight.

Wrecking Crew finished third, 3 1/4 lengths behind Anneau d’Or, at odds of 39-1, triggering a 50-cent trifecta of $1,650.25.

“I thought it was going to be tough,” Eurton said of the competition. “I think everyone up here (on the winners’ podium) would have been content getting a placing.”

Eurton emphasized how important it is to receive feedback from his riders when they come back and unsaddle.

“The insight you can get from a rider is so important,” he said. “When they don’t have anything to say that’s when I kind of look another way (for a different jockey). When you ride these guys that have something to say, it’s really important.”

The whole complexion of the race changed when Dennis’ Moment, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, broke poorly. The footnote on the Equibase chart read: “Dennis’ Moment stumbled badly at the start, lagged at the tail of the field and never recovered.”

Eight Rings went into the race off a six-length victory in the American Pharoah, a race where he beat Storm the Court by 8 1/4 lengths, but he offered no resistance in the lane when asked by jockey John Velazquez.

The race for the Bill Shoemaker Award, given annually to the most outstanding jockey of the Breeders’ Cup, yielded a five-way tie for the lead heading into the decisive Day 2. The award goes to the jockey who rides the most winners in the 14 Breeders’ Cup races, which are being held at Santa Anita for a record 10th time.

Prat, Irad Ortiz Jr., Jose Ortiz, Javier Castellano and Manny Franco each won a race on Future Stars Friday.

In case of a tie between two or more riders, a 10-3-1 points system for second through fourth place is used to break the stalemate.

The announced on-track attendance is the fifth highest Friday crowd since the Breeders’ Cup switched to a two-day event in 2007 at Monmouth Park. The all-sources handle for the 10-race program on the first day was $56,517,228 — a record for Breeders’ Cup Friday and a 5.4 percent increase over last year’s 10-race card on Future Stars Friday at Churchill Downs.