Toast of New York ready to get dirty at Breeders’ Cup Classic

UAE Derby winner could make Dubai World Cup next target if all goes well in Santa Anita, writes Geoffrey Riddle

An exercise rider takes Toast of New York for a morning workout ahead of the Breeders' Cup Classic horse race at Santa Anita Park on October 29, 2014, in Arcadia, California. Jae C Hong / AP Photo

By the time Toast Of New York arrives in Dubai for the World Cup in March, promoters may be rolling out the red carpet for a superstar.

The UAE Derby winner takes his chance in the US$5 million (Dh18.4m) Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita late Saturday and, should he take to the California dirt on his first start on the surface, then his next start may well be in the world's most valuable horse race, the Dubai World Cup.

Toast Of New York may not have won since his UAE Derby triumph at Meydan Racecourse in March, but having chased home Shared Belief on the artificial surface of Del Mar in August in the Pacific Classic, he showed he is worthy of a place among the likes of his conqueror and California Chrome in the 14-runner field.

Toast Of New York was badly hampered in the home straight at Del Mar and with the unbeaten Shared Belief, the overwhelming favourite, perhaps not as good on dirt, trainer Jamie Osborne is hopeful Toast Of New York can at least narrow the margin of defeat from two-and-three-quarter lengths.

Toast Of New York, who will again be ridden by Jamie Spencer, has an American pedigree through and through and Osborne is ready to take his chances.

“We wouldn’t have brought him if there was no chance he was going on the dirt,” Osborne told The National from California. “There is plenty about his style that suggests he will go on it. There is plenty about his physique and strength that suggests he will cope with it.

“When this horse is in the frame of mind for a race, he will gallop though a brick wall. He won’t be put off by a bit of ­kickback.”

Osborne has been providing the digital world with regular updates on Toast Of New York via his Twitter account, and the adventures of the son of unproven sire Thewayyouare have resulted in the famous congregating under his banner.

Last week a BBC television crew visited Osborne’s stables in Lambourn, in the heart of the English countryside, while Bo Derek, the American actress and model, all week has been tweeting pictures of herself wearing a Toast Of New York baseball cap.

“Bo Derek is on the California Racing Board and I got to know her in Del Mar and she has been supporting Toast this week,” Osborne said. “He has a big following. He is a popular horse and he ran a big race at Del Mar and a lot of the Californian public have taken him to their hearts.”

Winning hearts is all very well, but European-trained horses hardly have a record in the Classic that suggests Toast Of New York will prevail. Arcangues’s success for Andre Fabre in 1993 was a huge upset, while Raven’s Pass won for John Gosden and Princess Haya of Jordan in 2008 on a Pro-Ride surface at Santa Anita in 2008.

The transfer from synthetic back to dirt at Santa Anita has been mimicked by Meydan for this season, and Osborne questioned whether owner Michael Buckley’s charge would be in America if the UAE’s flagship track had not ripped up their Tapeta surface this year.

“I think had Meydan been on Tapeta next year there is a chance we wouldn’t be here,” Osborne said. “Because the World Cup is now on dirt this is the obvious race to try him out on it.

“We could either take him to Meydan and test him out on the dirt there and gauge whether he can perform on it, or we run him for $5m at the Breeders’ Cup and find out that way. It was an easy decision.”

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