3-Year-Old Filly Gains Automatic Berth into $2 million Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf through Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In
Breeders’ Cup Release
YORK, U.K. ─ Westerberg, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith’s Content (IRE) got the better of You Got To Me (GB) Thursday in an exciting finish to the Pertemps Network Yorkshire Oaks (G1) at York. The daughter of Galileo (IRE) earned an automatic starting position in the $2 million Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) through the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In.
The Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series is an international series of 82 stakes races whose winners receive automatic starting positions and fees paid into a corresponding race of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, scheduled to be held Nov. 1-2 at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, California.
Trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by Ryan Moore, Content was keen throughout the first half of the 1 1/2-mile race but powered down the inside of the track as the strong-traveling Emily Upjohn (GB) and You Got To Me fought it out down the middle. You Got To Me, who beat Content in the Juddmonte Irish Oaks (G1) last month, passed Emily Upjohn but could not reel in Content, who held on by three-quarters of a length, with Emily Upjohn a further length back in third.
Content completed the 1 1/2 miles in 2:28:75 over seven rivals on a surface listed as good to firm. She was the 100th individual Group 1 winner for her sire.
Aidan O’Brien, who won the £500,000 contest for the eighth time, said: “She was still very keen early and it’s very rare for a horse to run half as keen as that and win. I thought the petrol gauge would start emptying and Ryan said it was, but she kept coming and she’s a typical example of a Galileo; if there’s no more left, if their legs can move, they will put them out there, and that’s what she did. She went right to the end. They are so genuine.”
Content could be set to return to America for another crack at the Breeders’ Cup after finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) in 2023. O’Brien said: “She’s definitely going to end up where the pace is strong. She could end up in America for the Breeders’ Cup.”
As part of the benefits of the Challenge Series, Breeders’ Cup will pay the entry fees for Content to start in the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf. Breeders’ Cup will also provide a travel allowance for all starters based outside of North America to compete in the World Championships.
