I don't know whether he understood me, but he rode her just the way I wanted."Edgar Prado played buses as well as horses, as Folklore became his first Breeders' Cup winner at the 42nd attempt before Silver Train followed soon after. Not for them either are the trimmings of expenses, hospitality and gifts, which owners and trainers seem to hold most dear."I think there will be quite a lot of debate about the prize-money at the Breeders' Cup now, compared with some of the other international races," Lord Derby said. Although there was a record of over $15.7m in purses spread across eight races on Saturday, prize-money has remained virtually stagnant for some time now. While others, particularly out east, catch up, North American racing has to wrestle with a sport close to financial turmoil. I thought she ran a great race yesterday, and she has been an amazing horse for us all We're lucky to have her."But we needed that [Shirocco] win. It would have been bloody frustrating not to have a winner out of all the horses in this barn here."A grumble that the self-styled world thoroughbred championships thought they would never hear has emerged this week. Lord Derby seems to think the filly's story is virtually at an end.
"It's too early to say yet [about next year]," he said, "but I would work on the assumption that probably the breeding shed beckons."However, Dunlop would like to think a fourth season of competition remains a likelihood. "Perhaps I could persuade the owner to come back for a third Breeders' Cup," he said. "It's a possibility, one of the various options we have to discuss."Japan looks right now, doesn't it? She doesn't seem to have had an unduly hard race, and she is a very fresh filly. "Obviously, it's up to the filly to tell us if she's ready, but she trotted out last night, looked fantastic, and the plan is the Japan Cup."After that we get into an area that represents as close to disunity as it gets among Ouija Board's well-scrubbed connections. It was a perfect example of we becoming nous at racing's Olympics. At the time, Ouija Board's failure to cope with Intercontinental and retain her Filly & Mare Turf title was depressing. Yet such was the scale of surrender to follow that hers was to become a beacon of achievement.Most pleasingly, Ed Dunlop's four-year-old has emerged from battle unscathed, with just the obligatory nicks of engagement about her legs.
Ouija Board's limbs had the chalk hosed from them yesterday as Lord Derby discussed his filly's effort.Teddy, as his friends know him, did not have the body language of a loser. "It was amazing that the filly should be able to come back and do that," he said "Winning is nice, but that was no disgrace. She was so happy in the barn area last night, her ears pricked. I promise you, she could run a big race tomorrow."Lord Derby now hopes that Tokyo will prove to be the land of the rising daughter "That was not her swansong," he added.
