The old guy wins ... and he's in!

From Breeders' Cup Ltd.

One the of nation’s best long distance runners, the amazing 10 year-old gelding Evening Attire, rallied from last in a field of six to win the mile and half, $250,000 Greenwood Cup Saturday afternoon at Philadelphia Park. As part of the Breeders Cup Challenge series, the Greenwood Cup winner now gets an automatic birth into the new 1 1/2 mile. Breeders Cup Marathon, to be run October 25th at Santa Anita Park. It will be third Breeders Cup appearance for Evening Attire, having competed in the Breeders Cup Classic in 2002 and 2003.

The oldest horse to compete in the 24-year history of the Breeders' Cup World Championships was the 9-year-old John's Call, who finished third in the 2000 Breeders' Cup Turf.

The Breeders' Cup Challenge is a global series of 57 races at 17 tracks, whose winners earn automatic starting berths into a corresponding race of the Breeders' Cup World Championships.

Of late, Evening Attire has been compromising his chances with very slow starts, even hesitating just a bit before starting to run. Jockey Jose Espinoza would have none of that as he got the ageless one out to an alert beginning. On paper, the race tactics looked quite simple. Barcola would set the pace and Evening Attire would be making his now patented late run. Indeed that was how the scenario played out. Barcola, breaking from the inside gate, jumped out immediately to the lead and went on to set sensible fractions of 24.82 and 48.57. Even with the six horse field, Evening Attire found himself three wide around the first two turns. Espinoza, however, did an excellent job of keeping his mount from falling too far back. Throughout the entire mile and a half, he never fell more than seven or eight lengths behind.

As they made their way to the backstretch for the final time, the two horses at the back on the inside of Evening Attire began to slow and that allowed Espinoza to finally get over to the rail which is where he would stay for the remainder of the trip. He made steady progress up the backstretch and came to the five-sixteenths pole about four lengths behind. He then hit that late running gear that so few horses can find. From the five-sixteenths to the eighth pole, he made a sudden move that saw him go from being four lengths behind to three lengths in front. As the others were struggling through that last grueling furlong it looked like the old man was just warming up as he extended his lead with every stride and rolled home a convincing win by eight and a quarter lengths.

Owned by Joseph and Mary Grant & Thomas Kelly and trained by Patrick Kelly, Evening Attire went off as a co-second choice in the wagering at 2-1 and paid $6.40, 3.20, and 2.60. Phil the Power (30-1) sat third most of the way and was able to out finish Barcola for the place, returning 13.80 and 5.60. Barcola, the 7-5 favorite, made all the running but had nothing left at the top of the stretch. He wound up third and paid 2.10 to show. The final time for the mile and a half set a new track record at 2:29.90.