Immersive wins the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies with authority

Photo: Alex Evers / Eclipse Sportswire

Del Mar, California.

The victory for the homebred Godolphin, ridden by Manny Franco, ensured her record remained unblemished after four starts and essentially sealed Eclipse Award division honors.

As pleasant as the win was in the end, trainer Brad Cox said he began to wonder as the field passed the half-mile bar whether Nyquist's daughter would run her race on that sunny but cool California day.

“(I) was maybe a little worried that for some reason she couldn’t do the distance,” he said. “…Then when I was still looking at the factions, I thought this race had to fall apart. Actually, at that point I was worried that someone might come after her.”

His nervousness vanished as quickly as it had appeared when he realized that Immersive was moving away from her closest pursuers, and that the pursuers were far too late to catch up with her.

After opening 3-1 as the second choice in the field of ten, Immersive had dropped to a 2-1 favourite, broke out alertly and found himself in fourth place in the early stages as the Bob Baffert-trained Nooni made quick early fractions of 22 .00 and 44.99 seconds and gained a clear lead.

Scottish morning line favorite Lassie got ahead of Immersive just before the outermost corner and, along with Vodka With a Twist, made a move to catch and overtake the tiring Nooni at the end of the stretch, while Franco Immersive shifted to the outside and called for his mount go.

The pair overtook the pair approaching the 1/16 pole and then pulled away well before the border.

Vodka With a Twist got the better of Scottish Lassie late and held on for second place by 2½ lengths, while Quickick recovered from last place to move into third, a length clear of Scottish Lassie.

The winner returned $6 on a winning bet of $2 and pocketed an exact payout of $24,200 for $1.

The victory was Cox's 11th in the Breeders' Cup and the second for Franco.

It also boosted Immersive's earnings to more than $1.6 million for Godolphin, the global racing operation of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, which has won the Eclipse Awards for best breeder and owner for the past three years .

Michael Banahan, director of Godolphin Bloodstock, attributed the operation's recent success to the sheikh's long-term planning around bloodlines.

“Sometimes we have reached peaks and sometimes we have reached valleys, but the good pedigrees always come through,” he said.

“It takes a lot of time and effort to develop these families, but we are currently seeing the fruits of it,” he added. “And we are in very happy shape. We’ve seen that in the last few years.”