Jockey Tom Eaves reflects on a day he will never forget after Breeders’ Cup win on Yorkshire-trained Glass Slippers

This was the filly’s third Group One win in as many countries and she and Eaves, one of the unheralded members of the weighing room, owed this landmark success to a dream – and brave – run up the inner of the notoriously tight Keeneland track.

Trained at Hambleton by Kevin Ryan for owner-breeders Bearstone Stud Limited, Glass Slippers came to prominence when landing last year’s Prix de l’Abbaye at ParisLongchamp on Arc day.

She proved that win was no fluke when landing the Flying Five at the Curragh on Irish Champions Weekend before just being touched off in last month’s Abbaye.

Eaves was happy to place his globetrotting filly, who has not won in this country since landing a modest race at Chester in September 2018, towards the rear of the field near the rail.

Up front, Bombard and Into Mystic shared the early pace with Wildman Jack, Texas Wedge and Leinster joining in as the runners approached the top of the stretch.

At that point, Eaves started to make his move on Glass Slippers, who was helped when a gap appeared as the early trail-blazers started to go back leaving Imprimis, one of her main rivals,

Glass Slippers responded in game fashion and galloped on strongly all the way to the line, scoring by half a length to complete a fine year for the trainer whose Hello Youmzain won the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Ryan – having just his second Breeders’ Cup runner – said: “It’s been a funny year for us in the UK, and with this filly you have to plan her races out as she is a filly who improves as the year goes on.

“We knew she goes round a bend very well, as she had won at Chester, and Tom had a word with Ryan Moore who told him to take his time and opt for the shortest route. Being over five and a half furlongs that extra half a furlong was massive.

“She has always been a good traveller and thrives wherever she goes, although she had not been this far, but through the week as she was drinking and eating well we got happier with every passing day.

“It’s great that she will be back for another season next year and if things go to plan I would love to come back to run in this race at Del Mar.”

Ryan’s only other Breeders’ Cup runner, East, was second to Newspaperofrecord in the Juvenile Fillies Turf in 2018. “This is what we do the job for and I’m very lucky to have had some very good horses,” he went on. “I wasn’t able to attend my first Breeders’ Cup, but it’s great to come out here and this filly is very special.”

Delighted owner Terry Holdcroft said: “I’ve been breeding horses for over 40 years and she is the best I’ve ever bred.

“It’s lovely that we kept her and didn’t sell her. Kevin has put an incredible amount of time and detail into training the filly. We had a programme at the start of the year and we didn’t budge from it.

“We won a qualifying Group One in Ireland and only just missed out on the Abbaye – it was such a great opportunity to be able to come here and watch her run.”

This was a defining moment in the career of Eaves who rarely gets the plaudits he deserves despite being one of the most consistent riders in the country. His first time at the Breeders’ Cup, he added: “Kevin knows this horse like the back of his hand and he told me he couldn’t have been happier with her. I didn’t chase the pace and waited and rode my luck. There was a lovely gap for us rounding the turn. This is a day I will never forget.”

However the drying ground did not suit John Quinn’s Safe Voyage who was last home in the Breeders’ Cup Mile under Jason Hart in a race that saw fast finishing Order Of Australia prevail in an Aidan O’Brien clean sweep.

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