Asmussen Cashes In With ‘World

Unable to win with 22 previous mounts in the Breeders’ Cup, jockey Cash Asmussen was confident the drought was going to end Saturday.

It didn’t matter that he was riding in only one of the seven races. Not when the one horse he was aboard was Spinning World.

Europe’s top miler did his thing Saturday, winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile by two lengths in a record-tying performance. The 4-year-old son of Nureyev completed the distance in 1:32 3/5, matching the Breeders’ Cup mark set by Royal Heroine at Hollywood Park in 1984 and the course record held by Fastness and Megan’s Interco.

Positioned well from the outset by Asmussen, Spinning World, the 2-1 favorite, collared pacesetter and 5-2 second choice Lucky Coin in mid-stretch.

Second in the Mile behind Da Hoss a year ago in Canada, Spinning World has four victories in five starts in 1997 and is eight for 14 for trainer Jonathan Pease. He is owned by the family of the late Stavros Niarchos, which won the Mile in 1987 and ’88 with the brilliant filly Miesque.

“If I was only riding one, this was the right one,” Asmussen said. “He’s a fine Bordeaux [wine]. He gets better with age. I rode him like he was the best, and he didn’t let me down.

“We had a perfect trip. He carried me the whole way. He has improved and [Pease] had him fresh. We just followed [Lucky Coin], then went on.”

In winning for the seventh time in 12 tries at a mile, Spinning World got the kind of trip he had in his last two victories in Group I races in France. He settled in fourth early in both of those, and that’s where he was for the first half-mile Saturday.

He then angled off the rail around the turn and came home with a flourish, running the final quarter-mile in less than 23 seconds.

Geri, the 6-1 third choice, beat Decorated Hero, another European and a 40-1 outsider, by a neck for the place. Lucky Coin, who was supplemented to the Mile by owner Edward Kelly for $120,000, earned more than half of that back [$61,600] by finishing fourth.

More than halfway home, Lucky Coin’s rider, Robbie Davis, believed he was on his way to his first Breeders’ Cup victory.

“I wouldn’t have changed places with anybody at the three-eighths pole,” Davis said. “He had gone the first quarter [in 23 2/5 seconds] and was going along just like he had in New York [in last month’s Kelso Handicap], but he couldn’t hold on today.”

The race was marred by an injury to Helmsman, who finished 10th in the field of 12. He was pulled up on the backstretch by jockey Corey Nakatani.

“He pulled up sore in the left front leg,” veterinarian Wayne McIlwraith said. “There was no fracture, but he suffered an injury to the high suspensory [ligament].”

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PAST WINNERS

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Year Horse Jockey Margin Payoff 1984 Royal Heroine F. Toro 1 1/2lengths $5.40 1985 Cozzene W. Guerra 2 1/4 lengths $9.20 1986 Last Tycoon Y. Saint-Martin Head $73.80 1987 Miesque F. Head 3 1/2 lengths $9.20 1988 Miesque F. Head 4 lengths $6.00 1989 Steinlen J. Santos 3/4 length $5.60 1990 Royal Academy L. Piggott Neck $7.60 1991 Opening Verse P. Valenzuela 1 1/4 lengths $55.40 1992 Lure M. Smith 3 lengths $12.80 1993 Lure M. Smith 2 1/4 lengths $4.60 1994 Barathea F. Dettori 3 lengths $22.80 1995 Ridgewood Pearl J. Murtagh 2 lengths $7.10 1996 Da Hoss G. Stevens 1 1/2 lengths $18.90 1997 Spinning World C. Asmussen 2 lengths $6.20

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