BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

November 6, 2021

Jimmy Bell

William Buick

Charlie Appleby

Del Mar Racetrack

Press Conference

Q. Space Blues winner of the Breeders' Cup Mile, Godolphin, and for Charlie Appleby, Jimmy Bell with Godolphin. William Buick. Jimmy, I'll start with you. Beginning again with a scratch of one of your two horses in here but ends up same result, a victory.

JIMMY BELL: Yeah, well, we, Yogi said it best. It's deja vu all over again. About the time you don't think something can happen just come around the next day. Certainly didn't see this coming.

But as William and Charlie both say, we got to appreciate these horses. This is a live situation and these things happen. It's a part of the race. We all hate to see these things but it just goes to show you that there's just so many uncontrollable events.

And William does such a great job in keeping the horses steady and focused and backed up and going back in and then going ahead to perform it's a lot more difficult than people would imagine, both for horse and for rider.

Q. William, I know you have to go. After all that again at the beginning of the gate fiasco, this horse, just like yesterday with Modern Games handled it so well and the perfect trip.

WILLIAM BUICK: Yeah, absolutely. Again, he's a real quality horse and he's been around the block. He's traveled. Obviously first time in America, but he's traveled around Europe. He's been to Dubai. So he knows the game.

I wasn't worried about him really and like Jimmy said, you just focus on the job at hand and once that horse got taken out, you sort of reshuffle again and you end up one horse further in. And I had a good plan in my head how I thought it would work out and I wanted it to work out and it worked out a little bit better than what I hoped. I was a little bit worried if I was going to be too close to a hot pace, but the horse, Blowout, she didn't go on today, and the leader set favorable fractions, so I was right behind him and I was very happy where I was.

We had a perfect trip and I knew today was all about getting a trip for this horse, and the way the race panned out it really played to Space Blues' strengths, and I'm delighted that he could show everyone over here what he's all about and that he's been a great horse for me personally and for everyone on this team.

Q. How did your horse react when the other horse had the trouble in the gate?

WILLIAM BUICK: No problem at all. He was very quiet beforehand and things happen quick around here. You don't have the time you do in Europe, so if anything, it woke him up a little bit and made him realize that he's got to be on his game.

So, look, it's unfortunate what happened to the other horse, but my horse, he stayed calm and stayed in his own.

Q. Charlie, again, we talked to Jimmy about the beginning of the race and the pre-race, the gate antics of Master Of The Seas, but then a nice victory for Space Blues. Do you want to take us through that and how is Master Of The Seas?

CHARLIE APPLEBY: Master Of The Seas is fine and James is fine. And I say deja vu, so I'm getting used to this sort of speech now, but the most important thing is he came back safe.

And Space Blues, I was delighted, as William explained that. The fractions were nice sensible fractions and they were fractions that he knew that it was going to be up to their horse as close to the pace as he could, and then it was just the two attributes that Space Blues has out there. Traveling around running behind the pace there and he had the gate change. And I was always confident even coming in off the turn there, William just got into him a little bit. It's just, at those turns, he's not a natural on them. But he's been a great horse and so I'm just delighted for the horse that he's retired on the world stage and especially that he did it today.

Q. What a way to go out, Jimmy, a horse like this who's been such a big part of Godolphin.

JIMMY BELL: Yeah, just as Charlie was pointing out, he's a world traveller, Dubai and France and England, to come over here to be able to showcase that talent, great for the horse, but I think the team as well is always proud to be able to be on a stage where you can show their true talent and he certainly displayed it real nicely today.

Q. Since Space Blues is retiring you went out with something like seven wins in his last nine races, how do you think he compares with the top Euro horses over the last decade?

CHARLIE APPLEBY: He's just a typical (inaudible) that's learning his trade early on. Honestly, I was trying to train him to be a Derby horse once, (inaudible) but, yeah, he's a horse that, of the milers, back in Europe, he's an end-to-end miler on testy conditions, and so that's what we aimed him for is the Breeders' Cup Mile here too, on the flat surface, the tight turns there would suit him, give him every opportunity to stay at the mile. He's won over the mile, but he's amazing for a horse of his caliber, but he wouldn't be a natural miler horse back at home realistically. You wouldn't run him in a Queen Anne or any of those sort of races. But as a seven-furlong horse and now, frankly, a mile here, he showed his attributes. And more of it is mentally how he takes it all in, he walked around there like a true champ.