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Aidan O’Brien has arrived in California to be greeted with some unwelcome news after two of his stars were allocated the worst possible post positions at the Breeders’ Cup. O’Brien’s fabulous campaign has put him on the cusp of creating more racing history, needing three more Group 1 victories to equal his own world record of 28 top level wins in a year, and one more victory to become the most successful Breeders’ Cup trainer ever. The Ballydoyle maestro has eight chances to improve on his score of 20 Cup wins on Friday and Saturday, headed by the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe runner-up Minnie Hauk who contests the Breeders’ Cup Turf. His two other major hopes are the two-year-olds Precise, the Fillies’ Mile winner who runs in the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf and Gstaad, the Dewhurst Stakes second who tackles the Juvenile Turf. On a tight turf oval like Del Mar, trainers hope to avoid a wide draw but that setback befell both of horses with Precise having to break from stall 13 of 13 and Henri Matisse from 14. The news prompted an immediate reaction from bookmakers with William Hill easing Precise to 11-10 from Evens and Gstaad pushed out to 11-10 from 4-5. Spokesperson Lee Phelps, said: "We’ve just had the draw for this weekend’s Breeders’ Cup races, and it looks like two big European chances, Aidan O’Brien’s Precise and Gstaad, have picked up some nightmare berths in 13 and 14 respectively. As a result, we think their chances have just become slimmer around the tight Del Mar track.” O’Brien can take some comfort from the fact that Henri Matisse overcame stall 12 to land the Juvenile Turf at the same track 12 months ago. After watching his string stretch out on the track for the first time on Tuesday, he told FanDuelTV during the Breakfast at the Breeders’ Cup show: “They seemed fine. Everyone seemed happy. "It was their first day on the track and it was just to get them out and show them the place so they just followed along each other. They were all nice and relaxed and lobbed along just to see the surroundings. “They will go down to the start on Wednesday, on Thursday they will go to the paddocks and on Friday they will be back out on the track.” Asked about the draws, he said: “That’s the way it is. Obviously we’ll see what Christophe [Soumillon] thinks. The draws are draws.”
