Brendan Walsh: Breeders' Cup Trainer Profile

Brendan Walsh, an Irish trainer who started his United States career as an assistant to Eddie Kenneally in 2007, struck out on his own in 2011 and has been on a rising trajectory ever since. Walsh hit a serious positive inflection point in his career after beginning to train for Godolphin.

Though Walsh is only expected to have two horses running in the Breeders’ Cup on November 3 and 4, 2023, at Santa Anita Park, one of them will be a key contender in one of the most talked-about races. In the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, his Kentucky Oaks winner, Pretty Mischievous, is one of the likely favorites.

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Breeders’ Cup History

Marathon Success

His first visit to the Breeders’ Cup came in 2013, when he trained Worldly to a third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Marathon (G2). From seven Breeders’ Cup starters to date, he remains Walsh’s only money finisher from seven starters so far—and, despite Walsh’s success in dirt races elsewhere, his only starter to date on the main track.

Though the Marathon was demoted from Breeders’ Cup status the next year, it remains a Grade 2 (now called the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes) and remains part of the weekend festivities, and Walsh won the race in two of its next three editions: with Cary Street in 2014 and Scuba in 2016. Walsh earned his first graded-stakes win in the Greenwood Cup (G3) at Parx with Cary Street about two months before, and the Marathon win made him the first of Walsh’s multiple graded stakes winners.

Other Breeders’ Cup starts

After Worldly’s start in 2013, Walsh did not start a horse in the Breeders’ Cup proper until 2020. His six starters over the last three years have all stepped out in turf races. Into Mystic and Extravagant Kid both contested the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in 2020; Into Mystic was 12th, though Extravagant Kid was fourth, beaten less than a length by Glass Slippers. Extravagant Kid was ninth in the 2021 Turf Sprint.

Walsh started three horses, his most in an individual year so far, in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup: Cazadero in the Turf Sprint, Family Way in the Filly and Mare Turf, and Reckoning Force in the Juvenile Turf. None went off at odds of shorter than 30-1, and none finished better than tenth.

Stable Stars

Despite the fact that he has yet to win a Breeders’ Cup race, Brendan Walsh has still trained some important horses over the last decade. These are some of the multiple graded stakes winners and other top horses trained by Walsh during his career to date.

Multiplier

2017 Illinois Derby winner Multiplier brought Brendan Walsh his first win in a graded-stakes restricted to sophomores on dirt, and the first to take him onto the Triple Crown trail. After that Grade 3 victory at Hawthorne, Walsh ran him in the Preakness Stakes, where he finished sixth, and the Belmont Stakes, where he finished tenth. The Belmont would be Multiplier’s final start in the Walsh barn, and he would be reinvented as a long-distance turf horse on the West Coast.

Plus Que Parfait

Brendan Walsh would return to the Triple Crown trail in 2019 with Plus Que Parfait. The son of Point of Entry broke his maiden on the dirt at Keeneland in October of his juvenile season and finished second in the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) at Churchill Downs, just a neck behind Signalman. A winning visit to Meydan for the UAE Derby (G2) made Plus Que Parfait the first Kentucky Derby starter for Walsh; he made an early run, but flattened to eighth. The UAE Derby win would prove to be Plus Que Parfait’s last, but he would achieve one more graded placing when third behind Mr. Money in the West Virginia Derby (G3) that summer.

Maxfield

The best of the early bearers of the Godolphin blue for Walsh was Maxfield, who brought Brendan Walsh his first Grade 1 win in 2019 when he won the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland. Though Maxfield never made it to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the Kentucky Derby, or the Triple Crown series, he came back to be a top older horse with wins in the Stephen Foster (G1) and Clark (G1) at Churchill Downs during 2021, his four-year-old year.

Santin

A later bloomer for Brendan Walsh, Santin raced just three times at age three in 2021: he broke his maiden on debut in a turf mile at Horseshoe Indianapolis, won an allowance over the same surface and distance at Keeneland, and stepped right up to Grade 1 company where he ran second beaten a neck by Beyond Brilliant in the Hollywood Derby. He proved one of the leading older turf horses of 2022, winning both the Turf Classic (G1) at Churchill and the Arlington Million (G1) at Churchill Downs. Though he has not won in 2023, he was second in the Arlington Million and third in the Kentucky Turf Cup (G2); this may not be Breeders’ Cup Turf-level form, but he remains relevant in graded stakes company on the lawn.

Breeders’ Cup Distaff

Brendan Walsh is expected to make his first-ever start in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. He will be doing so with one of the leading dirt route female horses in the country: Pretty Mischievous.

Pretty Mischievous

Not only is she the reigning Kentucky Oaks winner, Pretty Mischievous is one of the most consistent graded stakes horses in training: ten starts into her career, she has seven wins, and she has yet to miss the board. Though she has been a top-level one-turn horse as well, winning the Acorn (G1) over the sweeping one-turn 1 1/16 miles at Belmont Park, she handled the Distaff distance beautifully to win the Oaks.

Older horses are a question Pretty Mischievous still has to answer, since this sophomore has only faced her own age. Shipping is an answered question, though. Pretty Mischievous has never raced at host track Santa Anita, but she has won at four different tracks and finished a credible second in a Grade 1 at a fifth, meaning she can take her game with her.

Pace may be the biggest question for her. Pretty Mischievous was ½ length second in the Cotillion (G1) last out, unable to quite catch Ceiling Crusher after that one set a comfortable pace. Since Santa Anita can be quite speed-friendly, Pretty Mischievous will be well-suited if there is as much battle as possible on the front end to set up for her late run.

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf

Even though six of his seven Breeders’ Cup starts have come over the lawn, Brendan Walsh points toward his first-ever start in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with the undefeated Austere, a daughter of Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Mendelssohn. He has started one two-year-old in the Breeders’ Cup before, Reckoning Force, who finished 13th in the Juvenile Turf in 2022.

Austere

Austere has lined up at the starting gate just twice, but she has yet to lose a race. On debut at 1 1/16 miles on the Ellis Park grass, she settled a few lengths off the pace, made her rally into the upper stretch, and kicked clear to win by a length. Stepped up to the Juvenile Fillies Stakes at Kentucky Downs, Austere looked even better. Once again, she tracked a few lengths off the early lead and made an outside run; this time, she drew off to win by three lengths.

The company she will face in the Breeders’ Cup is the big question, as she has yet to step into graded stakes company, much less a Grade 1. The second-place horse from her debut maiden win, Plumeria, still has yet to graduate after three starts. Second-place Bella Haze, from the stakes win at Kentucky Downs, returned to finish fourth in the Jessamine (G3) at Keeneland, though she was part of the blanket finish for place well behind Buchu.

Do note that Reckoning Force, Brendan Walsh’s starter in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, also won an ungraded stakes at Kentucky Downs on his path to the Breeders’ Cup. He ran seventh in the Bourbon (G2) before pressing on to Breeders’ Cup, though he had enough trip trouble that day to make that of questionable value with respect to drawing comparisons.

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