LOUISVILLE, Ky. — “Battle of the Sexes” was sooooo last year.
“Battle of the Exes” is how this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic played out when Mike Smith, dressed in white to ride Drosselmeyer under the lights, appeared out of nowhere and beat his front-running ex-girlfriend, aboard Game On Dude, to the wire.
“I saw white and I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Mike Smith. Ugh,’ ” Chantal Sutherland said.
Drosselmeyer, a 14-1 longshot, won the $5 million Classic by 1 1/2 lengths Saturday at Churchill Downs, capping a weekend of upsets in the season-ending championships.
A year ago, Smith walked off the track in tears after losing the same race by a head on superstar Zenyatta.
“Last year, I sat here just devastated, thought my life was over,” he said. “Just to come back and have a day like I did today and to win the race that I got beat in last year, it’s just amazing.”
Smith and Sutherland, together on and off for six years and once engaged, broke up in 2010 but remain civil, even taking part in a “Battle of the Exes” match race at Del Mar in August to promote the sport.
Then, and now, Smith was the winner.
Drosselmeyer ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:04.27 and paid $31.60 to win. Ruler On Ice, this year’s Belmont Stakes winner, was third.
“He was mowing them down the last eighth of a mile,” winning trainer Bill Mott said.
The Classic produced the final upset of a weekend full of surprises. The biggest was by 64-1 longshot Court Vision, who took down three-time winner Goldikova in the Mile.
Afleet Again won at 41-1 odds in the Marathon, and 18-year-old Irishman Joseph O’Brien became the youngest jockey to win a Breeders’ Cup race, taking the Turf.
Hansen upset even-money favorite Union Rags by a head in a thrilling finish to the Juvenile, tabbing the gray colt as the winter book favorite for the Kentucky Derby.
Smith guided Amazombie to a neck victory in the Sprint at 7-1 odds, while Goldikova’s bid for a record fourth consecutive win in the Mile ended in a third-place finish behind Court Vision and Turallure.
