Winner of the Grade 1 Travers by a widening 13 1/2 lengths, in track-record time at his most recent start, the 3yo Unbridled's Song colt Arrogate rained on the parade of the charismatic California Chrome in the $6 million Group 1 Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita.
In a two horse war down the stretch, the rising star Arrogate responded to a couple of backhanders from Mike Smith to defeat Horse Of The Year California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) by half a length and deny the champion chestnut a perfect season.
Third-placed Keen Ice (Curlin) was ten and three-quarters of a length back in third.
It was the third straight win in the Classic for champion trainer Bob Baffert after Bayern in 2014 and American Pharoah last year.
"Deep down, I really wasn't sure if we could beat California Chrome because I still have total respect for the horse. He's a great horse," Bob Baffert told The Blood-Horse.
"Turning for home, I thought I was going to run second, but there's nothing wrong with that, because 'Chrome' is a really good horse, and running second to him is no bad thing.
"All I can say is, Art Sherman has done an incredible job with California Chrome. That's why this place was packed today."
Sporting the green, pink and white silks of Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte Farms, the lightly raced Arrogate took his record to 5 wins and 1 third from 6 starts with earnings of $4,084,600.
To bolster its ranks in North America, Juddmonte Farms returned to the Keeneland sales ring for the past four years.
In 2014 Juddmonte purchased eight colts at the September Yearling sale at an average of $400,000.
The second most expensive at $560,000 was Arrogate, an Unbridled's Song colt out of the 4-time
Bubbler has a yearling filly by Medaglia d'Oro who sold for $300,000 at Keeneland September. She foaled a Giant's Causeway filly before being covered by Into Mischief.
Unbridled's Song and Distorted Humor spent time shuttling to Australia but it's fair to say their southern hemisphere exploits fell well short of the outstanding success they enjoyed in North America.
Both Bubbler, the dam of Arrogate, and Love the Chase, the dam of California Chrome, will be offered at the Fasig Tipton November Breeding Sale on Monday.
