A finalist for a Cartier Award as Europe’s leading 2-year-old of 2022, Auguste Rodin has pulled off a most unusual double as a finalist for an Eclipse Award in 2023 as North America’s leading 3-year-old male as well as male turf horse. Auguste Rodin’s candidacy arises from his half-length victory over America’s leading older turf horse, Up to the Mark, in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf. Scoring by a half-length thanks in part to a perfect trip engineered by jockey Ryan Moore, Auguste Rodin is one of only two horses to win both the Epsom Derby and the Breeders’ Cup Turf. The other was High Chaparral, who, like Auguste Rodin, won both races in the same year, 2002. High Chaparral came back the following year to dead heat for another Breeders’ Cup Turf win, and since Auguste Rodin stays in training as a 4-year-old, he, too, could make a return trip to the Breeders’ Cup. The Breeders’ Cup Turf capped a season that began distressingly, Auguste Rodin finishing 12th among 14 runners, beaten more than 20 lengths, in the Group 1 2000 Guineas on May 6. With the aid of hindsight, one can surmise that the colt entirely failed to cope with a rain-sodden, leaden course at Newmarket, because one month later, running over firm going at Epsom, Auguste Rodin won the Group 1 Epsom Derby by a half-length over the estimable King of Steel. :: Full list of 2023 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories Auguste Rodin may, in fact, loathe any real moisture in the ground. After a modest win in the Group 1 Irish Derby, he went to Ascot as the favorite for the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on July 29 and beat none of his nine rivals on a course rated good-to-soft. That was not the real Auguste Rodin, not the colt who showed his versatility in early September cutting back from three 1 1/2-mile contests to land the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes going 1 1/4 miles at Leopardstown. With his decided preference for firmer footing, the Breeders’ Cup Turf at fast-ground Santa Anita became the preferred choice over the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, often contested on soft going. Trainer Aidan O’Brien knew the ground would suit Auguste Rodin, and the Irish Champion had demonstrated a degree of handiness, speed, and athleticism that would be required to navigate the relatively small oval and extremely short homestretch at Santa Anita. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Auguste Rodin might have been able to win the Breeders’ Cup Turf had his journey merely been adequate, but Moore found ample room for passage alongside the inner rail, his mount making an electric move off the far turn and into the homestretch to sail one length clear at the furlong grounds. Up to the Mark made modest inroads in the late stages, but Auguste Rodin simply had too much quality to be caught. The quality was inherited. A Coolmore homebred, Auguste Rodin is by the late, great Japanese stallion Deep Impact. He’s the first foal to race out of Group 1 winner Rhododendron, who finished second in the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Her son went one place better. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.