LEXINGTON, Ky. – The road to Breeders’ Cup 2-year-old turf success began overseas and ended at Keeneland, where Victoria Road capped a Friday of Irish and English grass domination, narrowly winning the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf over the strong favorite, Silver Knott.    It was a thrilling end to a relatively predictable string of European turf successes as Victoria Road gave jockey Ryan Moore and trainer Aidan O’Brien their second Breeders’ Cup winner of the afternoon. Meditate, Moore timing her move to the second, smashed rivals in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. A photograph was required to separate the winner from Ireland and the tough-luck loser from England in the nightcap.  “The outrider was saying it’s close. I was pretty sure he’d held on,” said Moore.  :: Get everything you need to prepare for the Breeders' Cup with a DRF Package and save up to 36% off the retail price. Moore and William Buick on Silver Knott rode brilliant races aboard brave young horses. Silver Knott, restless in the starting gate after going to post in earmuffs, started slowly. Buick wedged into a mid-pack slot along the rail with the race being dictated to him and his mount, a less-than-ideal circumstance.    “I had to ride for luck the whole way,” Buick said.   He got lucky. Off a tepid tempo – 23.40 and 48.29 – over a course that Moore described as “fast but safe,” Buick watched as all the horses in front of him at the five-sixteenths pole peeled off the fence. For an instant after turning for home he considered an outside move, but Buick dove back to the inside, slipped through a hole along the fence, made the lead with a half-furlong to run – and lost.   There is only so much a jockey can do, only so hard a horse can try – sometimes there’s just one a little better. Victoria Road was.   The winner broke from post 1 and as the eventual last-place finisher Curly Larry and Mo led, Moore stuck to the rail, his mount, looking for his fourth straight win after four losses to begin his career, the picture of a relaxed, professional young racehorse beneath him.   Victoria Road was 5-1, Silver Knott 7-5, the latter having run races in England against some of the top-rated juveniles in Europe this year. Godolphin, trainer Charlie Appleby, and Buick won this race a year ago with Modern Games, and after their colt Mischief Magic had delivered a scorching run earlier in the afternoon winning the Juvenile Turf Sprint, an aura of inevitability emanated from Silver Knott.   Not so fast.   :: BREEDERS’ CUP 2022: See DRF’s special section with top contenders, odds, comments, news, and more for each division A colt of modest size, vertically and horizontally, Victoria Road comes from a family of sprinters and was treated like one early in his career.    “We thought he was precocious,” O’Brien said. “He’s made like a very fast horse. We ran him over five and six [furlongs] early. We were disappointed he was getting beat. Ryan started to take his time with him – we were riding him forward over five and six -- and when he did, he said that that was the way to ride him.”  In August, Victoria Road won a listed race over one mile at Deauville and the filly behind him, Blue Rose Cen, came back to win a Group 1 in October. Back in France on Sept. 17 for the Group 3 Prix de Conde at 1 1/8 miles, Victoria Road delivered a blistering late run under Moore to get up by a neck. Connections were beginning to think they had something.   “He’s got better all through the year,” Moore said. “He’s a handy horse that travels well, got plenty of pace, very comfortable.”  But as the far turn began bending into the homestretch Friday, Moore’s position started to feel uncomfortable. “There was a lot of traffic coming into the lane. I thought I’d try to get out,” Moore said. Plan A was following Packs a Wahlop, who’d gotten a lovely trip just behind the leaders and had come off the rail for a run. But that horse wasn’t taking Moore and Silver Knott anywhere past the quarter pole and the closers were starting to gang up behind. Nagirroc, who’d stalked the pace, loomed on Victoria Road’s outside. A tiny seam between him and Packs a Wahlop opened. Jockey was ready, horse was willing. Victoria Road sliced through.   That could have been it, Victoria Road storming home to victory, but instead the colt drifted out, thinking his work was done, as Silver Knott surged to a lead that proved fleeting.  “He left the door open for the runner-up. I felt he was coming to get me, but maybe [Victoria Road] did respond, or maybe the other horse’s run was ending,” Moore said, and in the end, it was Ireland over England.   Nagirroc, trying two turns for the first time and doing well at it, was the first American home, finishing 2 1/4 lengths behind the top two and leading home a parade of American longshots. Mo Stash, who tracked the pace, was fourth, a half-length out of third, and about a half-length then separated the next seven across the line – Battle of Normandy, Gaslight Dancer, Andthewinneris, Packs a Wahlop, Major Dude, I’m Very Busy, and Webslinger. Really Good, Reckoning Force, and Curly Larry and Mo brought up the rear.   Winning time over a course labeled firm was 1:35.99, which was .61 seconds slower than Meditate ran in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, a faster race at all the points of call. Victoria Road earned an 86 Beyer Speed Figure and paid $13.14 to win, loaded with value as the third choice. Owned by Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Westerberg, Victoria Road is by first-crop sire Saxon Warrior out of Tickled Pink, by Invincible Spirit.   Victoria Road already has been to France twice, and already his trainer is talking about him as a horse for the 2023 French Derby.  Appleby, who reasonably asserted Silver Knott lost nothing in defeat, just missed his fourth Juvenile Turf. Instead, O’Brien got his sixth.   In addition to the Juvenile Turf exacta, Europeans were first and fourth in the Juvenile Fillies Turf and first, second, fourth, and fifth in the Juvenile Turf Sprint. Pleasant Passage, second in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, and to a lesser extent Private Creed, third in the Juvenile Turf Sprint, were the only American horses to really land a blow Friday.   O’Brien had excellent weekends when the Breeders Cup came to Keeneland in 2015 and 2020. He’s having another one but declined to entertain the notion that horses from Ireland might better suit racing in Kentucky than California this time of year. “We know how difficult it is to win Breeders’ Cup races. We’ve come many years and not had any winners,” he said.  Two on Friday, and Saturday still to come. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.