LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – On a gray late afternoon at Churchill Downs the brave little red horse put famous blue silks in the winner’s circle. Line of Duty, carrying Godolphin’s royal blue colors, surged down the middle of a tricky, trampled Churchill grass course and just got the better of tough-luck Uncle Benny to win the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf by a half-length. The mood, for the second year in a row, almost turned black for jockey William Buick, trainer Charlie Appleby, and Godolphin, the global powerhouse cultivated and curated by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. In the 2017 Juvenile Turf, Buick’s foot slipped out of a stirrup as he rode Masar into the far turn at Del Mar. Masar would go on to win the Epsom Derby this year. Sheikh Mohammed rules the emirate of Dubai, but now Line of Duty’s fate fell to the rulership of Churchill’s three stewards. :: Want to get the latest news with your past performances? Try DRF’s new digital PPs Line of Duty’s course had bent left while he made his final desperate run, causing a bump a few yards before the wire with second-place Uncle Benny. That occasioned a claim of foul by Uncle Benny’s rider, Irad Ortiz Jr., and a stewards’ inquiry. The claim had some merit and the judges took their time before rendering an innocent verdict. Line of Duty ($9) wasn’t blameless but deserved to win. The chestnut colt looks about half the size of Uncle Benny, a behemoth for his age, but marries athleticism and ability with a huge heart. In his maiden win he had to bob and weave and come inside horses to get up. Winning the Prix de Conde at Chantilly, the race that sent him on to the Breeders’ Cup, Line of Duty squeezed through an opening that might only have existed in his mind. “He seems to enjoy being tightened up,” said Appleby. “Even when there’s only a half a gap there he enjoys going for it.” Appleby knows when to go for the Breeders’ Cup, and in the last three years has tightened up his grip as a primary trainer for Godolphin. Appleby got thrust into the position when former trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni found himself at the center of a steroid scandal that led to an eight-year suspension. Sheikh Mohammed promoted Appleby, a head lad and an assistant but never a full-on trainer, into the top spot, and that autumn Appleby won the BC Juvenile Turf with a colt named Outstrip. He didn’t return until last year, when Wuheida won the Filly and Mare Turf and Masar never had a chance in the Juvenile Turf. Line of Duty makes it three wins from four starts for Appleby, who has made Sheikh Mohammed look like a wise man. “It’s about bringing the right horses,” Appleby said. “You don’t come all the way over here for the fun of it. It was very fortunate the first season with Outstrip winning, and purposely we didn’t try it for two years because we didn’t have the right horse.” Buick said Line of Duty broke so well and jumped so quickly into the race that around the first of two tight turns over slippery ground he had to ask Line of Duty to do less. “I was in a position where I didn’t have cover from a horse and I was too close to the pace, so I had to just rein him back and restart the race and just get him in a rhythm where we were going forwards gradually,” Buick said. Jose Ortiz on Somelikeithotbrown had no such intention, letting his mount run to the front to set splits of 24.40 and 48.46 as Forty Under was switched out from the rail around the first turn to press the pace, Line of Duty stuck down inside with five or six horses in front of him. Well behind him came Uncle Benny, who, though he was coming out of two sprint races to start his career, waited near the back under Irad Ortiz. Ortiz put Uncle Benny on a course following Line of Duty around the far turn, the two colts first encountering one another at the five-sixteenths pole when Uncle Benny sought passage inside Line of Duty, failed to secure room, and had to be taken up. “I had to check pretty good on the turn for home,” said Ortiz. Buick took Line of Duty outside at the top of the stretch, his mount first churning toward the grandstand as he gained on the leaders. Forty Under had faded at the head of the stretch but Somelikeithotbrown still was finishing as Uncle Benny, momentum regained, closed in fast, Ortiz coming outside Somelikeithotbrown for his final push. The three colts came together, literally, in the final 50 yards, but Line of Duty was going best – and got the best of the stewards ruling. “The bump, I thought that was a case of that being a 50-50 situation and it was so late in the race it was sort of under the wire,” Buick said.   Buick might be right, but Uncle Benny’s trouble at the end of the far turn certainly compromised him, and his connections might go to bed tonight feeling they ran the best horse. Somelikeithotbrown also lost little in defeat, missing second by a neck. “He dug in and fought hard,” Jose Ortiz said. England-based Arthur Kitt, stuck down inside on the worst part of the course most of the trip from post 1, came home a valiant fourth, followed by War of Will, who loomed in midstretch and faded late, and Forty Under. Then came Current, who broke poorly, the Black Album, 3-1 favorite Anthony Van Dyck, Opry, Marie’s Diamond, King of Speed, Henley’s Joy, and Much Better. Anthony Van Dyck had a poor post, 14, but of greater consequence was a wet, loose, difficult turf course. The ground officially was called yielding, but Ryan Moore, Anthony Van Dyck’s jockey, termed the going “soft” after riding earlier in the day, then deemed it responsible for Anthony Van Dyck’s below-form performance. Line of Duty’s winning time for the mile was 1:40.06, slowest in the Juvenile Turf’s 12-year history. Most horses struggled to finish over the laboring going; the head-on view of the stretch run looks like a session of bumper cars. That is just what gallant Line of Duty enjoys, apparently. He now has three wins from five starts and after wintering in Dubai figures, like Masar, to take a run at the Epsom Derby. “Stepping up in trip will probably see further improvement,” said Appleby. Line of Duty is the product of a mating between the Rock of Gibraltar mare Jacqueline Quest and Galileo, the flagship stallion of Godolphin’s longtime rival, Coolmore. A few years ago, Godolphin ended its boycott of Coolmore stallions, and by ending a fight they produced a little chestnut fighter – winner of the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.