The worldwide winning wave of juvenile winners for Coolmore shuttler Wootton Bassett rolled into Del Mar in North America on Friday when talented colt Henri Matisse claimed victory in the Group I Breeders’ Cup Turf Juvenile (1m).
Trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by Ryan Moore, Henri Matisse had won three of five previous starts including the Group II Railway Stakes and Futurity Stakes at The Curragh.
He improved off a troubled last start fifth in the Group I Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp on Arc day, relishing the step in trip to a mile to surge home and win by a neck.
"It was very easy today," Ryan Moore said.
"He did it beautifully and we've been learning about him. The step up to a mile around a bend on nice ground helped him, but he just took figuring out a little bit.
"I said to Aidan beforehand I felt he was by far the best horse in the race. He just travelled into it and I was wide on the bend, but he took me there very comfortably. He won without even knowing he was in the race."
Aidan O’Brien was thrilled to see the best from Henri Matisse revealing he had erred when adding blinkers to his gear at Longchamp.
"I did the wrong thing putting blinkers on him in France and he got a bad bump early on. He got a little bit of fright there on bad ground," he said.
"A good few things went wrong that day, but we could forget about it and he's not the finished article either. He's a beautiful horse and he's getting better every week.
"A lot of people put in so much hard work day in and day out for stuff like this to happen. Tomorrow's another day but we're so grateful to get horses like these."
Bred by the Immortal Verse Syndicate and retained to race by the Coolmore partners, Henri Matisse is a half-brother to Champion European 2YO Filly and dual Group I winner Tenebrism as well as Group II winner Statuette being the third stakes-winner among five winners from dual Group I winning Pivotal mare Immortal Verse.
It’s an elite Black Type packed family that features champion sire Last Tycoon.
Henri Matisse is the 13th Group I winner for Wootton Bassett and is his fourth two year-old Group I winner this year joining Camille Pissarro, Twain and Tennessee Stud.
He will have his first Australian runners next season and is back at Coolmore Australia this spring at a fee of $192,500.
