Liam's Map cruises to victory in Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Liam's Map had just run the best losing race of the year when Terry Finley's old friend, Vincent Viola, a fellow West Point graduate, explained that Finley became a part owner of Liam's Map before the race. A nice gift between friends after Liam's Map ran a brilliant second in the Aug. 8 Whitney at Saratoga.

Finley, a Truman High graduate who grew up going to the races at Liberty Bell and runs one of the most successful horse partnerships in America (West Point Thoroughbreds), got a piece at exactly the right moment. Liam's Map crushed the field in the Sept. 5 Woodward at Saratoga.

Friday at Keeneland in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, the 4-year-old colt overcame lengths of adversity and blew away the field while breaking the track record, giving Finley and Vinnie and Teresa Viola their first Breeders' Cup win.

"I thought it would be pretty cool, but it's a lot better than I even thought," Finley said. "This is what we talk about. We talk and we think about, if you're in the ownership business, about winning the big ones, right? The Triple Crowns and the Metropolitan Mile and the Woodward and the Whitney.

"As soon as you get through the summer, we start thinking about standing in the winner's circle for the Breeders' Cup. And I can't believe we did it together. I'm so proud of this team."

The team includes America's most successful trainer, Todd Pletcher, and the top jockey for the last few years, Javier Castellano.

Liam's Map typically is on the lead, but he broke terribly, and it really looked as if the 1-2 favorite might be in trouble, stuck behind horses, with not a lot of room to maneuver.

"I was very concerned," Pletcher acknowledged.

Liam's Map eventually got a clear run and flew through the stretch, winning by 2 1/2 lengths over Lea, with Red Vine third. The winner ran the distance in 1:34.54.

This was Liam's Map's final race. He will be stand at stud next year at nearby Lane's End Farm.

"It's hard to find horses this talented, so it's certainly bittersweet," Pletcher said.

The trainer really wanted to run Liam's Map in Saturday's $5 million Classic against American Pharoah. Given how well Liam's Map ran, he would have been in with a chance. Regardless, all Breeders' Cup wins count.

Pletcher and Castellano also teamed to win the Distaff with Stopchargingmaria by a neck. They are used to winning major races, Pletcher with nine BC wins, Castellano seven. The owners are not used to it, nor was the horse's namesake, Liam Collins.

After 9/11, the Violas wanted to create a Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Once it happened, they permanently endowed it.

Collins became the executive director. When he eventually became a permanent West Point professor and left his position, Collins, a onetime special forces officer, gave the Violas a present - a special map, his map.

"It was a map that I jumped into Afghanistan with," Collins said. "We jumped into Afghanistan in November of 2001. I explained what it was, kind of a silky map that you could take with you. You could use it if you have to escape and evade. It's serial-numbered. So if it got separated from you, you would know whose it was and where they'd been."

Collins was at the track watching "his" horse.

"I was standing in the box right next to Liam Collins, and I saw a special forces officer jumping up and down," Finley said. "And they're supposed to be cool and collected."

Staying cool at the Breeders' Cup is never easy, especially when you are standing next to your horse in the winner's circle.

"I wished for every young boy who attends the races with his dad like I did, that they could share and experience these feelings that I am," said Vinnie Viola, who also owns the Florida Panthers. "I wish for that for every young American son and daughter."

A BC Friday record crowd of 44,947 filled historic Keeneland in a wonderful appetizer for Saturday's nine BC races, culminating with the final race for Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. In addition to the record in the Mile, another track record fell during the undercard, and another was tied. Get ready for a show from the Pharoah.

On Twitter: @DickJerardi