The 2003 Breeders' Cup Turf at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meet saw Sulanami (IRE) and Storming Home (GB) go to post as the top two betting interests in the field. Sulanami was the French Derby winner in 2002 and finished 2nd in the Arc the same year. Sent to the United States in the summer of 2003, he won the Arlington Million (due to a disqualification of Storming Home) and the Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont.
Storming Home won the Whittingham at Hollywood and the Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship at Santa Anita as a five-year-old after a successful career in the U.K. where he won the King Edward VII, the Champion Stakes and the Goldolphin Stakes.
Neither Storming Home or Sulanami proved to be any kind of factor in the Turf as each got a roughed up at different points during the race and could only watch what turned out to be an incredible three-horse photo-finish.
Assuming command of the lead soon after the field passed the quarter pole, Falbrav (IRE) snuck away to a ½ length edge over The Tin Man and unleashed an all out drive to the wire. Meanwhile, Johar had commenced a rally on the turn and was beginning to make up ground from well back down the middle of the course as the field hit the top of the stretch. 2002 Breeders' Cup Turf winner High Chaparral (IRE) moved into the three-path outside of Falbrav and the rail horse, The Tin Man, and exploded with a turn of foot that made you think that he was going to blow by Falbrav and win easily under the wire. However, as soon as High Chaparral got alongside Falbrav, Johar found one last burst of speed to initiate a three-horse mad dash for the finish resulting in the first dead-heat in Breeders' Cup history between High Chaparral and Johar. Falbrav finished a head back in third.
The two winners of the 03 Turf ran the mile and a half in a brilliant 2:24.24.
High Chaparral won both the Epsom Derby and the Irish Derby, along with back-to-back editions of the Breeders' Cup Turf. He was the Champion Male Turf Horse in America in both 2002 and 2003.
Johar won the Hollywood Derby and the Oak Tree Derby in 2002, and added a win in the San Marcos Handicap in 2003 to complement his dead-heat victory in the Breeders' Cup Turf.
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