TENSION laced the air as Ouija Board was saddled for the Filly & Mare Turf here at Churchill Downs on Saturday. It was palpable in Lord Derby and his wife Cassie, plainly evident in the normally inscrutable features of Ed Dunlop, and overflowing from the gathering of their extended families.

There was one notable exception: Ouija Board herself. She wasn’t alone for long. Frankie Dettori’s arrival served to lighten the mood, the jockey’s exuberance quickly permeating the assembled throng. Then, as he was legged aboard, two supremely confident athletes became umbilically connected. They were fused by desire, certain in the knowledge that they had what it takes.

Out they went and back they came: Ouija Board a dual Breeders’ Cup heroine, Dettori en route to a double completed by Red Rocks in the Turf. It really was that simple. No fuss, no worries, no concerns at all. But then, that’s Ouija Board for you. A rare and finely chiselled thoroughbred for whom excuses need never be made. As Dettori said afterwards: “I knew I had the horse. I was just trying not to make a mistake.”

Plenty have been made aboard the mare, but not by Dettori. All she demands is to be pointed in the right direction, which is all Dettori did. Trapped along the rail for much of the $2 million (about £1,050,000) contest, he found racing room around the bend and turned Ouija Board loose. It was simply a question of how far: two-and-a-quarter lengths, hand ridden, easy as you like.

It was not so for Europe’s heavily-laden challenge in the Mile. Errant stalls handlers, slow breaks, fast finishes, hard-luck stories — you name it, excuses flowed like the nearby Ohio River after Sleeping Indian had fared best in fourth place. The only thing flowing after Ouija Board routed Film Maker were eulogies. Torrents of them from punch-drunk connections.

One sober man in the house was Film Maker’s trainer, Graham Motion, and it was he who embellished the moment. “Any other time, we might have won one of these,” Motion offered, “but we’ve run against Ouija Board three times in a row. I’m thrilled with Film Maker; she does everything she can, but Ouija Board is probably one of the greatest fillies of all time.” Earnings of $5.8 million substantiate Motion’s words.

Motherhood beckons the five-year-old, and understandably so, yet how can the sport replace her when she retires at the year’s end? We must savour Ouija Board while we can: in the Japan Cup later this month, and in Hong Kong beyond that. Dettori will be there, hoping to add to a treasure sack bursting at the seams. Breeders’ Cup day capped a season in which he has maintained a sharp focus despite Godolphin’s tribulations in Britain. Red Rocks’ Turf triumph elicited a rare admission. “I’m speechless,” he said. “I don’t know what to say.”

Trained by Brian Meehan, Red Rocks prevailed in a race where horses from Europe’s bigger stables hogged the headlines in advance. Scorpion flattered briefly in the straight, by which time Hurricane Run was a spent force. All the while, however, Dettori trusted his instinct that the leaders would crumple after a forceful early pace. He delivered Red Rocks with perfect timing.

For a brief while Dettori harboured visions of a plum spare ride when Javier Castellano, booked for raging Classic favourite Bernardini, took a horrible Distaff spill from Pine Island, who was fatally injured. Castellano duly recovered, although his extravagant forward move three furlongs out rendered Bernardini vulnerable to a late thrust. Sure enough, Invasor, trained by former Godolphin lieutenant Kiaran McLaughlin, delivered the coup de grâce.

George Washington ran with credit to finish sixth after some serious buffeting rounding the final turn, but this was one for Coolmore’s racecourse rivals. Bernardini, Sheikh Mohammed’s superhorse-in-waiting, was cut down by his brother Sheikh Hamdan’s Uruguayan import. Greatness was thus denied Bernardini on a day when the mantle rested easily on Ouija Board’s majestic flanks.

• Stan Moore’s British challenger Satulagi failed to go the pace and could finish only eleventh of 14 in the Juvenile Fillies’. John Egan, her rider, said: “She didn’t get the jump and was unbalanced on the paddock turn, but we beat a few home.”
  
  BREEDERS’ CUP RESULTS
  
  5.30 JUVENILE FILLIES (1m 110yd, dirt): 1, Dreaming Of Anna (R Douglas); 2, Octave; 3, Cotton Blossom. 14 ran. 1½l, 1¼l. W Catalano.
  
  6.10 JUVENILE (1m 110yd, dirt): 1, Street Sense (C Borel); 2, Circular Quay; 3, Great Hunter. 14 ran. 10l, 2¼l. C Nafzger.
  
  6.55 FILLY & MARE TURF (1m 3f) 1, Ouija Board (L Dettori); 2, Film Maker; 3, Honey Ryder. 2¼l, nk. E Dunlop (GB).
  
  7.35 SPRINT (6f, dirt): 1, Thor’s Echo (C Nakatani); 2, Friendly Island; 3, Nightmare Affair. 14 ran. 4l, ½l. D O’Neill.
  
  8.15 MILE (turf) 1, Miesque’s Approval (E Castro); 2, Aragorn; 3, Badge Of Silver. 14 ran. 2¾l, hd. M Wolfson.
  
  8.55 DISTAFF (1m 1f, dirt) 1, Round Pound (E Prado); 2, Asi Siempre; 3, Happy Ticket. 14 ran. 4¼l, ½l. M Matz.
  
  9.35 TURF (1m 4f): 1, Red Rocks (L Dettori); 2, Better Talk Now; 3, English Channel. 11 ran. ½l, 2¼l. B Meehan (GB).
  
  10.20 CLASSIC (1m 2f, dirt): 1, Invasor (F Jara); 2, Bernardini; 3, Premium Tap. 13 ran. 1l, 1½l. K McLaughlin.