by Ed DeRosa

Kip Deville stamped himself as the best miler in the country as well as one of the best horses ever to come from Oklahoma with a one-length win in the $2,409,080 NetJets Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) on Saturday at Monmouth Park.

Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. told jockey Cornelio Velasquez in the paddock to “relax and make one run.”

Velasquez had no problems following those instructions despite a relatively slow pace set by Cosmonaut. The win was the third of the day for Velasquez, who combined with Garrett Gomez to win six of the first eight races and four of the first five Breeders’ Cup World Championship races, with two victories each.

“Cornelio had to sit in a different spot when [My Typhoon (Ire)] took our spot, but we had been in that spot before, too, so I was like, ‘Okay,’ ” Dutrow said.

“He broke very fast, but I didn’t want to go to the lead, so I covered him up,” Velasquez said. “At the quarter pole, I had a lot of horse, and when I was able to get clear, he took off.”

Kip Deville struck the front inside the final furlong with Excellent Art (GB) chasing him home but never getting within a length of the winner.

“He ran very well, but he was drawn very badly,” trainer Aidan O’Brien said of the favorite. “We would have liked to have had more room to run.”

The Mile win bolsters the form of the Woodbine Mile (Can-G1), which the now-retired Shakespeare won while receiving seven pounds from Kip Deville.

Kip Deville’s connections liked the race enough to supplement the four-year-old Kipling colt for $300,000.

“I loved his race at Woodbine,” Dutrow said. “I don’t know how we were giving seven pounds to Shakespeare.”

Kip Deville finished the one-mile race on turf rated as soft in 1:39.78. Cosmonaut held on for third, a neck in front of Nobiz Like Shobiz.

Kip Deville has won three of seven races this year and could be in the hunt for champion turf male honors along with English Channel, the winner of the John Deere Breeders' Cup Turf (G1) on Saturday.

Dutrow trains Kip Deville for the partnership of IEAH Stables, Andrew Cohen, John Cohen, Steve Cobb, and Doug Robertson. They bought the colt after he won the Grand Prairie Turf Challenge Stakes on April 29, 2006 at Lone Star Park.

“[Trainer] Bobby Frankel told me, ‘Rick, if you don’t buy him, then he’s mine,’ ” Dutrow said.

The win improves Kip Deville’s lifetime record to nine wins in 21 starts with earnings of $2,434,422 to rank second among Oklahoma-breds behind Horse of the Year Lady’s Secret, who earned $3,021,325. Center Hills Farm bred Kip Deville.

The win makes Kip Deville eligible for a $1-million bonus should he also win the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile (HK-G1). The connections, who ran Rebel Rebel (Ire) in that race last year, said that they would consider the race.

“I like Chinese food,” said Mike Iavarone of IEAH.

For an Equibase chart, click here.

Ed DeRosa is news editor of Thoroughbred Times