Japan claimed their first Group I Breeders Cup Classic when Forever Young proved too strong for last year’s winner, and close relation, Sierra Leone.

The late Wootton Basset was one of those stallions whose progeny can excel over all distances and he will have two runners in the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday and in the meantime we saw a taste of his merit as a staying sire at Randwick on Saturday when his French bred five year-old Wootton Verni (Fr) won the $750,000 Group III ATC Rosehill Gold Cup (2000m).