American champion Wise Dan has lived up to his

favouritism, soaring to back-to-back wins in the Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita.

Jose Lezcano substituted on the 2012 American Horse of the Year for John Velazquez who was injured in a fall earlier in the day and taken to hospital for emergency surgery on his spleen.

Sent off at 4-5, the six-year-old gelding trained by Charles

LoPresti sat off the early pace set by Obviously and had plenty left to power

home between horses for an emphatic three-quarter length victory over Za

Approval.

"He stumbled at the break and I had to go easy with him for a while until

he got his stride under him," Lezcano said.

"He ran really great coming home."

LoPresti dedicated the win to Velazquez.

"This one's for John Velazquez, who was really keen to ride the horse, but

we had every confidence in Jose and we had to go to Plan B," LoPresti said.