Nysos earned a cool $3.5 million for his second-place finish to Forever Young in the $20 million Saudi Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last Saturday. Nysos's performance gave trainer Bob Baffert a year-end goal of the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
“I’ll work back from there,” Baffert said on Thursday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Journalism will target the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap as his first main objective in 2026, trainer Michael McCarthy said Wednesday.
McCarthy confirmed that Journalism will stay in training at age 4 following an admirable eight-start 3-year-old campaign that included three Grade 1 wins. He also finished fourth in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Del Mar.
“He will stay in training next year,” McCarthy said. For an initial target, the trainer did not hesitate in saying, “The Met Mile.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Nysos and Splendora hope to parlay 2025 Breeders’ Cup victories into successful 2026 campaigns, while Seismic Beauty will seek redemption next year.
Early this week, trainer Bob Baffert outlined plans for his Breeders’ Cup runners, including Dirt Mile winner Nysos and Filly and Mare Sprint winner Splendora. Plans call for both to remain in training next season at age 5 along with Seismic Beauty, the beaten favorite in the Distaff.
The owners of White Abarrio have retained counsel and are requesting a “full and transparent investigation” be conducted into the scratch of White Abarrio from last Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar, according to an e-mail from part owners C2 Racing and Gary Barber.
Total commingled betting on the 14 Breeders’ Cup races held on Friday and Saturday at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Southern California declined 2.4 percent compared to total handle on the same races last year, according to charts of the races.
The slight decline was the second time in the past three years in which year-over-year handle declined on the 14 races that form the brunt of two consecutive cards. In 2023, handle on the 14 Breeders’ Cup races held at Sanita Anita declined 8.9 percent compared to record figures at the 2022 event, which was held at Keeneland.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Despite getting an extra hour’s sleep the night before, trainer Jose D’Angelo still sounded a bit drained from the emotions of the previous afternoon when he returned to his barn early Sunday morning to check on his two Breeders’ Cup winners, Bentornato and Shisospicy.
“It was such an amazing day, so exciting, but there was also so much pressure that goes along with it just getting these horses here,” D’Angelo said. “We were supposed to go out to a party last night to celebrate. Instead, we were so tired, we just stayed in and ate dinner at the hotel.”
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes this year with Godolphin homebred Sovereignty, and Mott has long associations with the colt's family. He sent out great-granddam Sluice for her career debut in July 2000, and has since handled multiple generations of the family leading to this year's success.
DEL MAR, Calif. – There were more runners in front of Gezora than behind her in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris on Oct. 5.
A 13th-place finish in that historic race could have been the end of a season for many horses. But for trainer Francis-Henri Graffard, there was unfinished business. Gezora rebounded quickly from that loss, enough for her to be sent to California for Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar.
DEL MAR, Calif. – When the field for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile turned into the stretch, trainer Bob Baffert said he knew one thing for certain: He was going to win the race. Who he was going to win with, however, couldn’t be answered until the final strides, when Nysos stuck his head in front of a game Citizen Bull to earn his first Grade 1 victory while giving Baffert a record-tying 21st Breeders’ Cup win.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Notable Speech fell just short of winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile as a 3-year-old in 2024. This year, Notable Speech was nothing short of brilliant.
Thanks in part to a perfect ride from William Buick, but thanks even more to his elite ability, Notable Speech rode the rail almost the entire mile trip, finishing it off with a crackling turn of foot to win the $2 million Mile by 1 1/2 lengths.
Notable Speech’s third-place finish here a year ago broke a string of three straight Mile wins for Buick, trainer Charlie Appleby, and Godolphin.
