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. Nysos – along with stablemates Imagination, who won the Group 2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint, and Nevada Beach, who finished 12th of 13 in the Saudi Cup – is scheduled to leave Saudi Arabia for the United States on Friday. The trio will be sent to Chicago for a brief quarantine before returning to Baffert’s base at Santa Anita by the end of the month. Nysos, who races for Charles and Susan Chu’s Baoma Corp., was beaten a length by Forever Young in the Saudi Cup at 1 1/8 miles. The Saudi Cup was only the second loss in nine starts for Nysos, a 5-year-old horse by Nyquist who has won such races as the BC Dirt Mile at Del Mar last November and the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay, Jr. Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita in December. :: Santa Anita Classic Meet! Get DRF Past Performances, Clocker Reports, and more. Nysos has never raced beyond 1 1/8 miles, but the Saudi Cup result gives Baffert confidence the BC Classic distance of 1 1/4 miles is within the horse’s range. “He ran a big race. He turned for home and I thought we’d get to” Forever Young, Baffert said. “He was still running at the wire. He’ll be able to handle the mile and a quarter.” Forever Young, a winner of 11 of 14 starts, has earned an astonishing $29,358,590. Of that amount, $20 million has come from Saudi Cup victories. Forever Young, 5, won the 2025 Saudi Cup and is the first horse to win consecutive runnings of a race launched in 2020. Forever Young won the BC Classic at Del Mar last November. His next-race goal is the $12 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on March 28. Forever Young was third in the 2025 Dubai World Cup and did not race again until he won a minor stakes in Japan last October, slightly more than four weeks before his win in the BC Classic. Baffert on Wednesday offered a tip on where trainer Yoshito Yahagi should race Forever Young for the rest of the year. “He needs to stay in Japan,” Baffert suggested, displaying his dry wit. “He’s done enough.” That is unlikely to happen. “The other horse is too much,” Baffert said of Forever Young. “We got beat on the square. If you’re going to beat that horse, you have to have a perfect trip.” :: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!  Baffert has yet to win the Saudi Cup from nine starters. He has been second four times. Prior to this year’s running, Baffert finished second with Charlatan in 2021 and with Country Grammer in 2022 and 2023. “I really thought we had the horse to do it with,” Baffert said of Nysos. Baffert said there are no immediate race plans for Nysos or Imagination, who won the richest race of his career in the $2 million Riyadh Dirt Sprint at six furlongs. That race may be the last time Imagination races at six furlongs in the near future. “I think he’s a miler or seven-eighths,” Baffert said. In the Riyadh Dirt Sprint, Imagination had a slow start and was briefly last before jockey Flavien Prat moved Imagination into a ground-saving position nearing the turn. Prat moved Imagination toward the outside nearing the stretch. Imagination closed steadily to edge the Florida-based Just Beat the Odds in the final 40 yards. “When he missed the break, I thought, 'This is a long way to come for this,' ” Baffert said. “He gets stronger as he goes along. When he tipped him to the outside, I thought he has a chance. I needed every bit of six furlongs.” The Riyadh Dirt Sprint was Imagination’s first start since a second in the BC Sprint at Del Mar in November. “He’s getting better and better,” Baffert said. “When Prat came back, he said, ‘This horse is getting good.' ” Imagination has won at distances ranging from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita in 2024. With that range, races such as the Grade 1, $1 million Churchill Downs Stakes at seven furlongs on May 2 or the Metropolitan Handicap at Saratoga on June 6 are likely to enter discussions. On the domestic front, Baffert had a successful Sunday last weekend when Bottle of Rouge won the $250,000 Sunland Park Oaks as the 2-5 favorite in New Mexico. Bottle of Rouge, who won the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante last September and was sixth in the BC Juvenile Fillies last October, is owned by Baffert’s wife, Jill. “The owner wants to win the Kentucky Oaks,” Baffert said. The Kentucky Oaks will be run at Churchill Downs on May 1. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.