Breeders' Cup Classic: Forever Young in prime shape, assistant trainer says
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ELMONT, N.Y. - With a victory in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup and two weeks of what his exercise rider called “hard training” under his belt, Forever Young will head to Kentucky on Tuesday in prime shape to attempt to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic for a second consecutive year.
That was the sentiment expressed by assistant trainer/exercise rider Yuki Araki on Sunday morning after he put Forever Young through a five-furlong workout over Belmont Park’s main track that Daily Racing Form timed in 1:03.37. With Araki aboard, and breaking off at the five-furlong pole just around 7 a.m. on a 42-degree albeit sunny Sunday morning, Forever Young went in splits of 13.87 seconds, 26.55, 39.08, 1:03.37 and galloped out six furlongs in 1:16.17. (Track clockers timed Forever Young from the half-mile pole and credited him with a half-mile move in 49.65 seconds.)
Araki called it an “American style” work.
“I asked him from the five-furlong pole; I didn’t have to ask him too much, he knew he was breezing today and he picked up really well,” Araki said. “Lovely traveling, cruising, very satisfied.”
Araki acknowledged that Forever Young drifted out “a little bit” last week in his half-mile work in 52.04 seconds. Forever Young maintained a straight course on Sunday.
“He improved. Mentally, he really was going forward, that’s a positive,” Araki said.
Before the work, Araki walked the horse around the shed in Barn 7 for about a half-hour and after the work walked the horse up and back on the horse path for another 20 minutes. That has been part of the routine work days. Other mornings, Forever Young has trained on the Tapeta track or on the dirt training track.
Sunday was the final morning of training at Belmont for Forever Young, who will walk the barn Monday and then leave for Keeneland on Tuesday. He flies from JFK Airport to Cincinnati and vans to Keeneland, where he will head an expected field of 10 for the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 31.
Forever Young arrived in New York on Sept. 7. He won the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 18 in a performance that wasn’t entirely satisfying, at least to trainer Yoshito Yahagi. Araki has been with the horse since and said he gave the horse two weeks of lighter training to get over the race, but has picked things up in his gallops the last two weeks. On Oct. 11, Forever Young worked a half-mile in 52.04 seconds as sort of a prep for a week of harder training culminating with Sunday’s workout.
“Through that process, I feel he’s doing really well and he looks really happy,” Araki said. “We started giving him quite a hard menu since last week and this week one step more. I feel like bullying him, very hard training. Sorry. Without that, we can’t [repeat] in Breeders’ Cup Classic, such a high-quality race. But he looked really happy. We can’t find any tiredness anymore.”
Araki was reminded that Tiznow (2000-01) was the only horse to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic in consecutive years. Sierra Leone beat Forever Young in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Classic but finished second to him in 2025.
“It’s tough to do it,” Araki said. “I think he’s good enough to do it.”
Araki said Forever Young will follow a similar pattern at Keeneland that he did at Del Mar last year, meaning he will have a slower-type work three days before the race, going in company with American Stage, a Yahagi-trained candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
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