Breeders' Cup Classic: Forever Young returns for repeat bid
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Led by Classic winner Forever Young, as many as eight winners of Breeders’ Cup races at Del Mar in 2025 are in play to double their pleasure when the two-day championship event is held on Oct. 30-31 at Keeneland.
The Japanese-bred and Japan-based Forever Young will seek to join Tiznow (2000-01) as the only repeat winner of the Classic, which, at $7 million, is the richest race run in North America. Forever Young will become just the 15th horse to try a repeat bid in the Classic as well as become just the sixth horse to appear in as many as three runnings of the race. Perfect Drift ran in five consecutive Classics (2002-06). Forever Young finished third in the 2024 Classic.
Potentially, four other 2025 Breeders’ Cup winners are pointing to repeat tries in the same race they won last year – Notable Speech (Mile), Ethical Diamond (Turf), Shisospicy (Turf Sprint), and possibly Gezora (Filly and Mare Turf), whose status likely is pending how she runs in Thursday’s Grade 2 Flower Bowl at Belmont Park. Splendora, last year’s Filly and Mare Sprint winner, will this year try to stretch out in the Distaff at 1 1/8 miles. Super Corredora, who won the Juvenile Fillies last year, is pointing to the Distaff, while Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Cy Fair is aiming for the Turf Sprint.
There are 14 Breeders’ Cup races, and the event is being held for the 43rd time. Five races, all restricted to 2-year-olds, will be run Oct. 30, with the other nine scheduled for Oct. 31.
Keeneland, in Lexington, Ky., will play host to the Breeders’ Cup for the fourth time. In 2015, American Pharoah, the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, completed the “Grand Slam” by winning the Classic. In 2022, Flightline dominated the Classic by 8 1/4 lengths, capping an undefeated (6-for-6) career. In between, the 2020 Breeders’ Cup was held in front of a limited audience due to the Covid pandemic. That year’s event was capped by Authentic winning the Classic two months after he won the Kentucky Derby and a month after he got beat in the Preakness.
This year, the hope is the Classic will feature a meeting between Forever Young and Sovereignty that was expected to happen last year. However, Sovereignty developed a fever the week of the race and had to scratch. This year, Sovereignty developed an abscess that forced him to miss the Jockey Club Gold Cup, a race Forever Young won by 3 1/4 lengths on Sept. 18.
Sovereignty returned to the work tab last Friday, and trainer Bill Mott is optimistic that if nothing goes awry between now and next month, Sovereignty will make the Classic.
Should he not, Mott and Godolphin would appear to have a suitable back-up in Knightsbridge. A son of Nyquist, Knightsbridge is coming off smashing victories in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic and, before that, the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup. Knightsbridge also will be pre-entered in the Dirt Mile.
Michael Banahan, Godolphin USA’s director of bloodstock, said this week that if Sovereignty makes the Classic, Knightsbridge will run in the Dirt Mile.
Sovereignty and Knightsbridge are training in Saratoga. Forever Young has remained at Belmont since his Gold Cup win and, according to assistant trainer Yuki Araki, will have three workouts there before shipping to Keeneland on Oct. 20. Forever Young is slated to have the first of those breezes Sunday.
Horses may be pre-entered in two races but may only enter one. Pre-entries close Oct. 19 and will be announced Oct. 21. Entries close the morning of Oct. 26, and post positions will be assigned later that afternoon.
There is no limit to the number of horses who may pre-enter a race. The first seven horses gain entry into a race having either won a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race or accrued the most points in graded stakes. The next seven are chosen by the Breeders’ Cup Racing Directors/Secretaries panel. In races that oversubscribe at pre-entry time, that panel makes a preference list, putting in order the horses who would get into the body of a race should there be defections by entry time.
Twelve of the 14 races are limited to 14 horses, while the Juvenile Turf Sprint and the Dirt Mile are limited to 12 starters. In races with 14-horse fields, there can be as many as four also-eligibles carded. In the Turf Sprint and Dirt Mile, as many as six also-eligibles can be carded.
Forever Young, Sovereignty, and Knightsbridge earned fees-paid berths into the Classic by virtue of their respective wins in the Saudi Cup, Whitney, and Pacific Classic.
Magnitude (Dubai World Cup and Stephen Foster), and Skippylongstocking (Pegasus World Cup) also earned automatic berths into the Classic – and are pointing to that race – as part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series. Forged Steel earned a fees-paid berth into the Classic by virtue of his victory in the Grade 1 Goodwood at Santa Anita last weekend. His connections are considering the Classic or the Dirt Mile.
Golden Tempo, the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner, and Napoleon Solo, the Preakness winner, head the 3-year-olds pointing to the Classic. Napoleon Solo is training toward the Classic but will be pre-entered in the Dirt Mile, trainer Chad Summers said. The same holds true for The Puma and Further Ado, the one-two finishers of the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby.
Plutarch, trained by Bob Baffert, came off a seven-month layoff to win the Bourbon Flight Stakes at Churchill Downs last weekend. Baffert said there has not been a plan formulated for the 3-year-old son of Into Mischief, but either the Classic or Dirt Mile could be in play.
The Classic will return to its rightful spot on the schedule as the last Breeders’ Cup race to be run at the two-day event. For the last three years, with the Breeders’ Cup being held at Southern California tracks and, to accommodate network television, the Classic was run in the middle of the card with three and sometime four Breeders’ Cup races being run after it.
Dirt Mile
The Dirt Mile will likely draw a large number of horses, some who also will be pre-entered in the Classic, others who also will be pre-entered in the Sprint.
Knightsbridge, based on his last two starts and his early season success in graded stakes at seven furlongs, is the likely Dirt Mile favorite should he run in the race.
Further Ado’s affinity for Keeneland – he won his maiden by 20 lengths last October and the Grade 1 Blue Grass by 11 lengths in April – makes him a player in either race.
Further Ado is trained by Brad Cox, who also trains Bishops Bay, winner of the Grade 3 Ack Ack Stakes narrowly over Coal Battle, the latter who also is pointing to the Dirt Mile.
Full Serrano, who won the 2024 BC Dirt Mile, also is being pointed to the Dirt Mile, as are Bracket Buster, Iron Man Cal, Owen Almighty, T O Password, and Lord Fons. Hymn earned a fees-paid berth into the Dirt Mile by virtue of his Grade 1 Forego victory, but he is likely headed to the Sprint.
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