Breeders' Cup Classic futures pool opens Friday, includes nine from Travers

The first of two Breeders’ Cup Classic futures pools opens at noon Eastern on Friday.

The futures pool is win-only with a base wager of $2 and comprises 24 betting options, 23 individual horses and “all others.”

The pool closes at 6 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, and a second pool, with the same opening and closing times, runs Friday, Sept. 25 through Sunday, Sept. 27.

Betting will be available, the Breeders’ Cup said in a news release last week, at “racetracks, advanced deposit wagering sites, casinos, simulcast centers, and off-track betting sites.”

Keeneland, which helped launch the future wager, hosts the $7 million Classic over 1 1/4 miles on Oct. 31.

Breeders’ Cup has run futures pools three times before, most recently on the 2022 Classic at Keeneland. Futures were offered on four Breeders’ Cup races in 2018 and on all the event’s races in 2002 and 2003.

The first pool is open when the Travers Stakes – one of five divisional races still to be run before the Breeders’ Cup – will be held Saturday at Saratoga, and nine of the 10 Travers entrants are among the 23 individual betting interests. Seven of the Travers horses are 30-1 or higher on a morning line set by Daily Racing Form’s David Aragona. The two exceptions are Golden Tempo and Renegade, both priced at 12-1.

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Divisional leader Golden Tempo won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont in his last two races but missed his intended Travers prep, the Jim Dandy, owing to lost training time in late June and early July because of an illness.

Renegade finished a close second in the Derby and a well-beaten third in the Belmont before winning the Jim Dandy by a half-length.

Four other 3-year-olds, all longshots, are on the list of individual betting interests: Ted Noffey, Commandment, Further Ado, and Iron Honor.

After this weekend, four Classic preps remain: the Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 18, the Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 19, and the Lukas Classic and the Goodwood on Sept. 26.

The Jockey Club Gold Cup pits Sovereignty, Horse of the Year in 2025, against Forever Young, the Japanese star who won the 2025 BC Classic. Aragona has Sovereignty the 4-1 favorite over 5-1 Forever Young, who is unraced since a second-place finish to Magnitude in the Dubai World Cup on March 28.

Magnitude at the start of this month probably would have been the morning-line favorite after defeating Forever Young in Dubai, then beating Baeza (15-1 in pool 1) and Sovereignty in the Stephen Foster on June 27 at Churchill Downs. But Magnitude ran poorly, losing by more than 15 lengths, in the Whitney on Aug. 8 and is priced at 10-1 in pool 1.

Bill Mott trains Sovereignty and Baeza, and also has 6-1 Knightsbridge, who will train into the Breeders’ Cup after capturing the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on Aug. 22.

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