Breeders' Cup Classic: Three-year-olds have a tall task, but they may be up to it
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – While Golden Tempo and Napoleon Solo have won the most significant races in the 3-year-old division this year, their connections know their charges will have to come with their career-best efforts in order to topple the older horses in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
In the first 42 Breeders’ Cups, 14 3-year-olds have won the Classic, Sierra Leone the most recent one in 2024, a year that 3-year-olds swept the top three finishing positions.
This year’s Classic lineup is expected to include top older males Forever Young, who won last year’s Classic as a 4-year-old; Sovereignty, the 2025 Horse of the Year at 3 who won the Grade 1 Whitney in August; perhaps his multiple stakes-winning stablemate Knightsbridge; and the multiple Grade 1 winner Magnitude.
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“It’s a challenge, it’s a tough division, and he’s going to have to take another step forward, but he continues to do that in each of his races and I think there’s another big jump forward for him,” said Cherie DeVaux, trainer of Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Golden Tempo.
Chad Summers, trainer of Preakness winner Napoleon Solo, believes the key to success for a 3-year-old in the Classic is how they’ve been campaigned earlier in the year. He pointed to Journalism, last year’s Preakness winner who competed in all three Triple Crown races as well as the Haskell and Pacific Classic thereafter, as a horse who might have been tired by the time the Breeders’ Cup came around. Journalism finished fourth in last year’s Classic.
Napoleon Solo missed the Kentucky Derby, won the Preakness, and did not run back in the Belmont Stakes.
“How you’ve run your year and the different races you’ve had I think has a lot to do with it,” Summers said. “Napoleon, I feel like everything we’ve done with him this year has been with an eye toward having him peak at the Breeders’ Cup. He’s not had an overly stressed campaign. He had time between the Preakness and Haskell and time between the Travers and this.”
Summers has still not committed to which Breeders’ Cup race Napoleon Solo is running in. He is pre-entered in the Classic and the $1 million Dirt Mile. The Dirt Mile drew 16 pre-entrants, 11 of whom were pre-entered in other races. Knightsbridge may hold the key to which race Napoleon Solo runs in. If Knightsbridge goes to the Classic, Summers said Napoleon Solo could potentially be favored in the Dirt Mile. Napoleon Solo could be one of longer prices on the board in the Classic.
On Friday, both Golden Tempo and Napoleon Solo put in workouts over Keeneland’s main track. Though Napoleon Solo’s final time of 1:00.58 was solid and he galloped out in 1:12.85, Summers didn’t think the horse got over the track as well as he has at Belmont Park, where his last two moves have been exceptional.
“I don’t think he loved the track,” Summers said. “It was fine.”
Earlier in the morning, Golden Tempo worked a half-mile in 48.47 seconds, per Welsch, with a gallop-out of 1:01. Golden Tempo worked in company with Commentate, a recent maiden winner.
“He kept his head in front of his workmate, worked well, looked great, and came back and cooled out well,” DeVaux said.
While the challenge for Golden Tempo and Napoleon Solo is somewhat daunting, the same cannot be said for the 3-year-old Englishman, who DeVaux is training toward a start in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint, where he figures to be heavily favored.
Englishman put in his final workout Friday morning, breezing a half-mile in 47.29 seconds with a five-furlong gallop-out of 59 seconds and six furlongs in 1:12.43 under exercise rider Ameth Gonzales.
“He’s a monster of a horse, he’s doing fantastic right now,” DeVaux said. “He had a beautiful work this morning.
“For him, it’s just trying to get him there, hope he breaks well. The rest of it he has handled.”
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