Five winners of Breeders’ Cup races in 2024, three other previous Breeders’ Cup winners, and a group of 53 internationally based runners are among the 191 individual horses pre-entered for this year’s Breeders Cup World Championships, a two-day event featuring 14 races worth $30 million in purse money to be held Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at Del Mar in Southern California. The 191 figure is down from 212 a year ago and is the lowest number of pre-entries since 188 were pre-entered in 2019 when the event was held at Santa Anita. The number of internationally based pre-entrants is down from approximately 70 a year ago, due in part to there being only eight Japan-based horses pre-entered, compared to 19 in 2024. Also, the Ireland-based trainer Aidan O’Brien only pre-entered 10 compared to 19 a year ago. He ultimately ran nine horses in 2024. After pre-entries were made Monday, but before they were announced Wednesday, Wild Desert, one of seven pre-entrants from the barn of England’s Charlie Appleby, was withdrawn from the Juvenile Turf. The four Breeders’ Cup winners from 2024 seeking a repeat victory in the same race are Sierra Leone (Classic), Rebel’s Romance (Turf), Straight No Chaser (Sprint), and Full Serrano (Dirt Mile). Citizen Bull, last year’s Juvenile winner, was pre-entered in the Dirt Mile. Fierceness, the 2023 Juvenile winner and runner-up in last year’s Classic, is back in this year’s Classic. White Abarrio, the 2023 Classic winner, is pre-entered in the Dirt Mile, while Nobals, the 2023 Turf Sprint winner is pre-entered in that race, though he is three deep on the preference list and would need defections to be able to run. Bob Baffert, the leading trainer in terms of purse-money won in the Breeders’ Cup and third in wins with 19, leads all trainers with 14 pre-entrants this year. He has the probable favorites in the Juvenile Fillies with Explora, the Distaff with Seismic Beauty, and Dirt Mile with Nysos. Baffert also pre-entered two others in the Dirt Mile and has three pre-entered in the Juvenile, led by Del Mar Futurity winner Brant. O’Brien won two races at Del Mar last year to tie D. Wayne Lukas for the most wins in Breeders’ Cup history with 20. His 2025 contingent is led by the 3-year-old filly Minnie Hauk, a three-time Group 1 winner who suffered her first defeat of 2025 when she lost the Arc de Triomphe by a head. Minnie Hauk is expected to run in the $5 million Turf, a race O’Brien has won a record seven times. Minnie Hauk also is pre-entered in the Filly and Mare Turf. ON SALE NOW: DRF Breeders' Cup Packages! Get everything you need to win and save big. O’Brien also has won seven runnings of the Juvenile Turf, including the last three. The O’Brien-trained Gstaad is the likely favorite in the Juvenile Turf. O’Brien has won two of the last three runnings of the Juvenile Fillies Turf and has the likely favorite in Precise. Even with the declaration of Wild Desert from the Juvenile Turf, Appleby, who has won eight Breeders’ Cup races the last four years, has six pre-entered this year, including Rebel’s Romance, who is seeking a third victory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, having won it last year and in 2022. Only Goldikova and Beholder have won three Breeders’ Cup races. Appleby, who also pre-entered El Cordobes in the Turf, has top contenders in the Filly and Mare Turf with Cinderella’s Dream and Diamond Rain, and in the Mile with Notable Speech. The announcement Wednesday of the pre-entries is the first phase in determining fields for the 14 Breeders’ Cup races, the five races for 2-year-olds to be run Oct. 31 and the nine races for 3-year-olds and up to be held Nov. 1. Horses could be pre-entered in two races – this year there were 16 such horses – with the connections of those horses having to declare race-entry preference by 11 a.m. Pacific on Thursday in races that are oversubscribed. Final entries will be taken Monday, and post positions will be drawn Monday afternoon in the Del Mar paddock beginning at 4:15 p.m. Pacific. Twelve of the 14 races are limited to 14 starters, while the Turf Sprint and Juvenile Turf Sprint are capped at 12 starters. Four also-eligibles are permitted to be carded in races where there may be 14 starters, six also-eligibles may be carded in the two turf sprints. This year, seven of the 14 races overfilled, led by the Juvenile Turf Sprint which received 22 pre-entries. The Juvenile Turf (19), Juvenile Fillies Turf (16), Turf Sprint (18), Filly and Mare Turf (18), Sprint (17), and Mile (15) also overfilled. :: BREEDERS’ CUP CLASSIC: See DRF’s special section with top contenders, odds, comments, news, and more 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. That panel then 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. There were 11 horses pre-entered for the $7 million Classic, including the top three finishers from last year – Sierra Leone, Fierceness, and Forever Young – as well as the leading 3-year-old in the country, Sovereignty, who brings a four-race winning streak into the Classic that includes victories in the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, and Travers Stakes. Three other Grade 1-winning 3-year-olds – Journalism, Baeza, and Nevada Beach are in the field – as well as Grade 1-winning older males Antiquarian, Mindframe, and Locked. Daily Racing Form’s David Aragona installed Sovereignty as the 7-5 morning-line favorite. Contrary Thinking, a horse owned by Peter Brant, who is part-owner of Sierra Leone, and trained by Chad Brown – the trainer of Sierra Leone – also has been pre-entered in the Classic. He would be in the race to serve as a pacesetter, which he did in the Whitney and Jockey Club Gold Cup, two Grade 1 stakes at Saratoga. “We pre-entered the horse to take a look at the pace scenario just to make sure it’s an honest, fair pace,” Brown said. “He’s not in there to get in anybody’s way, just looking for a fair, honest pace that gives everybody, including our horse, some room to run their best race.” Sierra Leone won the Whitney after Contrary Thinking was part of the early pace. In the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Contrary Thinking was part of a chain-reaction incident – initiated by the horse to his outside, Phileas Fogg – which ultimately led to Mindframe being bumped severely enough to unseat his rider, Irad Ortiz Jr. Mindframe ran loose around the racetrack before being caught by an outrider at the quarter pole. Antiquarian won the Jockey Club Gold Cup, with Sierra Leone finishing second. Todd Pletcher, trainer of Mindframe – as well as Antiquarian, Fierceness, and Locked – believes Dylan Davis on Contrary Thinking and not Kendrick Carmouche on Phileas Fogg “was the one responsible for all the issues in that race.” Asked his opinion about the presence of Contrary Thinking in the Classic, Pletcher said, “I don’t think it impacts us as long as he doesn’t annihilate the field.” Pletcher elected to train Mindframe up to the Classic. All four of his Classic starters are based in Saratoga, where they are expected to have their final workouts Friday before shipping to Del Mar on Sunday. Locked, who at one point was being considered for the Dirt Mile, was only pre-entered in the Classic. Sierra Leone, who was strongly compromised by what happened in the early stages of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, will have his final work at Saratoga on Saturday before shipping west. Sovereignty, after spending the last 24 weeks in Saratoga, vanned to the airport in Newark, N.J., early Wednesday morning for a flight to California. He will likely work Sunday or Monday at Del Mar, according to trainer Bill Mott. To accommodate NBC, which will broadcast five of the nine Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 1 but has college football commitments that night, the Classic will be run at 3:25 p.m. Pacific/6:25 p.m. Eastern, thus there will be three Breeders’ Cup races – the Mile, Dirt Mile, and Filly and Mare Turf completing the card. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.