Forever Young draws outside for Jockey Club Gold Cup as new Belmont Park debuts
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ELMONT, N.Y. - Forever Young drew the outside post in a field of seven entered Saturday for Friday’s Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup, the featured event on a nine-race card that will christen the new Belmont Park.
Forever Young, the 2025 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and champion older dirt male, will be making his first start since he finished second to Magnitude in the Dubai World Cup on March 28. Forever Young arrived in New York late Monday night, got out of quarantine on Thursday morning and has trained three mornings at Belmont, including utilizing the track’s new Tapeta surface as well as the main track on Saturday morning.
Hiroshi Ando, the racing manager for owner Susumu Fujita, told the New York Racing Association publicity department that Forever Young has settled in “very well.
“He’s calm now, relaxing. Whenever we want to take him out, it’s easy now,” Ando added.
Forever Young, who is scheduled to have a workout Tuesday morning at Belmont, is using the Jockey Club Gold Cup as a steppingstone to the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
Forever Young has won 11 of 15 starts, including back-to-back runnings of the $20 million Saudi Cup, which has enabled him to earn more than $31 million in his career. This will be his fourth visit to North America, having finished third in the 2024 Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic and winning the 2025 BC Classic.
Regular rider Ryusei Sakai will be aboard Forever Young and will be here Tuesday to work him.
The lineup set to face Forever Young is different than what many had anticipated or hoped. Sovereignty, the 2025 Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old, will miss the race due to a foot abscess. The connections of Nitrogen, last year’s 3-year-old filly champion and leading contender for older female this year, briefly flirted with the idea of the Gold Cup before settling on the Grade 2, $250,000 Beldame on Sept. 25. Money Game, who finished second to Knightsbridge in the Monmouth Cup - his first career defeat - is sidelined due to injury.
Sovereignty trainer Bill Mott entered both Baeza and Stars and Stripes in the Gold Cup. Baeza, who has been plagued by gate issues throughout an 0-for-3 campaign, was initially targeting the Grade 1 Goodwood at Santa Anita on Sept. 26. Instead, he will run here and Mott will remove blinkers from his equipment.
On Saturday, at Saratoga, Baeza worked a half-mile, in company, in 48.48 seconds according to Daily Racing Form’s Mike Welsch, who caught Baeza galloping out in 1:01.26 and 1:14.11.
Assistant trainer Neil Poznansky was aboard Baeza for the work.
“Neil thought he went well, he looked good, they finished up very nicely,” Mott said.
Stars and Stripes has won three of five starts this year, including the Birdstone Stakes, at 1 3/4 miles, by a nose on Aug. 13. He finished a well-beaten eighth behind Phileas Fogg in the Grade 2 Suburban.
Chunk of Gold was supplemented to the race by owner Terry Stephens after he and trainer Ethan West became aware of the defections of Sovereignty and Money Game on Friday. Chunk of Gold, beaten a neck by Bishops Bay in the Grade 3 Iselin at Monmouth on Aug. 15, solidified his entry for the Gold Cup by working a half-mile in 48.20 seconds Saturday morning at Turfway Park.
“That was one of the deciding factors that made up our mind,” West said Saturday afternoon. “He worked phenomenal. I couldn’t have asked anything to go better. He bounced out of the work good, went right into his feed tub at lunch. This work today and how he’s been training... if we could ever sneak a Grade 1 into his form now would be the time.”
Chunk of Gold adds a bit of pace to the field along with expected pacesetter Phileas Fogg and the speedy Banishing.
The Gold Cup field, from the rail out, with rider is, Baeza (Junior Alvarado), Stars and Stripes (John Velazquez), Chunk of Gold (Jaime Torres), Phileas Fogg (Kendrick Carmouche), Banishing (Joel Rosario), Render Judgment (Manny Franco) and Forever Young (Sakai).
The Gold Cup will go as race 5 on a nine-card lineup that begins at 1:30 p.m. The Gold Cup will be shown on national FOX during a 90-minute broadcast between 3-4:40 p.m. Eastern.
Belmont Park will have only the first two floors open when racing returns for the first time since July 2022, and the opening-day crowd will be limited to a sold-out 6,000.
- additional reporting by Mike Welsch.
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