Forever Young to start in Jockey Club Gold Cup, followed by Breeders' Cup Classic
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The Sept. 18 opening-day card at Belmont Park became even more interesting with the revelation that Forever Young, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, North America’s older dirt male champion and Japan’s Horse of the Year, will make his next start in the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup that day.
Further, Forever Young will then start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
On the official X account of trainer Yoshito Yahagi, it was posted “After discussions with owner Susumu Fujita, taking into account the horse’s condition, we have decided that Forever Young will be heading from the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) on September 18 at Belmont Park … to the Breeders’ Cup Classic on October 31st at Keeneland.
Yahagi said he and Fujita had received “wonderful offers” from around the world to race Forever Young, including from officials at Leopardstown and the France Galop, the latter organization hoping Forever Young would come for the Arc de Triomphe in October.
Belmont has been closed for racing since July 2023 as a complete renovation of the track’s three surfaces, the addition of a Tapeta track and the construction of a new grandstand took place. Since the building will be only partially opened in September, New York Racing Association officials are planning to cap attendance to around 6,000 fans when Belmont opens.
The NYRA moved the Jockey Club Gold Cup from the last weekend of the Saratoga meet - late August or in this case it would have been the first week of September - to the opening of the Belmont Park meet, which puts the race six weeks out from the BC Classic.
In addition to Forever Young, the Jockey Club Gold Cup, run at 1 1/4 miles, should attract some of North America’s top older dirt horses in training. Many of those horses - defending Horse of the Year Sovereignty, Magnitude, who defeated Forever Young in the Dubai World Cup in March, White Abarrio, the 2023 BC Classic winner, and Grade 1 winner Baeza - are entered in Saturday’s Grade 1, $2 million Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs. The hope is that many of those horses would then return in the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney at Saratoga on Aug. 8 and then in the Jockey Club.
Nysos, winner of the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, is also targeting the BC Classic in October, though his next race has not yet been finalized.
Forever Young, a 5-year-old Japanese-bred son of Real Steel, has compiled a record of 11-1-3- from 15 career starts. Forever Young has twice won the $20 million Saudi Cup. Last fall, at Del Mar, he won the 2025 BC Classic, defeating Sierra Leone and Fierceness. In 2024, Forever Young finished third, beaten two noses for win, in the Kentucky Derby. He has twice been defeated in the Dubai World Cup, finishing third behind Hit Show in 2025 and second, beaten one length, by Magnitude in March.
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