After three memorable years in Southern California, the Breeders’ Cup returns to Kentucky next week for two days of world-class racing at Keeneland, with season championships, $30 million purses and well over $100 million in parimutuel payoffs on the line in 14 Grade I stakes.
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The last time the Breeders’ Cup was held at Keeneland, it shaped up as a one-horse show and Flightline lived up to the hype, outshining six opponents in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Classic by a race-record 8¼ lengths to complete a perfect career.
This time the hope is for something different, a Classic duel matching Japan-based star Forever Young, the 2025 winner at Del Mar and the world’s top-ranked dirt-track horse, against Sovereignty, the 2025 North American Horse of the Year.
Wednesday, those two horses took a formal step toward a showdown when the Breeders’ Cup announced they’re among 11 pre-entries for the Classic and a record 222 for the event in total Oct. 30 and 31.
Thirty-three of the pre-entered horses were kept eligible for more than one race. Their owners and trainers must settle on one race by Monday, when final entries will be set along with jockey assignments, post positions and morning-line odds.
As always, most of the pre-Breeders’ Cup attention will be on the $7 million Classic, the richest thoroughbred race in North America each year. Contention will go beyond the two heavyweights.
Also pre-entered with the clear intent to go in the Classic are Golden Tempo, the Kentucky Derby winner; Magnitude, a two-time winner at the Grade I level; and The Puma and Phileas Fogg. Entered in the Classic – with the Dirt Mile shown as second preference – are Knightsbridge, the Pacific Classic winner at Del Mar; Napoleon Solo, the Preakness winner; and Further Ado. On the Classic list – but with the Dirt Mile as first preference – are Forged Steel, the Hollywood Gold Cup and Goodwood Stakes winner at Santa Anita, and Japan’s TO Password.
Sovereignty, the 2025 Kentucky Derby winner, missed facing Forever Young in the 2025 Classic after developing a fever the week of the race. This year, Sovereignty has battled a left-hind-foot abscess since his Whitney Stakes victory at Saratoga in August. But he has returned to regular workouts while wearing a stabilizing bar shoe.
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If Sovereignty makes the Classic, it’s probable Knightsbridge would switch to the Dirt Mile. Both horses are owned by Godolphin and trained by Bill Mott.
Forever Young, whose Classic victory last year marked the Japanese thoroughbred industry’s greatest victory in America, will try to become the second two-time winner of the 1¼-mile Classic, following Tiznow in 2000-01. Forever Young is one of seven 2025 Breeders’ Cup race winners and 11 past winners pre-entered this time, both big numbers.
Those include three horses with Southern California ties: Bob Baffert-trained Splendora, the 2025 Filly & Mare Sprint winner pre-entered in that race but with first preference in the Distaff; John Sadler’s Super Corredora, the 2025 Juvenile Fillies winner pre-entered in the Distaff; and Sadler’s Full Serrano, the 2024 Dirt Mile winner at Del Mar who finished fifth a year ago.
Other prominent California-based horses on the pre-entry lists: Hughes, the likely betting favorite in the Juvenile; Miss Monica and Domain Expansion in the Juvenile Fillies (the latter with second preference in the Juvenile Fillies Turf); Vanta in the Juvenile Fillies Turf; Listenupshance in the Sprint; Sweet Azteca in the Filly & Mare Sprint; Formidable Man and Cabo Spirit in the Mile; Thought Process in the Filly & Mare Turf; and Sorrento Sky in the Turf Sprint. The popular Gold Phoenix was pre-entered in the Turf but needs six horses to drop out to get into the field of 14.
Seventy-nine horses trained overseas were pre-entered, which is one off the record set in 2024. Europe-based horses loom as favorites in almost all of the seven turf races. But Ombudsman, one potential favorite, was declared out of the Turf after trainer John Gosden told Racing TV’s Nick Luck on Wednesday that it would be too quick a turnaround after an Oct. 17 win in the Champion Stakes at Ascot.
This will be the 43rd edition of the Breeders’ Cup, which debuted at Hollywood Park in 1984. It will be the fourth at Keeneland, in Lexington, Ky., after the event was held at Santa Anita in 2023 and Del Mar in 2024 and 2025.
Those most recent Breeders’ Cups to be held in Southern California featured Classic victories by White Abarrio, Sierra Leone and Forever Young, as well as wins by Cody’s Wish in the 2023 Dirt Mile and Thorpedo Anna in the 2024 Distaff that clinched Horse of the Year titles.
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Kevin Modesti reported from Los Angeles.