Fields for the 14 Breeders’ Cup races will soon be set, horses have been putting in final workouts, and jockeys and trainers are talking tactics.
As a week of anticipation begins for the 41st Breeders’ Cup on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1 and 2, here are storylines, helpful hints and more for you to know.
If you’re going
Ticket levels include infield general admission ($67 Friday, $133 Saturday), trackside general admission ($100 Friday but sold out at $199 Saturday), box seats ($475 Friday, sold out Saturday) and the Clubhouse Terrace restaurant ($1,749 per seat for the two days).
Check BreedersCup.com for updates on ticket availability.
Attendance is capped at 37,500.
… If you’re not
TV and streaming video coverage of the five Breeders’ Cup races Friday and nine Saturday will be divided among NBC, USA, Peacock and FanDuel TV. Find exact times at BreedersCup.com and in your newspaper’s sports TV listings.
Online betting is available — and quite legal in California on horse racing — through FanDuel and other account-wagering sites.
This week
Final fields, post positions and morning-line odds will be set Monday starting at 4:15 p.m. (on FanDuel TV and live-streamed at BreedersCup.com). Past-performance charts should be available for purchase on the Daily Racing Form and Equibase sites soon after that.
Del Mar begins its one-month fall season Thursday at 12:30 p.m. Racing Friday starts at 11:35 a.m. (first of five Breeders’ Cup races is at 2:45 p.m.), and Saturday at 10:05 a.m. (first of nine Breeders’ Cup races is at noon).
What’s at stake
As the Breeders’ Cup World Championships’ full name suggests, winners of the races for a variety of sexes and ages, dirt and turf and sprint and route specialties usually go on to be voted annual Eclipse Awards as America’s best in their divisions, and one usually is named Horse of the Year.
It’s one of the richest events in sports, with horse owners competing for $30 million in guaranteed purses. Purses were raised this year to $7 million (from $6 million) for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the marquee race for 3-year-olds and up, and to $5 million (from $4 million) for the Breeders’ Cup Turf, which draws many of Europe’s best horses.
And this too
There’s a lot at stake for bettors. Last year’s Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita drew more than $176 million in wagers, and the two previous Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar handled $166 million in 2017 and $183 million in 2021. The Saturday pick 6 — which this time will challenge bettors to combine the winners of races 7-12 — has paid as much as $2,687,611.20 (in 2003, the lone perfect ticket held by two men in South Dakota who risked only $8).
New this year
The Breeders’ Cup continues to become more international, the 212 horses passing the “pre-entry” stage last week including a record 80 horses from four other continents.
The race lineup is different, NBC’s college-football schedule accommodated by Classic’s placement as the fifth of Saturday’s nine Breeders’ Cup races instead of the seventh as it was in 2023 or the last as it was previously.
Equine stars
The Classic has a globe full of stars: City of Troy, the English Derby winner and world top-ranked horse who’ll try to match his sire Justify’s affinity for dirt and give the great Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien his first Classic; Forever Young, the Japanese colt who finished a hard-luck third in the Kentucky Derby, and Fierceness, the No. 1 U.S. 3-year-old.
If the Classic doesn’t decide Horse of the Year, Thorpedo Anna could grab the crown by winning the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (to be run two races before the Classic). Thorpedo Anna, a 3-year-old filly who came within inches of beating Fierceness while outrunning six other males in the Travers Stakes, might be the closest thing this year to an American horse with the potential for general public appeal.
Among would-be stars not running in the Breeders’ Cup is Mystik Dan, the Kentucky Derby winner and top earner in North America this year.
Human stars
Ryan Moore will come from Britain with City of Troy. If you want to see why Moore is rated as the world’s best jockey, watch him (on the rail in blue and orange) with Auguste Rodin in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf.
Flavien Prat, French-born and California-seasoned, will ride Sierra Leone in the Classic, Chancer McPatrick in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and other contenders as he tries to make his case for a first Eclipse Award as the nation’s top jockey.
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas, the 89-year-old Racing Hall of Famer, has Seize the Grey in the Dirt Mile. His record for Breeders’ Cup wins (20) is threatened by O’Brien, Chad Brown and Hall of Famer Bob Baffert (18 each).
The home team
More than 40 horses eligible to be entered have been racing in Southern California, led by big groups trained by Baffert and Phil D’Amato. Baffert looks strongest in the Juvenile (Citizen Bull, Gaming, Getaway Car) and Juvenile Fillies (Non Compliant, Nooni), while D’Amato’s best hopes are in the Juvenile Fillies Turf (Thought Process) and Turf Sprint (Motorious).
The Juvenile usually identifies the early favorite for the next Kentucky Derby, and Baffert’s horses are eligible for the Derby again after Churchill Downs announced in July that it was lifting a ban that followed the disqualification of 2021 Derby winner Medina Spirit for a failed drug test.
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The safety issue
The Breeders’ Cup has avoided horse deaths in the four events since 2019, when Mongolian Spirit suffered a fatal injury during the Classic at Santa Anita. But two horses died in pre-Breeders’ Cup training in 2023 at Santa Anita, the death of Santa Anita Derby winner Practical Move attributed to a “cardiac event” and the death of Geaux Rocket Ride to a fetlock fracture.
Breeders’ Cup officials plan to discuss this year’s safety measures at a “racing safety and integrity briefing” for reporters on Wednesday.