Oct. 22 (UPI) — Horses from five continents, including eight winners from previous years, were pre-entered Wednesday for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
The 14 Grade 1 races, worth more than $34 million, are set to include a rematch of the first three finishers from last year’s $7 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic — Sierra Leone, Fireceness and Japan’s Forever Young.
The Classic also attracted this year’s top 3-year-olds, Sovereignty and Journalism, to one of the most exciting fields in the history of the race.
In all, 191 individual contenders were pre-entered, 46 of them qualified through the “Win and You’re In” program, which offers guaranteed spots and travel subsidies to winners of selected races around the world.
The Classic almost certainly will decide Horse of the Year honors, as it has for the winner 16 times in the past. It also could lock up 3-year-old honors for Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, Jim Dandy and Travers winner Sovereignty or toss that division into uncertainty, particularly if Santa Anita Derby, Preakness Stakes and Haskell Stakes winner Journalism should win.
Completing the Classic pre-entries are Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Antiquarian, Pennsylvania Derby winner Baeza, Contrary Thinking, Santa Anita Handicap winner Locked, Churchill Downs Stakes and Stephen Foster winner and Mindframe, and Los Alamitos Derby and Goodwood Stakes winner Nevada Beach.
The international contingent for the 14-race, two-day program includes horses from Argentina, Canada, Chile, England, Ireland, France, Japan, Peru, South Africa and Uruguay.
“The incredible group of horses pre-entered for this year’s Breeders’ Cup reflects the unmatched quality and global prestige of the World Championships,” said Drew Fleming, President & CEO of Breeders’ Cup Limited. “The divisions are loaded with champions, classic winners, and international stars.”
Many intriguing matchups besides the Classic include a potential showdown in the $5 million Longines Turf, where 7-year-old Rebel’s Romance, already two-time winner, faces perhaps his toughest challenge in 3-year-old filly Minnie Hauk.
She exits a gutsy second-place finish in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, her first loss after five straight wins, including the English, Irish and Yorkshire Oaks.
The $2 million FanDuel Mile on the turf has been a playground for Europeans throughout its history and has a strong international cast again, including runners from Japan, England, Ireland, Chile and South Africa. This time around, Americans led by Rhetorical and Formidable Man look poised to put up a spirited defense.
There are few, if any, overwhelming favorites anywhere in the lineup, pointing toward potentially profitable payouts on multi-race wagers.
The “Future Stars Friday” program has five races, all for 2-year-olds on turf and dirt. Saturday’s card includes nine Championship programs starting at 3 p.m. EDT. The Classic is the sixth of the Breeders’ Cup races Saturday, with a post time of 6:25 p.m., and will be carried by NBC, Peacock and FanDuel TV.
The other races will be available on combinations of those outlets and/or USA Network.
This is the second straight year Del Mar has hosted the World Championships. Keeneland takes the baton in 2026 and the newly rebuilt Belmont Park in New York is the 2027 site.
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