There will be no shortage of familiar names next week when the Breeders’ Cup is held for the second straight year and fourth time overall at Del Mar.
Among the 191 pre-entries announced Wednesday for the 14-race event on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 were eight former Breeders’ Cup champions, including five from last year.
Four of the five will be trying to win the same race; the fifth, Citizen Bull, won last year’s Juvenile, which is restricted to 2-year-olds. He will be in the Dirt Mile along with defending champion Full Serrano and White Abarrio, the 2023 Classic winner.
Two of the other three 2024 victors will be in the richest races of the weekend. In the $7 million Classic, Sierra Leone will try to join Tiznow as the only horse to win North America’s richest race twice. And, in the $5 million Turf, Rebel’s Romance will try to become the first horse to win that race three times and join Goldikova and Beholder as the only horses to win any three Cup races.
Neither will have it easy. The Classic boasts the deepest field in recent memory, including Fierceness, one of the eight former champions. After winning the 2023 Juvenile, Fierceness finished second behind Sierra Leone in last year’s Classic. The third-place runner in that race, the Japanese-bred Forever Young, also is in this year’s field along with top older horses Mindframe, Antiquarian and Locked, plus a quartet of 3-year-olds. The latter group includes Kentucky Derby, Belmont and Travers winner Sovereignty and Santa Anita Derby and Preakness champion Journalism, who in his most recent start was second to Fierceness in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar.
In the Turf, the 7-year-old gelding Rebel’s Romance will face a strong challenge from the brilliant Irish 3-year-old filly Minnie Hauk, who won the English, Irish and Yorkshire Oaks this summer before finishing a close second in Europe’s top race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, earlier this month.
The fifth returning winner from 2024 is Straight No Chaser, who rallied to win the Sprint over Bentornato and Mullikin, both of whom will be in the field again this year.
Bob Baffert, who leads all trainers in money won at the Breeders’ Cup and is tied with Chad Brown (Sierra Leone’s trainer) for third all-time with 19 Cup victories, has the most pre-entries with 14. Those include the likely favorites in the Juvenile Fillies (Explora) and Distaff (Seismic Beauty) and possibly the Dirt Mile (Nysos), as well as Citizen Bull and at least one strong contender in the Juvenile (Del Mar Futurity winner Brant).
Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien, who is tied with the late D. Wayne Lukas for the most Breeders’ Cup wins with 20, pre-entered 10 horses this year, including Minnie Hauk and the likely favorites in the Juvenile Turf (Gstaad) and Juvenile Fillies Turf (Precise).
As usual, the five Cup races for 2-year-olds will be run on Friday, with the other nine races scheduled for Saturday. The 14 races are worth $30 million in purses.
The 191 horses pre-entered marked the fewest since there were 188 in 2019. One horse already has been withdrawn – Wild Desert from the Juvenile Turf. That reduces the potential number of overseas starters to 57; there were 61 last year. International horses have won either five or six races in each of the last four years, all but one on turf (21 of a possible 28).
The eighth previous champion pre-entered is Nobals, who captured the 2023 Turf Sprint but has been a bit off form recently and will need some defections to get into the race. Fields are limited to 12 for the turf sprints and 14 for all other races, and the Turf Sprint was one of seven races to be over-subscribed.
The fields will be set on Monday, with post positions scheduled to be drawn starting at 4:15 p.m. Morning-line odds will be assigned then.
Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar
Friday, Oct. 31
First post: 11:35 a.m. (10 races)
Weather.com forecast: 74 degrees, mostly sunny
Cup races: Juvenile Turf Sprint (2:45 p.m.), Juvenile Fillies (3:25), Juvenile Fillies Turf (4:05), Juvenile (4:45), Juvenile Turf (5:25)
On the air: 1 p.m.-5 p.m., USA Network; all races on FanDuel TV and breederscup.com; all Cup races streamed on Peacock
Saturday, Nov. 1
First post: 10:05 a.m. (12 races)
Weather.com forecast: 72 degrees, sunny
Cup races: Filly & Mare Sprint (noon), Turf Sprint (12:41), Sprint (1:21), Distaff (2:01), Turf (2:41), Classic (3:25), Mile (4:05), Dirt Mile (4:45), Filly and Mare Turf (5:25)
On the air: 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., USA Network; 12:30-4 p.m., NBC; 4-5 p.m., USA; all races on FanDuel TV and breederscup.com; all Cup races streamed on Peacock