By Dick Jerardi
Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup card at Del Mar has a distinct Parx flavor and will be framed around one of the strongest fields in the history of the $7 million Classic, which will include the winner of this year’s Pennsylvania Derby.
The 10 Classic horses have combined to win $42 million and 14 Grade I races this year. It has the winners of the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Travers (Sovereignty), Preakness, Santa Anita Derby and Haskell (Journalism), Pacific Classic (Fierceness), Saudi Cup (Forever Young), Whitney (Sierra Leone), Churchill Downs and Stephen Foster (Mindframe). Jockey Club Gold Cup (Antiquarian), Pennsylvania Derby (Baeza) and Goodwood (Nevada Beach).
The field compares favorably with the 1998 Classic that had the winners of 30 Grade I or Group I races in their careers. This Classic includes the top three finishers from last year’s Classic – Sierra Leone, Fierceness, and Forever Young. Fierceness won a Grade I as a 2-year-old (Breeders’ Cup Juvenile) and two more last year (Florida Derby, Travers). Sierra Leone won the Blue Grass in 2024. They are not Grade I races, but Forever Young won the Saudi Derby and UAE Derby in 2024.
That 1998 Classic included 10-time Grade I winner and defending Classic winner Skip Away, 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Silver Charm (also winner of the 1998 Dubai World Cup), 1997 Belmont Stakes winner Touch Gold, 1998 Belmont winner Victory Gallop, international superstar Swain, and the eventual winner Awesome Again, who was unbeaten that year.
That was some show. Sovereignty will be a solid favorite (6-5 morning line). But, as dominant as he has been against the 3-year-olds, he has never faced a field of this depth and quality. In fact, one could make a pretty strong case that no horse has faced this strong of a field since all those horses that lined up in the Classic gate 27 years ago at Churchill Downs when a Breeders’ Cup record crowd of 80,452 showed up to witness it.
Baeza is listed at 15-1 in the morning line, which seems about right. The colt has clearly been improving all year and ran the race of his life at Parx on Sept. 20. That was good enough that day, but won’t be good enough Saturday. He will need to run even better to join Bayern as the only Pa. Derby winner to win the Classic.
The $2 million Sprint has a very distinct Parx flavor, with the last two Gallant Bob winners in the full field. Last year’s Bob winner Bentornato, who finished a very close second in the 2024 Sprint, is the 5-2 morning line favorite off his dazzling win at Churchill Downs on Sept. 13 that produced a 108 Beyer. This year’s Bob winner, Mad House (30-1 ML), goes for his fifth consecutive win. He won his last four going gate to wire, but even getting the lead in this race will be very difficult.
The incredibly fast filly Kopion (with Beyers of 110, 109, 107 this year) was detoured from the $1 million Filly & Mare Sprint to the Sprint over the weekend by trainer Richard Mandella. Last year’s Sprint winner Straight No Chaser is among the group of early speed horses drawn outside that includes Mullikin, Bentornato, and Mad House.
The $2 million Distaff comes right after the Sprint and has the winner of this year’s Cotillion (Clicquot, 10-1 ML) and last year’s Cotillion runner-up (Gun Song, 30-1 ML). They will both be chasing one of the biggest favorites (Seismic Beauty) of the two-day 14-race extravaganza (2-year olds take center stage Friday with five races). Seismic Beauty’s last two Beyers (104, 110) in runaway stakes wins at Santa Anita and Del Mar are easily the two best numbers in the race.
Trainer Bob Baffert looks live over the two days as does Aidan O’Brien who enters the weekend with 20 BC wins, tied for the most with the late Wayne Lukas. Baffert has 19.
In addition to the Classic and the Parx graduates, there is the amazing world traveler, Rebel’s Romance, against the great 3-year-old filly Minnie Hauk (runner-up in the Arc de Triomphe) in the $5 million Turf. Rebel’s Romance, who won the Turf last year and in 2022 is trying to become just the third horse (Goldikova, Beholder) to win three BC races. Rebel’s Romance has started 29 times with 20 wins and zero seconds. He has won races on three continents (North America, Europe, Asia) and competed in seven countries (United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong).
Sticking closer to home, the very last BC race, the $2 million Filly & Mare Turf, features a star-studded field that includes the brilliant 4-year-old filly She Feels Pretty (five Grade I wins) owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson of Chester County. It will be 20 years next year since Barbaro’s tour de force in the Kentucky Derby. This is the best horse they have had since then. It will be difficult from the 13 post, but, if She Feels Pretty were to win, it would be a perfect ending to what is always a tremendous two days of racing.
