Breeders’ Cup Classic 2025: Notes & quotes and then some
Notes, quotes and commentary from Sunday at Del Mar and around the country in anticipation of the Breeders’ Cup Classic 2025 on Saturday.
Antiquarian
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Jockey: Luis Saez
Morning activity: Shipping to Del Mar. Scheduled to travel by van from Saratoga Springs, New York to Newark International Airport in New Jersey for flight to San Diego.
Notes & quotes from other Breeders’ Cup races.
Planned activity: Expected to go to the track for morning exercise.
Even though Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher’s phalanx of expected starters for the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic shrunk by 25% last week, he still is expected to saddle 30% of the field in America’s richest race.
The announcement of the retirement of Locked to Gainesway Farm on Friday reduced Pletcher’s Classic hopefuls to three in what is regarded by many observers as one of the strongest fields in race history. Pletcher’s lineup of Grade 1 winning 4-year-olds is formidable with Antiquarian, Fierceness and Mindframe. They enter the 1 1/4-mile Classic with a combined record in 2025 of 12: 7-3-0, an eye-opening 83% in the top three. Six of those victories in graded stakes, and earnings total $4,112,060.
Those numbers fit in nicely with the stats compiled by the Classic’s many standouts, including Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Travers winner Sovereignty, Japan’s international star Forever Young, Santa Anita Derby, Preakness and Haskell winner Journalism, last year’s Classic winner Sierra Leone and Pennsylvania Derby winner Baeza.
Some years, Pletcher’s trio would loom over the competition. Not so, this time around. The likely field of 10 is talented and deep with a total of 18 Grade 1 victories.
“It certainly appears as though it's a particularly strong renewal,” Pletcher said. “I think I’d have to go back historically to go through all the charts to see which ones you could compare it to, but it's shaping up that way, for sure.”
The 1998 Classic at Churchill Downs is often regarded as having the top field for the Breeders’ Cup’s marquee race. Awesome Again prevailed that day, completing an unbeaten season, over a group that featured future Hall of Famers Skip Away and Silver Charm, four-time Group 1 winner Swain and proven top-level winners Touch Gold, Victory Gallop and Coronado’s Quest. Awesome Again, who became a prominent sire, is in the Canadian Hall øf Fame.
This will be the 15th time that Pletcher has saddled horses in the Classic since his debut in 2002 with Harlan’s Holiday. He has had two starters six times and this will be his first time with three. His Classic record is 1-2-1 from 20 starts, with his victory coming from Vino Rosso in 2019.
Repole Stable homebred Fierceness owns the biggest resume of Pletcher’s runners. He is 7-2-1 from 13 starts and has earned $5,155,320. He won the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and was the 2-year-old male division Eclipse Award winner in 2023. He followed a disappointing performance as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby with victories in the Jim Dandy and Travers at Saratoga and finished a gallant second to Sierra Leone in the Classic. This has been another big season, highlighted by victories in the Alysheba and the Pacific Classic. Pletcher sent the City of Light colt across the country to Del Mar and kept Mindframe and Antiquarian at Saratoga for the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Fierceness overcame a wacky start in which he veered to his left toward the rail, got back into the race under John Velazquez and went on to beat Journalism. He has been training in Saratoga the past two months.
“He's doing really well,” Pletcher said. “I thought he handled the ship to Del Mar for the Pacific Classic great and he came back in good, good order. All the preparation has gone according to plan on the days that we wanted to do it.”
Fierceness turned in a sharp five-furlong work in 1:00.56 over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga on Oct. 17 and had a maintenance four-furlong work in 48 on Friday. He will ship from upstate New York to California with his stablemates on Sunday.
Pletcher said he stayed with the 2024 training pattern for the Classic and expects Fierceness to turn in another big performance.
“It's encouraging that he's run well at Del Mar twice now, and that he's doing good,” Pletcher said.
Mindframe’s attempt to pick up a third consecutive Grade 1 victory in the Jockey Club Gold Cup on Aug. 31 was over several strides out of the gate when jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. was knocked out of the irons in a chain reaction collision. Pletcher considered running the colt co-owned by Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables in the Woodward, which was won by Locked, but opted to train Mindframe up to the Classic. He had six breezes at Saratoga.
“His training has gone according to plan,” Pletcher said. “I thought his recent works have been particularly strong, and his gallop outs have been exceptional. We feel like we have him prepared the way we want him to. It's not an ideal scenario to have what happened in the Jockey Club, and not get a true race out of him, but it’s the hand we've been dealt. And I think that we've done everything we can to have him as ready as we can.”
Centennial Farm’s Antiquarian added a Grade 1 victory to his growing resume in the 1 1/4-mile Jockey Club Gold Club, finishing 1 1/2 lengths in front of Sierra Leone. He did not run as a 2-year-old and was away from competition from June 2024 to April 2025 because of bone bruising. He has two wins and two seconds in four starts this season.
“We always felt like he had very good potential,” Pletcher said. “We always felt like he was a horse that would naturally want to run that far. We always felt like he would improve with age and maturity. Did we know for sure that he was going to get to the Grade 1 level? We didn't know for sure, but we felt like he was training the way that is consistent with a lot of the horses that we have been able to win Grade 1s with. I don't think it's been a real surprise. He showed good form last year. He was the Peter Pan winner. We were hoping that he would come back as a 4-year-old and be a little bit better than he was at 3, and that could get him a Grade 1. Turns out, that's the way he's responded.”
Trainer: John Shirreffs
Jockey: Hector Berrios
Planned activity: Expected to arrive at Del Mar on Monday
The quote: “He’s showed up every time we’ve asked him, and we couldn’t ask for a more appropriate trainer for a colt like this and trying to win a big race. We’re just going to go out there and try to enjoy it.” – Robert Clay of co-owner and breeder Grandview Equine.
C R K Stable and Grandview Equine’s Baeza had big shoes to fill when stepping onto the track in December 2024. His half-brothers Mage and Dornoch both won Triple Crown races in 2023 and 2024, respectively, and if his accomplished family didn’t create a buzz around the son of McKinzie, his $1.2 million price tag would.
“He’s always had class,” Clay said. “He was a nice foal, but he was always a little bit behind. He’s a couple months younger than some of these others, and as he’s matured, he’s gotten better with every month that goes by. He was always a class act. Of the three colts, he has more of a classic look. I think he’ll go all day, we’re just hoping we can hang in there with these really spectacular colts this year.”
Fast forward to the fall of his sophomore campaign, and Baeza has risen to the task, adding another Grade 1 coup to his family’s ledger when taking the Pennsylvania Derby in September at Parx Racing.
“That was huge,” Clay said. “It established his three-year-old credibility and got him in the column of stallion prospect. He’s improved after every run, and hopefully he improves off that one.”
Fierceness
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Jockey: John Velazquez
Morning activity: Shipping to Del Mar. Scheduled to travel by van from Saratoga Springs, New York to Newark International Airport in New Jersey for flight to San Diego.
Planned activity: Expected to go to the track for morning exercise.
Forever Young
Trainer: Yoshito Yahagi
Jockey: Ryusei Sakai
Morning activity: One and a half lap canter, schooled in the paddock
Planned activity: Breeze will be Wednesday, probably his jockey will ride
The quote: “He has grown up as he is a 4-year-old. I have an impression that he is more consistent compared to before.” – stable representative Yukihiko Araki
Journalism
Trainer: Michael McCarthy
Jockey: Jose Ortiz
Morning Activity: Breezed 5f in 1:01 2/5 under his new jockey Jose Ortiz, who flew in from Kentucky Saturday evening – arriving around 1 a.m. – after riding at Keeneland. Ortiz returned to Kentucky to ride at Churchill Downs Sunday afternoon immediately after working the colt. Ortiz is replacing Umberto Rispoli.
Planned Activity: Walk day following a timed workout.
On getting on the horse for the breeze, several days before the Classic: “It obviously helps, but he’s very straightforward. He did everything right. I didn't try to test him or anything. We know he's a nice horse. We're just trying to get to know him a little bit. But he was very classy out there, as he’s always been.” – Jose Ortiz.
What did you learn?: “He’s a very classy horse. A beautiful mover. We went out there and did five eighths. I just let him stretch his legs and be happy. Michael (McCarthy) was very happy with the work. The horse is ready. He is very happy with what I did today.” – Jose Ortiz.
The value of making the trip for the breeze: “I just get to know him a little bit better. I’ve seen the replays. I know the horse. I was going to get together with the team and see how would they like to do stuff, what position they would like to see him in. We go from there. Make a plan, and we go from there.” – Jose Ortiz.
On having Ortiz on the colt for the breeze: “We just thought it was good for him to go ahead and sit on him, get a feel of him, kind of test drive a little bit. It's not like it's never been done before. So grateful that he was able to kind of take a race or two off today and come out here and help us out.” – Michael McCarthy
Sunday: “We were just looking for a maintenance work this morning. I think we got that accomplished. I loved the way he galloped out. Went from the wire to the seven-eights and shading (1:)11-and-two. All good.” – Michael McCarthy
That Journalism has written a fine career in his first 10 starts has definitely not been a surprise to his connections. With a 6-3-1 record and $3,998,880 in earnings, he is a prime-time player in the star-studded Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Del Mar.
“He's the horse who, honestly, from the moment we hung a bridle over his head at Bridlewood Farm as a yearling, going into his 2-year-old season, exuded talent, quality, intelligence, class, and he was one that tipped his cap very early and allowed for us to categorize him as a bona-fide classic-type individual,” said Aron Wellman, president of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. “Most horses that present themselves that way will break your heart along the way. Thankfully, he's been a treasure and delivered at every turn and then some.”
Wellman ticked off as series off accomplishments that have taken place in the past 12 months, from winning a graded stakes as a 2-year-old, running a triple digit Beyer speed figure in his first race as a 3-year-old in the San Felipe, winning the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, finishing second to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby. Following the Derby, he overcame trouble to win the Preakness, then ran second to Sovereignty again in the Belmont Stakes and headed back across the country to win the Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park in July. In his most recent start, against older horses in the Pacific Classic on Aug. 30, was he was second to Fierceness, the 2023 juvenile champ who he will face again in the $7 million Classic.
“There's just absolutely no chinks in his armor,” Wellman said. “His three defeats have come at the hands of two horses, Sovereignty, a proven elite individual, and Fierceness, the 2-year-old champion, the Travers winner and now a Grade 1 winner at four. Everybody's seen his brilliance for three seasons now. Those are his three losses to two horses. Even in defeat, he's been brilliant and brave.”
For trainer Michael McCarthy, who has handled many top horses in his career, Journalism has been an outstanding individual since he arrived in his barn as a 2-year-old.
“I’ve said this several times for basically the better part of kind of 14 months now that this is kind of the way he's always been,” McCarthy said. “He seemed to be kind of always hinting that he was just a bit better than everybody else in any type of situation, working in company as a 2-year-old, whether it was schooling at the starting game, things were coming to him easier. He would gallop in company as fast or as slow as you would like, so amenable to whatever a rider was asking him. He was just a very easy read from day 1.”
Journalism won four consecutive races prior to the Kentucky Derby, where he was a 3-1 favorite. He has never lost two races in a row, but his 3 1/4-length loss to Fierceness in the Pacific Classic was the widest of his career. Since the Pacific Classic, his connections have replaced jockey Umberto Rispoli, who had been up for nine races, with Jose Ortiz. McCarthy noted that the colt was a little farther back early in the Pacific Classic and suggested that he would be closer to the pace in the Classic.
“He's had races where he’s shown himself to be very tactical in the past,” McCarthy said. “I think we're going to go ahead and kind of bounce on out of there and put him in a spot where we feel he's within striking distance, should anyone move at any time. Always in these bigger and better races, it seems like they always go on kind of a half a step slower the opening quarter-mile and opening half-mile. We'll leave that up to Jose to see how things unfold. But we'll have a game plan in place, like we always do and see if we can execute that. You can make a case for probably seven or eight horses winning this race here next Saturday.”
Mindframe
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Jockey: Irad Ortiz Jr.
Morning activity: Shipping to Del Mar. Scheduled to travel by van from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., to Newark International Airport in New Jersey for flight to San Diego.
Planned activity: Expected to go to the track for morning exercise.
Nevada Beach
Trainer Bob Baffert
Jockey: Mike Smith
Morning activity: Shipped to Del Mar from Santa Anita
Planned activity: Will jog at Del Mar, time TBA
The quote: “He is a big, long-jumping horse. Yes, he is lightly raced, but he has run against some good horses. He is going to have to break, that is always important. We know how competitive this race is.” – Bob Baffert
No trainer in the history of the Breeders’ Cup Classic has started more horses than Hall of Famer Bob Baffert. For those scoring at home, that number is 30.
And, not surprisingly, no one has won the Super Bowl of horse racing more times than the 72-year-old mainstay of the California circuit. His trophy case is filled with four Classic Cups.
He is on target to get starter no. 31 on Saturday when Nevada Beach comes out of Baffert’s barn to compete in this much-anticipated Classic.
This time, though, all eyes on the sport will not be trained on Baffert, who has made a habit of running horses with big Classic intentions in the past.
“Do I have the best horse? Not on paper,” Baffert said with a laugh. “This is a very competitive field. Good horses.”
The most dangerous horse in the field of 10, in Baffert’s opinion, is Fierceness, from fellow Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. Baffert liked the way he won the Pacific Classic at the end of August and the effort he put in finishing second in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic.
He also rattles off the names of Forever Young, who returns after a third-place finish in last year’s Classic as well as Sierra Leone, the defending champ. And he isn’t forgetting Sovereignty, the probable favorite.
A loaded field for sure. The wild card might just be Baffert, who knows how to win this race.
His four winners were 3-year-olds, including Bayern in 2014, Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in 2015, the freakishly talented Arrogate in 2016 and Authentic, the horse of the year in 2020.
Nevada Beach, a son of Omaha Beach owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, is not as accomplished as Baffert’s bushel full of Classic winners. He has three wins in four career starts, by far the fewest trips to the races of any of the other Classic runners this year.
But Baffert doesn’t show up unless he thinks he has a chance.
“I have had success, but I have had favorites that got beat,” Baffert said of Classics gone by.
Most notably, perhaps, was Arrogate, who returned in 2017 as the horse to beat and ended up fifth as the 2-1 favorite. In that race, which was run at Del Mar, Baffert watched two of his other horses, Collected (5-1) and West Coast (4-1), finish second and third.
“The Classic, it’s all about timing,” Baffert said. “I have had good horses that, by the time they got to there, they were just tired. The horses I won with? They were the best horses.”
This year he was thinking of sending Nevada Beach to New York to run him in the prestigious Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga. He didn’t do it because he remembered Uncle Chuck, who he trained for the same ownership group of Nevada Beach.
Uncle Chuck had shown talent in winning his first two starts and Baffert threw him into the deep end of the pool. Uncle Chuck nearly drowned, finishing sixth in the seven-horse field. He never raced again.
Nevada Beach won two of his first three – including the Los Alamitos Derby by four lengths. Uncle Chuck won that race by 4 1/2 lengths. But Baffert didn’t think he was ready for the bright lights just yet.
“I made a mistake when I ran Uncle Chuck in the Travers,” Baffert said. “He was not ready for it physically and it cost him. I didn’t want to do that again, especially having to run against Sovereignty,” who won the Travers this year by 10 lengths.
Nevada Beach made his first start since the June 28 Los Alamitos Derby last month when he won the Grade 1 Goodwood at Santa Anita in somewhat of a surprise at odds of 8-1.
“If he had not won the Goodwood, he would not be in the Classic,” Baffert said, referring to the Goodwood being part of the Breeders’ Cup win-and-you’re-in program. “Right now, he is doing well. He has never run against horses like this. You just don’t know how a lot of horses will run on the (Del Mar) surface. It can be a speedy track, and it can not be speedy. It’s a tricky track.”
Sierra Leone and Contrary Thinking
Trainer: Chad Brown
Jockey: Flavien Prat on Sierra Leone, Florent Geroux on Contrary Thinking
Set: Saratoga for Sierra Leone, Belmont Park for Contrary Thinking
Morning activity: Easy day; had their final breezes Saturday
Planned activity: Expected to ship Monday from New York to California
The quote: “All good.” – Chad Brown
Sovereignty
Trainer: Bill Mott
Jockey: Junior Alvarado
Morning Activity: Galloped 1 1/2 miles with exercise rider Jimmy Quispe up, walked through the paddock
Planned activity: Will work 4 furlongs with assistant trainer Neil Poznansky up.
When it was suggested that Sovereignty would be a linebacker if he were a football player: “But he better be able to run like a halfback! He is a horse that has a lot of substance to him. There is nothing narrow about him. He will work Monday; we’re not looking to show him off. He has already done that. He generally wants to get to his exercise. He is certainly willing to go to the track; there is no hesitation. He likes to walk up there and get started. I don’t know if he could be better. Is he going to have to improve a little to beat the older horses? Maybe.” – Bill Mott
The former jockey, now assistant trainer and master work rider of the stars of Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, pondered the question. Shook his head. Gave it some more thought.
This was a tough one. Neil Poznansky was going to take his time with this one.
The inquiry was simple enough. Coming up with an answer wasn’t. What is it like to sit on the back of Sovereignty?
Very few have experienced the powerful feeling of piloting one of, if not the best, 3-year-old in the country. Of course, jockey Junior Alvarado knows it, so does Jimmy Quispe, who is the son of Into Mischief’s exercise rider.
Poznansky, who has been working for Mott since 2008, partners with Sovereignty whenever the colt puts in a timed workout.
“It’s a loaded question,” Poznansky said. “He has nerves of steel and is a massive physical specimen. You look at him and he is like the total package, you know? When I breeze him, he is very push button. He will do whatever you need him to do.”
Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, the 53-year-old Poznansky knows a thing or two about riding horses. He is one of five jockeys to be honored as the top apprentice rider in the United States and Canada. He won both the Eclipse and Sovereign Awards in 1996. The most recent rider to do it was Kazushi Kimura in 2019, a regular on the California circuit.
According to Equibase, Poznansky rode 761 winners from 5,861 in a career that went from 1994 to 2008. After hanging up his boots and goggles, he went to work for Mott as an exercise rider and he never left. Nor does he want to.
“I just basically hung out and wanted to learn,” Poznansky said.
Poznansky is Mott’s right-hand man at Saratoga and accompanies him to Florida in the winter. He is one of Mott’s three long time assistants, joining Leanna Willaford, who oversees the operation at Belmont Park and Kenny McCarthy, who does the same in Kentucky.
Poznansky earned Mott’s respect and has been entrusted to work the top thoroughbreds in the star-studded barn. Over the years, Poznansky has hooked up with the likes of Elite Power, Cody’s Wish, Elate, Flat Out and Art Collector … the list goes on and on.
“Neil has worked an awful lot of good ones,” Mott said. “Absolutely, it is very important to have a rider that you know knows the horse and knows what I want. He is very conscious of trying to do what is best for the horse, but also what I think is best for the horse. He is very good at judging how a horse is doing and how much more he needs to do.”
Even though he has been doing this job for years, Poznansky admits getting some sweaty palms on work mornings. Especially with a horse like Sovereignty, who has taken the Mott barn on a special ride this year.
The colt has won five of six starts this year, including his last four. Three of those wins have been Grade 1s, the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes. The final goal of what could be a championship season is the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday.
“Oh yeah, I get nervous,” Poznansky said when it comes to working Sovereignty. “I am my worst critic, and I hate to screw up. He can be a deceiving horse. Sometimes, if you work him by himself, he feels the same going in 1:02 that he does going in 59 (seconds). I’ve come to know that when he is by himself, he is not going to do too much. Really, he has never had a bad day.”