Forever Young and Sovereignty headline $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic

The 2026 edition of The Breeders’ Cup, which is comprised of fourteen races over two days, will take place at Keeneland this Friday and Saturday. Offering US$30 million in prize-money the Breeders’ Cup is one of the major events on the annual, international racing calander.

The US$7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, the signature race on the program, will see a high quality field of eight runners chase the big prize of the weekend, including two real standout entries.

The mighty Forever Young is back to defend his Breeders’ Cup crown after he added the Classic to his honour roll last year to go along with, amongst others, his back-to-back wins in the Saudi Cup, his wins in the Saudi Derby and the UAE Derby in 2024 … and his success in the Jockey Club Gold Cup when he was last in action on September 18 at Belmont.

The Yoshito Yahagi trained star is the is the first Japanese-born and Japan-trained horse to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

He was named the Japanese Horse of the Year in 2025, the first dirt horse in history to win the award. He was also named the American Champion Older Dirt Male Horse, the first Japanese-trained horse to win an Eclipse Award in a dirt category.

Forever Young, a winner of twelve of his sixteen starts, is the $2 race betting sites favourite. He will be ridden by Ryusei Sakai.

The Godolphin bred and owned Sovereignty is the second favourite for the Classic.

The Bill Mott trained runner has won seven out of twelve starts including a runaway win in the Whitney Stakes in his last start on August 8.

In 2025 Sovereignty won two legs of the Triple Crown … the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes … and also won the Travers Stakes by a resounding ten length margin, a sweep of victories which helped him claim both the 2025 Horse Of The year and the 2025 Champion Three-Year-Old Horse titles.

He will be ridden by Junior Alvarado.

Those are the two recognised big guns in the lineup … but three other runners might have a sniff of success if the betting is anything to go by.

Knightsbridge is another Bill Mott trained, Godolphin owned runner who comes into the race off two successive wins in the Monmouth Cup and in the Pacific Classic Stakes (on August 23), victories claimed by a combined total of sixteen lengths. He an eight-time winner from twelve starts. With Junior Alvarado staying on Sovereignty, Luis Saez takes the ride.

Golden Tempo came from last to win the 2026 Kentucky Derby and then claimed a second Triple crown race victory when taking out the Belmont Stakes … the same distinction that Sovereignty achieved in 2025.

The Cherie DeVaux trained runner has won four times from only seven starts. He will face older horse for the first time in the Classic.

Golden Tempo will be ridden by Jose Ortiz.

Magnitude, who is trained by Steve Asmussen has a win over Forever Young to his credit having beaten the Japanese runner in the Dubai World Cup in March.

With Jose Ortiz staying aboard Golden Tempo, Flavien Prat will take the mount on Magnitude.

The Puma (the Pennsylvania Derby winner) … Napoleon Solo (the 2026 Preakness winner) and T O Password (who finished fifth in the 2024 Kentucky Derby in his only race outside of Japan in his twelve start career) … complete the Breeders’ Cup Classic lineup.