Sovereignty wins the Breeders' Cup Classic as O'Brien overtakes Baffert in wins

Sovereignty takes the top prize

On Saturday at Keeneland racecourse in Lexington, Kentucky, the 2025 Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty won the Breeders' Cup Classic, with a purse of $7 million. For jockey Junior Alvarado and trainer Bill Mott, it was their first chance to run in the Classic: last year the horse was scratched from the race due to a fever. Sovereignty began the 2026 season with two defeats, and his participation in the Classic was once again in doubt because of a hoof abscess, but Alvarado, according to AFP, never doubted victory. During the race, Sovereignty tracked the pacesetting Knightsbridge from the same stable, and coming out of the turn Alvarado let him go — Sovereignty crossed the finish line first, The Puma second, Knightsbridge third.

Forever Young fails to repeat last year's success

Japan's Forever Young, who last year gave Japan its first Classic victory at Del Mar,ran just behind Knightsbridge for most of the distance, but faded in the closing stretch and finished only fifth. He had been bidding to join Tiznow — the only horse to win the Classic two years in a row. Trainer Yoshito Yahagi noted that, in his view, jockey Ryusei Sakai kept the horse in a perfect position, but in the straight 'there was no response'; at the same time, he expressed relief that the horse returned unharmed. Japan, however, celebrated a win in the Sprint: T O Elvis under Sakai overtook the favorite Englishman at the finish — the sixth consecutive victory for the colt of trainer Daisuke Takayanagi, who had not raced since May.

O'Brien overtakes Baffert

On the second day of the festival, which consists of 14 races with a total purse of $34 million, Benvenuto Cellini under Ryan Moore won the $5 million Turf. For trainer Aidan O'Brien it was his third victory of the week — he had earlier won the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Juvenile Turf on Friday — and his tally of Breeders' Cup achievements reached 24, two more than American Bob Baffert, who had shared first place with him on 21 wins before the festival (Baffert added one win on Friday in the Juvenile). Notably, Benvenuto Cellini, the Irish Derby winner, had finished only ninth in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe just two weeks earlier.

Other results of the day

In the $1 million Turf Sprint, victory went to Bacio, trained by Wesley Ward — his first Breeders' Cup win; the horse returned to the United States after victories at Ascot and York. In the $2 million Mile, Deterministic (trainer Miguel Clement, jockey Kendrick Carmouche) held off the late surge of last year's winner Notable Speech, while in the Filly & Mare Turf Chad Brown's Kathynmarissa won — his second victory of the day after the Filly & Mare Sprint with Ways and Means, bringing his tally to 21. Flavien Prat won twice: with Ways and Means and on the favorite Further Ado in the $1 million Dirt Mile, where, after a photo-finish review, the win was confirmed by a nose. The European runners, as in the Turf Sprint, went winless in the Mile and the Filly & Mare Turf.