DEL MAR, Calif. – Even without the star, the show will go on.
The defection of leading 3-year-old and potential Horse of the Year Sovereignty certainly leaves a void in what was shaping up to be an all-time Breeders’ Cup Classic. But the $7 million Classic and the other eight Breeders’ Cup races to be run Saturday at Del Mar, a stone’s thrown from the Pacific Ocean, will still have plenty of drama and compelling story lines to keep one’s interest throughout the championship-defining series of races.
Sierra Leone, who won the Classic last year, is one of four Breeders’ Cup winners from a year ago looking for a repeat victory on Saturday. In order to get it, Sierra Leone will again have to beat Fierceness and Forever Young, the horses who finished second and third behind him last year. A bevy of other Grade 1 winners in what is now a nine-horse field had this race “set up to be a Classic for the ages,” Chad Brown, the trainer of Sierra Leone, said.
“Unfortunately, the headliner of the race isn’t going to be in there,” Brown added. “I was looking forward for everyone to get into the race healthy. The only pathway to Horse of the Year was everybody has to run, so that’s likely off the table. That said, we have a race to run and there’s a lot of quality horses still in the race and it was no certainty Sovereignty was going to win anyway.”
The scratch of a leading contender in a major race – the Breeders’ Cup or a Triple Crown race – is not unique. Heck, in 2012, I’ll Have Another was scratched out of the Belmont Stakes and a bid for the Triple Crown with a career-ending injury.
ON SALE NOW: DRF Breeders' Cup Packages! Get everything you need to win and save big.
In 1997, the British champion Singspiel suffered a fractured cannon bone two days before he was to run as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Hollywood Park.
In 2015, the champion mare Beholder was scratched out of the BC Classic and a showdown with Triple Crown winner American Pharoah at Keeneland. She had bled in a morning gallop earlier in the week.
The scratch of Sovereignty conjured up those memories this week for Richard Mandella, the trainer of Beholder and a longtime colleague of Bill Mott, Sovereignty’s trainer.
“It was pretty disappointing to say the least,” Mandella said of Beholder on Thursday morning. “I thought she’d run with anybody. Who knows what would have happened? With her, I wasn’t afraid of anybody. I feel bad for Bill, a good friend and somebody I’ve always admired.”
In 2023, Arcangelo, the Belmont Stakes and Travers winner, was scratched out of the Classic and subsequently retired just a few days out from the race.
In each instance, the show went on.
When the show takes place Saturday some of the notable storylines will be:
◗ The 7-year-old gelding Rebel’s Romance, in the $5 million Turf seeks to join Goldikova and Beholder as the only three-time Breeders’ Cup winners in the 42-year history of the event. He will likely have to beat the 3-year-old filly Minnie Hauk, from the barn of seven-time Turf-winning trainer Aidan O’Brien, to accomplish it.
◗ Full Serrano will try to win a second straight Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile but he’ll have to beat a potential superstar in Nysos, a Kentucky Derby winner in Mystik Dan, and two other Breeders’ Cup winners – White Abarrio and Citizen Bull.
◗ Straight No Chaser will try to become a repeat winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Among his opponents will be the frequently freaky filly Kopion.
Kopion is in the Sprint in part because her owner, Spendthrift Farm, and trainer, Mandella, have the 4-year-old filly Tamara to run in the Filly and Mare Sprint. Tamara is a daughter of Beholder.
Though Beholder was scratched out of the 2015 Classic, she came back the next year to win the 2016 Distaff in a stirring stretch drive with the champion Songbird.
Sovereignty’s future is not yet decided. It would be great if his connections bring him back to race in 2026.
Either way, the show will go on.
A previous version of this article misstated the location of the 1997 Breeders' Cup. It was Hollywood Park, not Churchill Downs.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.