DEL MAR, Calif. – Two noses kept Forever Young from becoming the first Japan-based horse to win the Kentucky Derby six months ago. Off slowly in a 20-horse field and bumped late from a lugging-in rival surely had to be the difference between winning and losing, right?
“I believe the bumping didn’t much influence the result,” Yoshito Yahagi, trainer of Forever Young, said this week.
Forever Young, Yahagi said, was not in 100 percent condition for the Derby. He returned to Japan a tired horse, Yahagi said, and with the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar already in mind, Yahagi devised a plan to get back to America. A nice long break, followed by one prep race, and Forever Young should be primed for his best effort in the Classic.
No less than a top effort will be sufficient if Forever Young is to win a most intriguing 41st renewal of the Classic – being run for the first time with a $7 million purse. Two of Forever Young’s compatriots – Derma Sotogake and Ushba Tesoro, the second- and fifth-place finishers from the 2023 Classic – are in this field.
Then there is the 3-year-old City of Troy, a Kentucky-bred son of Justify who has raced exclusively on turf in Great Britain for Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien, who is seeking his first BC Classic win after running 17 horses in 14 runnings of this 1 1/4-mile fixture.
Oh, yeah, there are 10 North American runners in the field, too. Fierceness and Sierra Leone are the only 3-year-olds to get here. There is no clear-cut leader of the older male dirt division, but Grade 1 winners Arthur’s Ride, Highland Falls, Mixto, Newgate, and Senor Buscador made it here. And don’t forget Next, who has been the dominant marathon horse in the country for two years. Tapit Trice, the 2023 Blue Grass winner, seeks an upset, while Grade 1 winner Rattle N Roll hopes to draw in from the also-eligible list.
In 2021, Yahagi came to Del Mar and won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff with Marche Lorraine and the Filly and Mare Turf with Loves Only You, the first Japan-based horses to win at the Breeders’ Cup.
Yahagi said he gave Forever Young a good portion of the summer off in Japan and started seriously gearing him back up in September. Short of being totally fit, Forever Young on Oct. 2 won the Japan Dirt Classic. In that race, Forever Young was kept much closer to the pace than he was in the Derby.
“We need to adjust to American racing. I have to be active in the early part to get good position,” Yahagi said. “That’s why we did that plan, and he did achieve that to get the results we wanted.”
Forever Young, who will break from the rail Saturday, had a good-looking workout here Tuesday under jockey Ryusei Sakai, who maneuvered the horse inside of a workmate that was Juvenile prospect Ecoro Azel.
Derma Sotogake finished sixth in the 2023 Kentucky Derby and, without a race in between, finished second, at 26-1, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He is winless in three starts this year, but also had a sharp work here Tuesday. Trainer Hidetaka Otanashi will equip Derma Sotogake with blinkers in the Classic, though he did not work in them.
Ushba Tesoro was beaten a head by Senor Buscador in the $20 million Saudi Cup in February and was a well-beaten second by Laurel River in the Dubai World Cup. Following a break, he finished second to a loose-on-the-lead horse in the Nippon TV Hai.
City of Troy comes to the United States with plenty of hype, as O’Brien, a winner of 18 Breeders’ Cup races, has proclaimed him to be the best horse he’s trained. He has raced more prominently in his two most recent outings, Group 1 victories in the Coral Eclipse and Juddmonte International.
City of Troy breaks from post 3, and O’Brien said he will leave tactics up to jockey Ryan Moore.
“He can only break as quick as he’s prepared to break and when that happens, Ryan will make his own mind up,” O’Brien said. “He will be opened up, but whether he is quick enough to lead, he may not be. The fractions are fierce here, and that’s the way racing is and that’s the way it has to be.”
Speaking of fierce, Fierceness won last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at odds of 16-1 coming off a lousy performance in the Champagne a month earlier. This year, he won the Florida Derby in a record-setting performanc, then bombed as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby, finishing 15th.
He has since come back with victories in the Jim Dandy and Travers, the latter in which he beat the super filly Thorpedo Anna.
“It’s a really strong, deep, international field, but I think if he runs his Florida Derby, his Jim Dandy, his Travers, then someone is going to have to run a great race to beat him,” trainer Todd Pletcher said.
Sierra Leone was the horse who bumped Forever Young in the Kentucky Derby, getting second by a nose without inquiry or objection. Sierra Leone’s summer was underwhelming, with a trio of stakes-placings but no victories. His trainer, Chad Brown, believes that Saratoga wasn’t necessarily for Sierra Leone. Brown is hoping, despite the speed-favoring reputation of Del Mar, his horse takes to the track and gets the right pace setup.
Arthur’s Ride was the fastest horse around in the summer, winning an allowance race by 12 3/4 lengths in June and the Grade 1 Whitney by 2 1/2 lengths in August. Off those two efforts, he might have bounced when fifth in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. There’s a good chance Junior Alvarado will send Arthur’s Ride away from the gate from post 12, where he could find a familiar rival in Highlands Falls waiting.
It was Highland Falls who put the pressure on Arthur’s Ride in the Gold Cup, a race Highland Falls went on to win by four lengths. Highland Falls will break from post 2 under Luis Saez.
“I think the post is fine. We’ll ask him to run out of there and get a forward position,” said trainer Brad Cox, who won the last BC Classic held here in 2021 with the front-running Knicks Go.
Next, a winner of seven straight marathon dirt races, has been forward in those races but they come with a much slower pace than he is likely to encounter in the Classic. Still, if he gets into a comfortable rhythm under Luan Machado and doesn’t get hung too far wide breaking he is extremely dangerous for trainer Doug Cowans.
Newgate came off a sixth-month layoff to run a solid third, beaten just a head, in the Grade 1 California Crown. Trainer Bob Baffert, a four-time Classic winner, is adding blinkers to Newgate’s equipment.
Senor Buscador won the richest race in the world when he captured the $20 million Saudi Cup. Pyrenees won the Pimlico Special and comes out of runner-up finishes to Kingsbarns in the Stephen Foster and Highland Falls in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Tapit Trice beat Highland Falls in the Monmouth Cup and, after finishing fourth to him in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, won the Grade 2 Woodward.
With NBC having college football commitments Saturday night, the Classic will go as race 8 (2:41 p.m. Pacific) on the 12-race card.
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