{"id":519606,"date":"2025-10-22T12:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T12:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/519606\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T12:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T12:36:09","slug":"looking-back-at-14-amazing-upsets-in-the-breeders-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/519606\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Back at 14 Amazing Upsets in the Breeders\u2019 Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025\u00a0Breeders\u2019 Cup World Championships<\/a> marks the 42nd\u00a0year the best Thoroughbreds in North America meet up to compete in races that usually determine divisional championships at the Eclipse Awards.<\/p>\n

Often, they are joined by some of the best racehorses from overseas as well, especially in turf races. With a preponderance of elite racing talent assembled, year-in year-out, one of the most exciting elements of the Breeders\u2019 Cup from a fan\u2019s and a handicapper\u2019s perspective is watching (and hopefully cashing in on) the inevitable upsets that occur.<\/p>\n

Only at the Breeders\u2019 Cup do horses that have won multiple Grade 1 races regularly go off as hefty longshots when the starting gates open. Every year, at least one or two improbable winners will elicit questions such as \u201chow did they get overlooked?\u201d or \u201cwhere did that horse come from?\u201d and those moments are what make the Breeders\u2019 Cup such a special event. Just think back to 2017 when Saturday\u2019s\u00a0Breeders\u2019 Cup card at Del Mar<\/a> started off with wins by\u00a0Caledonia Road ($36.60), Stormy Liberal ($62.40), and Bar of Gold ($135.40).\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, before the entries are announced for this year’s World Championships (held at Del Mar for the fourth time)\u00a0and everyone delves deep into the past performances with final-exam focus, let\u2019s look back at 14\u00a0of the most memorable upset wins in Breeders\u2019 Cup history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

14. Sheikh Albadou, 1991 Breeders\u2019 Cup Sprint<\/strong><\/p>\n

This race\u2019s presence here owes more to whom European invader Sheikh Albadou defeated than to his 26.30-1 odds. Housebuster had already been voted champion sprinter in 1990, and entered the 1991 Sprint at Churchill Downs<\/a> as a heavy favorite due to his 4-2-0 record in seven starts that year, with his only poor effort coming when stretched out in distance in the Met Mile. But Housebuster broke poorly in the Sprint at odds of 2-5 before recovering to take a brief lead in early stretch, and when Sheikh Albadou engaged him at the eighth pole, the champion had little left. Sheikh Albadou drew clear under a hand ride from Pat Eddery and romped by three lengths over late-arriving Pleasant Tap, who would be voted champion older male in 1992. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe how easy he was going,\u201d Eddery said afterward. Housebuster faded to ninth, but repeated as champion sprinter at the 1991 Eclipse Awards and entered the Hall of Fame in 2013.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

13.<\/strong>\u00a0Cash Run, 1999 Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile Fillies<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 1999 Juvenile Fillies at Gulfstream Park<\/a> brought together highly regarded Chilukki, winner of six in a row to begin her career for Bob Baffert<\/a>, including five graded stakes, and the D. Wayne Lukas<\/a>-trained Surfside, winner of the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes, in a highly-anticipated matchup. Instead, it was the other Lukas-trained filly, 32.50-1 Cash Run, who stole the show with a gritty 1 \u00bc-length win over 3-2 favorite Chilukki, with 5-2 Surfside closing to get third. Cash Run had won two of four starts and finished third in the Grade 2 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland<\/a> for Padua Stables, but gave a career-best effort in the Juvenile Fillies with Jerry Bailey<\/a> aboard, responding gamely when headed by Chilukki on the far turn to win the stretch battle. She would go on to win two more graded stakes early in her 3-year-old season before going winless in her final eight starts. Chilukki was voted champion 2-year-old filly of 1999, and Surfside champion 3-year-old filly a year later.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

12. Caravel, 2022\u00a0Breeders\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>Cup Turf Sprint<\/strong><\/p>\n

A full field of 14 lined up for the\u00a0Turf Sprint at Keeneland, including six runners shipping in from Europe. Even with that level of international firepower, it was a U.S.-based runner that was sent off as the heavy favorite \u2026 and it was a U.S.-based filly who pulled off the upset, defeating \u201cthe boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wesley Ward<\/a>-trained Golden Pal was sent off at 1.32-1 odds in the 5 \u00bd-furlong Turf Sprint based on a career r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that included a win on the course and at the distance in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint in 2020 and a 1 \u00bc-length score in the BC Turf Sprint at Del Mar in 2021. He had won three of four starts in 2022 leading into his repeat bid, the only blemish a last-place finish in the King\u2019s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot after he missed the break, rushed up to compensate, and then faded.<\/p>\n

Caravel, a Mizzen Mast mare trained by Brad Cox<\/a>, had amassed 11 wins through nearly three seasons of racing, nine of them stakes victories, including a last-out score over fellow females in the Franklin Stakes at Keeneland. However, she had also finished 12th, defeated 9 \u00bd lengths by Golden Pal, in the 2021 Turf Sprint and therefore carried odds of 42.89-1 when the starting gates opened in Race 4 on World Championships Saturday.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Golden Pal, his Royal Ascot troubles surfaced yet again, as he started slow and was unable to secure his usual prominent early position. Caravel, meanwhile, broke sharply and was able to clear her inside foes from the 10th post position under Tyler Gaffalione<\/a>. She set a solid early pace with modest pressure from U.S. stakes winner Arrest Me Red<\/a> but shook clear in early stretch and then held off bids from European invaders Emaraaty Ana and Creative Force to prevail by a half-length. Golden Pal never threatened and finished 10th in his final career start, while Caravel captured her next three starts into 2023 before going winless in her final three. She was retired after finishing 10th in the 2023 Turf Sprint at Santa Anita Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

11. Adoration, 2003 Breeders\u2019 Cup Distaff<\/strong><\/p>\n

Juddmonte Farms<\/a>\u2019 Sightseek had the spotlight entering the 2003 Distaff at Santa Anita Park, having won four consecutive Grade 1 stakes. Puzzlingly, she failed to fire at 3-5 odds, finishing a distant fourth. The David Hofmans<\/a>-trained Adoration, on the other hand, moved immediately to the front under Pat Valenzuela and kept six challengers at bay throughout, pulling away to a 4 \u00bd-length romp at odds of 40.70-1. Her win was the second of three Breeders\u2019 Cup victories for Hofmans, who died last year at age 81. The other two were longshots as well: Alphabet Soup (19.85-1) in the 1996 Classic<\/a> and Desert Code (36.50-1) in the 2008 inaugural Turf Sprint.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

10. Lashkari, 1984 Breeders\u2019 Cup Turf<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the biggest upsets in Breeders\u2019 Cup history occurred during the inaugural World Championships in 1984 at Hollywood Park, when France-based, English-bred Lashkari rallied through the stretch to edge Hall of Fame racemare All Along<\/a> by a neck at odds of 53.40-1. The Aga Khan\u2019s 3-year-old son of Mill Reef entered the Breeders\u2019 Cup off of a win in a Group 2 stakes at Longchamp. He defeated a stellar field, including 1983 Horse of the Year All Along, winner of that year\u2019s Prix de l\u2019Arc de Triomphe and three Grade 1 races in North America. Lashkari won one of four races in 1985 leading up to the second Breeders\u2019 Cup at Aqueduct<\/a>. There, in his final career start, he finished fourth but was disqualified from purse money after a medication violation was discovered.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

9. Shared Account, 2010 Breeders\u2019 Cup Filly & Mare Turf<\/strong><\/p>\n

After winning the 2009 Filly & Mare Turf, Juddmonte Farms\u2019 Midday went 3-for-4 in Europe with one second (all three wins in Group 1 stakes) before shipping back to the U.S. for the 2010 Filly & Mare Turf at Churchill Downs. She was sent off as the 9-to-10 favorite in a race where several high-quality turf distaffers were overlooked by bettors. One of those was Sagamore Farm<\/a>\u2019s Shared Account, a two-time graded stakes winner who had also finished second in three Grade 1s during 2009-\u201910 for trainer Graham Motion<\/a>. In a thrilling race, Shared Account, who saved ground throughout under an expert ride from Edgar Prado<\/a>, defeated Midday by a neck at odds of 46-1, with 31.70-1 longshot Keertana another neck back in third. It was Motion\u2019s second Breeders\u2019 Cup win at the time; his first was also an upset, when Better Talk Now<\/a> defeated champion Kitten\u2019s Joy at odds of 27.90-1 in the 2004 Turf.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

8. Volponi, 2002 Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic<\/strong><\/p>\n

A well-matched 12-horse field clashed in the 2002 Classic at Arlington Park, featuring the likes of 2002 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner War Emblem, Jockey Club Gold Cup winner and iron horse Evening Attire, European Group 1-winning invader Hawk Wing, and Travers Stakes winner Medaglia d\u2019Oro. On the other hand, Volponi had gone 2-for-7 in \u201902 prior to the Breeders\u2019 Cup and had done his best running on turf for Hall of Fame trainer P.G. Johnson<\/a>. The end result was one few could have envisioned, as Volponi stalked from fifth through the first six furlongs before moving up through the far turn and then powering clear under Jose Santos<\/a> to win by 6 \u00bd lengths over favorite Medaglia d\u2019Oro. Volponi\u2019s 43.50-1 odds represent the second-highest among all Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic winners, bumping inaugural 1984 Classic winner Wild Again (31.30-1) to third place. His win also proved to be the undoing of a trio of conspirators, including a rogue Autotote employee, who had attempted to manipulate the tote system in order to take down the Pick 6 only to be discovered due to their improbable final ticket.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

7. One Dreamer, 1994 Breeders\u2019 Cup Distaff<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three fillies were sent off at odds of 2.10-1 or lower in a loaded 1994 Distaff at Churchill Downs \u2013 Ogden Phipps\u2019 champion 3-year-old filly Heavenly Prize, champion older female and eventual Hall of Famer Sky Beauty, and 1993 champion 3-year-old filly and Distaff winner Hollywood Wildcat. Meanwhile, Glen Hill Farm<\/a>\u2019s One Dreamer entered the Distaff off of a third-place finish in a turf stakes at Dueling Grounds in south-central Kentucky (now Kentucky Downs<\/a>). That being said, the gray daughter of Relaunch had plenty of talent, as she\u2019d gone 11-for-24 up to the Breeders\u2019 Cup, and in Louisville she reunited with Gary Stevens, who rode her to a pace-setting victory in a Grade 2 stakes at Churchill a year earlier. In the Distaff, horse and jockey employed the same tactics again, shooting out to the early lead, setting comfortable fractions, and then going all out in the stretch to hold off a game Heavenly Prize by a neck at odds of 47.10-1. That performance, which inspired one of announcer Tom Durkin<\/a>\u2019s many classic race calls, was One Dreamer\u2019s last career race before she was retired to Leonard Lavin\u2019s Florida farm.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

6. Spain, 2000 Breeders\u2019 Cup Distaff<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2000 Distaff was also held at Churchill Downs and featured both 1999 Distaff winner Beautiful Pleasure and a heavy favorite in 2-5 Riboletta, a Brazilian import who had won seven of 10 races in 2000, including five Grade 1 stakes. Riboletta would win the Eclipse Award as champion older female in 2000, but she threw in a clunker in the Distaff, fading to seventh in the nine-horse field. The winner was 55.90-1 Spain, owned by Prince Ahmed bin Salman\u2019s The Thoroughbred Corp. and trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas. The epitome of a hard-trying racemare, Spain would retire at the end of 2002 having won nine of 35 starts, with nine seconds and seven thirds and more than $3.5 million in earnings. She nearly scored a repeat win in the 2001 Distaff, losing by a head to Unbridled Elaine, and fetched $5.3 million as a broodmare at the 2002 Keeneland November breeding stock sale when she was sold following Prince Ahmed\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

5. Marche Lorraine, 2021 Breeders\u2019 Cup Distaff<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prior to 2021, no horse based in Japan had ever won a Breeders\u2019 Cup race (Karakontie, who authored a 30-1 stunner in the 2014 Mile, was bred in Japan but raced in Europe). But by the time the 38th World Championships finished up on Saturday, Nov. 6 at Del Mar, the land of the rising sun was officially on the board thanks to an improbable duo. Actually, the first Japan-based winner on the day, Loves Only You, was entirely logical: already a multiple Group 1 winner, the Deep Impact filly was the third post-time betting choice in the Maker\u2019s Mark Filly & Mare Turf and was much the best once she found late running room to score by a half-length. That figured to be that, however, as the remaining Japanese entrants on the Nov. 6 were both serious outsiders facing the best America and Europe had to offer. One of those contenders, Vin de Garde in the FanDuel Mile Presented by PDJF, ran to expectations, finishing 12th of 13. The other one, competing against a loaded field in the Longines Distaff, most decidedly did not.<\/p>\n

Marche Lorraine had assembled a solid 8-for-20 record in Japan prior to her Breeders\u2019 Cup start. She had won four stakes races, but all of them were held at lower-rung tracks that were not part of the Japan Racing Association circuit. She was the afterthought in trainer Yoshito Yahagi<\/a>\u2019s Breeders\u2019 Cup contingent, overshadowed by Loves Only You. Her first-time rider, Ireland-born Oisin Murphy<\/a>, was a champion jockey in England who had done business riding several of Yahagi\u2019s horses during trips to Japan but was unfamiliar with this Orfevre filly.<\/p>\n

Sent off at 49.90-1, Marche Lorraine settled near the rear of the 11-horse field and Murphy\u2019s racing strategy was quite clear: as he told BloodHorse after the Distaff, \u201cI tried to ignore her odds and just give her every chance in the run and hopefully she could finish off.\u201d That decision would be aided considerably by a fast early pace \u2013 and as it turned out, the front-end fractions in the Distaff set by Private Mission and eventual champion older female Letruska were beyond blistering.<\/p>\n

When that pair folded midway through the final turn, Marche Lorraine and a handful of top-class U.S. horses moved into contention. Against all odds, it was the unheralded Japanese filly that summoned the most courage in a thrilling stretch run<\/a>, giving Yahagi and his staff a blissful second trip to the Del Mar winner\u2019s circle and supporters of Japanese racing a day they\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Court Vision, 2011 Breeders\u2019 Cup Mile<\/strong><\/p>\n

A case could be made that the 2011 Mile is the biggest upset in Breeders\u2019 Cup history, even if the winner didn\u2019t carry the longest odds in the event\u2019s history. It\u2019s not that Court Vision wasn\u2019t a good horse \u2013 he certainly was that, a millionaire who\u2019d won four Grade 1 stakes over four-plus seasons (although he was unplaced in four prior starts in 2011). But, for most fans and gamblers, Churchill Downs was the expected site for a history-making fourth consecutive Breeders\u2019 Cup Mile win by the incomparable globe-trotting Goldikova<\/a>, who was justifiably sent off as the 13-10 favorite in a loaded 13-horse field. The Wertheimer brothers<\/a>\u2019 Irish-bred superstar had toyed with her competition in her three prior Miles, seemingly capable of taking over each race at will. This time, Goldikova was bottled up on the inside entering the lane, bullied her way through traffic to take a brief lead, but then was overwhelmed by an onrushing Court Vision and Grade 1 winner Turallure to her outside. One of the slimmest margins ever separated the top two, with Court Vision nosing out Turallure for a million dollar-plus career finale and Goldikova settling for third. The winner\u2019s odds: 64.80-1.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

3. Bar of Gold, 2017\u00a0Breeders\u2019 Cup Filly & Mare Sprint<\/strong><\/p>\n

What do you get when you combine the shocking defeat of a superstar fan favorite who had won her previous five starts by a combined margin of 32 \u00bc lengths with a winner who had never before won a graded stakes race? How about a 66.70-1 upset! Bar of Gold, a 5-year-old by Medaglia d\u2019Oro, entered the Breeders\u2019 Cup Filly & Mare Sprint in 2017 with little fanfare coming off a sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes. It\u2019s not as though Bar of Gold had not earned her spot in the race, having won the Yaddo Stakes in August and finished second in both the Grade 2 Presque Isle Downs Masters and Grade 2 Ruffian Stakes. But most of her best efforts had come on grass or synthetic surfaces. Unique Bella, on the other hand, entered the race on a five-race winning streak and appeared to tower over her opposition \u2026 on paper.<\/p>\n

Horse racing, of course, is not settled on paper. After setting a blistering pace through a half-mile in :44.35, Unique Bella had no fuel left in the tank by the stretch and faded to seventh. Bar of Gold, reserved in 13th behind the lightning-fast half-mile, used the fast pace to her advantage and swept past 12 horses to prevail by a nose over Ami\u2019s Mesa in the closing strides. The Filly & Mare Sprint was the final race of Bar of Gold\u2019s career, while Unique Bella capped her season with a victory in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes and took home champion female sprinter honors with five graded stakes wins on the year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

2. Order of Australia, 2020 Breeders\u2019 Cup Mile<\/strong><\/p>\n

For runner-up on this list, let\u2019s take a look back five years ago (although it seems longer\u00a0\u2013\u00a0COVID-19 stretches one\u2019s short memory\u00a0into eternity). The Breeders\u2019 Cup at Keeneland was held despite attendance being extremely limited due to the pandemic, and the turf races as usual attracted top-class talent from Europe. The Mile drew an overflow field including One Master, two-time winner of the Group 1 Qatar Prix de la Foret and fifth-place finisher in the 2018 Mile, and Coolmore<\/a>\u2019s Circus Maximus, who had won the prestigious Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes during the Royal Ascot meet earlier in the season. From the U.S, defending race winner Uni was back for a repeat bid, and other accomplished contenders such as Ivar, Halladay, and Digital Age made the Mile arguably the most competitive race on the two-day World Championships card.<\/p>\n

On race day, however, One Master was unfortunately scratched from the Mile, and that enabled another Coolmore-owned horse, Order of Australia, to draw in from the also-eligible list. The 3-year-old Australia colt had\u00a0won a couple of weight-for-age handicaps\u00a0during September but was thumped by 47 \u00be lengths in a Group 3 stakes at the Curragh in Ireland just three weeks prior to the Breeders\u2019 Cup. That result, plus his draw in the far outside 14 post, made Order of Australia a 73.20-1 longshot as the gates opened. To further stack the odds, Order of Australia\u2019s named rider Christophe Soumillon<\/a> did not travel to the U.S. after testing positive for COVID-19; instead, Pierre-Charles Boudot<\/a>, who was originally slated to ride the scratched One Master, picked up the mount.<\/p>\n

Strategizing on the fly, Boudot managed to give his new assignment a perfect stalking trip in fourth through the backstretch as Halladay set the pace in the Mile. Order of Australia angled out and rallied three wide at the top of the lane\u00a0and was all out to hold off stablemate Circus Maximus by a neck in a thrilling finish, setting off cries of disbelief among bettors who ignored the late entry and ones of celebration from Coolmore affiliates who secured a lucrative trifecta (their third entry, Lope Y Fernandez, finished third). Amazingly, Boudot picked up his second win on the day with a replacement mount, as he piloted Audarya to score in the Maker\u2019s Mark Breeders\u2019 Cup Filly & Mare Turf earlier when that filly\u2019s original jockey also had to cancel his trip due to a COVID-19 positive. The win payout for Order of Australia came to $148.40, behind only the first horse on this list as the highest-priced victor in Breeders\u2019 Cup history.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

1. Arcangues, 1993 Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arcangues\u2019 1993 Classic win over champion Bertrando at no-it\u2019s-not-a-misprint 133.60-1 odds is the type of mark that may well endure for 133 years of World Championships, or longer. The cosmos of good fortune aligned perfectly over Santa Anita Park that year \u2013 an unknown European horse with decent but inconsistent turf form, a top French trainer\u2019s hunch that his horse would perform well on a surface he\u2019d never tried, and an elite American jockey (Jerry Bailey<\/a>) given minimal riding instructions in a language he couldn\u2019t really understand. For the first mile or so of the Classic, Andre Fabre<\/a>-trained Arcangues ran just about up to the expectations of a 133.60-1 shot \u2026 until he didn\u2019t. His explosive run through the stretch from seventh to first still amazes, and all these years later still leads Bailey to humorously flash back to that day on occasion from the NBC Sports TV booth.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

** This article was originally published in 2018 and has been updated **<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025\u00a0Breeders\u2019 Cup World Championships marks the 42nd\u00a0year the best Thoroughbreds in North America meet up to compete…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-519606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115417853786343004","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}