{"id":349348,"date":"2025-11-02T02:24:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T02:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/349348\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T02:24:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T02:24:14","slug":"forever-young-beats-defending-champ-in-del-mar-wins-top-race-at-breeders-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/349348\/","title":{"rendered":"Forever Young beats defending champ in Del Mar, wins top race at Breeders&#8217; Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0.AP25305825151190.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"519\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0.AP25305825151190.jpg\" alt=\"Several horses head down the stretch on the race track at the Breeders' Cup.\" class=\"wp-image-353489\"  \/><\/a>Ryusei Sakai (5) rides Forever Young to victory in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic race on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Del Mar. (Photo by Gregory Bull\/AP)<\/p>\n<p>Forever Young beat defending champion Sierra Leone by a half-length to win the $7 million Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic on Saturday at Del Mar. <\/p>\n<p>The win gave Japan a victory in North America\u2019s richest race. Ridden by Ryusei Sakai, Forever Young ran 1 1\/4 miles in 2:00.19 and paid $9 to win at 7-2 odds. The colt was third in last year\u2019s Classic behind Sierra Leone and Fierceness.<\/p>\n<p>The race lost a bit of luster, though, with the absence of Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/sovereignty-scratched-breeders-cup-081ea5bf746858e8d04c93d4362ec429\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sovereignty<\/a>. The colt was scratched after spiking a fever earlier in the week.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Trainer Yoshito Yahagi earned his third career Cup victory, while Sakai claimed his first.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cForever Young is an amazing horse,\u201d Yahagi said through a translator.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/pacific-classic-horse-racing-7511145e8a3ae573b4e8af321010b047\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fierceness<\/a>\u00a0was third and Preakness winner Journalism was fourth. Mindframe finished fifth, followed by Baeza, Nevada Beach, Antiquarian and Contrary Thinking.<\/p>\n<p>Forever Young increased his career earnings to $19,358,590, with 10 wins in 13 starts.<\/p>\n<p>Ireland-bred Ethical Diamond led the $5 million Turf by 1 1\/4 lengths and paid $57.40 to win. In Saturday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/breederscup.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">other races<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Bentornato scored a two-length victory in the $2 million Sprint after finishing second last year. Irad Ortiz Jr. earned his second Cup win of the day and 23rd in his career.<\/li>\n<li>Scylla won the $2 million Distaff by five lengths for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.<\/li>\n<li>Britain-bred Notable Speech won the $2 million Mile by 1 1\/2 lengths. He ran the distance on the grass in 1:33.66. It was the fourth time trainer Charlie Appleby and jockey William Buick have teamed to win the race.<\/li>\n<li>Gezora won the $2 million Filly &amp; Mare Turf and paid $20.20 to win at 9-1 odds.<\/li>\n<li>Splendora roared past her favored stablemate Hope Road at the top of the stretch for a four-length victory in the $1 million Filly &amp; Mare Sprint. Trainer Bob Baffert earned his 20th career Cup victory.<\/li>\n<li>Nysos held off stablemate Citizen Bull by a head to win the $1 million Dirt Mile, giving Baffert a 1-2 finish. The Hall of Fame trainer\u2019s 21st career Cup win put him in a tie for the all-time lead with Irish trainer Aidan O\u2019Brien.<\/li>\n<li>Shisospicy won the $1 million Turf Sprint by two lengths under Ortiz.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryusei Sakai (5) rides Forever Young to victory in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic race on Saturday, Nov. 1,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":349349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,171195,1582,276,50864,3549,7264,75903,171196,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-349348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-breeders-cup","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-del-mar-thoroughbred-club","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sierra-leone","16":"tag-the-breeders-cup-world-championships","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115477733223791198","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}