The 41st Breeders’ Cup Thoroughbred World Championships take place Friday and Saturday from Del Mar, California. The two-day, 14-race event starts with Future Stars Friday, which features five juvenile (two-year-old) races. On Saturday, the Breeders’ Cup will showcase nine more races across different surfaces and divisions, including the $7 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic.
City of Troy was made the 5-2 morning-line favorite in a full field of 14 for the Classic and drew the No. 3 post at Monday’s draw. The colt is trained by Aidan O’Brien and will have Ryan Moore as his ride. Fierceness, trained by Todd Pletcher and John Velazquez, was the second choice at 3-1 and will break from the No. 9 post.
Post time for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic is 5:41 p.m. ET and will be televised on NBC.
The contenders
1. Forever Young (6-1): One of three Japanese horses competing in Saturday’s Classic, Forever Young finished third in the Kentucky Derby, despite nothing going his way out of the gate. He is 6-1 in his career, winning in Japan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He has had the summer off to prepare for the Breeders’ Cup and reports are he’s in great form.
3. City of Troy (5-2): The son of 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify has won six of his seven starts and comes in as the favorite. This is hands down the most dominant horse in Europe. The only concern is that all of his wins have come on turf, and this will be his first race on dirt. His dam was dominant on grass, so no one knows quite how City of Troy will perform on this surface.
7. Ushba Tesoro (12-1:) Another of the Japanese horses, Ushba Tesoro has raced 35 times with a record of 11-4-5 and over $16 million in earnings. He is great at this 1 1/4-mile distance — bred for it, actually. This is a very high energy horse that is ready to go.
8. Pyrenees (30-1): Pyreness is my favorite long shot. The four-year-old son of Into Mischief had won four straight races before finishing second in his last two. He has proven he can race with the big boys.
9. Fierceness (3-1): Won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last year, as well as the Jim Dandy and Travers this season. He is coming out of Post 9, which means he is going to have to work early and cover more ground. Fierceness is 0-3 when not in the lead down the stretch, and with the speed in this race, that is a concern.
12. Arthur’s Ride (15-1): Son of legendary sire Tapit, this horse has the speed to dominate and has had two months off to rest up for the Breeders Cup’ Classic. He dominated the Whitney Stakes, and his trainer, William Mott, has dominated on this track, winning 15 Breeders’ Cup races. Arthur’s Ride can set the tone early, but the concern is if he will tire at this distance.
Going to the window
Among the notable betting options are:
Win: Picking the winning horse; Place: Picking a horse to finish first or second; Show: Picking a horse to finish first, second or third; Exacta: Picking the top two horses in the exact order; Trifecta: Picking the top three horses in the exact order; Box: In wagers such as exactas and trifectas, covering all permutations of the picked horses.
Anita’s plays
Win or place: 7. Ushba Tesoro Exacta Box: 1-7-8 (a $1 Exacta Box with three horses would cost $12) Trifecta Box: 1-3-7-8-9-12 (A $1 Trifecta Box with six horses would cost $120)
Did you know?
Courtesy of Chip Tuttle
The Breeders’ Cup has emerged as a global event, attracting more international participation than any other racing event in North America. That is true this year more than ever, with a record number of international participants and international wagering.
Horses from five continents (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, South Africa) will be represented during the Breeders’ Cup.
Australia will also be represented by jockey Rachel King, who is British, but lives and rides in Australia.
A strong contingent from Europe is again headed to the Breeders’ Cup, headed by City of Troy, one of the highest-rated horses in the world, who will try to win the first Breeders’ Cup Classic for Irish racing powerhouse Coolmore.
Japan will send 19 horses to compete in 11 Breeders’ Cup races. Both will be records. In 2023, when Japan had eight horses across five races, handle from Japan was more than $19.1 million. Japanese bettors are only allowed to wager on a handful of Breeders’ Cup races with Japanese horses in them.
The last time the Breeders’ Cup was at Del Mar, in 2021, the Japanese won their first two Breeders’ Cup races — Marche Lorraine in the Distaff and Loves Only You in the Filly & Mare Turf.
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit two homers in an 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night, emphatically ending the three-time MVP’s longest homer drought since joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 24th homer, hammering Landen Roupp‘s fourth pitch 419 feet deep into the right-field bleachers with an exit velocity of 110.3 mph.
The slugger had been in a 10-game homer drought since June 2, going 10-for-40 in that stretch with no RBIs, although he still had an eight-game hitting streak during his power outage.
Ohtani led off the sixth with his 25th homer, sending Tristan Beck‘s breaking ball outside the strike zone into the bleachers in right. He also moved one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the overall major league lead.
Dodgers fans brought him home with a standing ovation as Ohtani produced his third multihomer game of the season and the 22nd of his career.
Ohtani reached base four times and scored three runs in his first four at-bats, drawing two walks to go with his two homers.
Ohtani hadn’t played in 10 straight games without hitting a homer since 2023 in the final 10 games of his six-year tenure with the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani had slowed down a bit over the past two weeks after he was named the NL Player of the Month for May with a formidable performance, racking up 15 homers and 28 RBIs.
First, he said last weekend that he would rather retire than pitch for the Yankees because his father was drafted by New York twice before being traded.
Then, he went out and beat the Yankees.
A few days after his comments about never wanting to pitch for New York, he had to defend his dad’s story about being drafted by the Yankees in response to a New York Post article that cited multiple official databases and the Yankees’ own records that couldn’t confirm Lance Dobbins ever played with the organization.
On Saturday night, Dobbins (4-1) followed up by going six shutout innings in Boston’s 4-3 victory over New York, his second win over the Yankees in less than a week.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m more worried about just the win column, whether it’s against them or anybody. My job is to try and help this team win as many ballgames as we can, and pitch in meaningful playoff baseball games. That’s what I’m more focused on.”
But he realizes what it means to the fan base in this longtime rivalry, with the Red Sox fans heard chanting about the Yankees outside the park before he spoke in an interview room.
“Yeah, I love being able to perform and get those wins for the fans here,” he said. “They deserve it. It’s a great city, passionate fan base, so being able to get those wins — especially twice in one week — means a lot and looking forward to trying to build on that going forward.”
In his victory over New York last Sunday, Dobbins held the Yankees to three runs over five innings, two on a first-inning homer by Aaron Judge.
On Saturday night, Judge went 0-for-3 against him, striking out twice on curveballs.
“It was just kind of scouting,” Dobbins said of his game plan against New York’s slugger after Garrett Crochet struck him out three times in the series opener Friday.
“Crochet has an electric fastball. I can throw it hard, but the shape isn’t quite as elite,” he said. “So we knew we had better weapons to go at him with, so I felt like we did a good job of kind of keeping a balanced attack throughout the order.”
Dobbins struck out five and gave up only two singles Saturday.
ATLANTA — Kyle Farmer just shrugged when asked about being part of a Colorado Rockies team that has the fewest wins through 70 games since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.
“We don’t care,” Farmer said after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves left Colorado with a 13-57 record.
The Rockies have the fourth-fewest wins by any team through their first 70 decisions in a season in MLB history, and the fewest since the 1899 Spiders won 12 of their first 70 decisions. Colorado (.186 win percentage) is currently on pace to go 30-132 this season.
“I mean, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Farmer said. “It is what it is. We’ve just got to show up tomorrow and play. There’s nothing you can really say about it except that if it happens, it happens.”
The Rockies made more inglorious history by setting a franchise nine-inning record with 19 strikeouts. That’s a lot of futility for one team to absorb in one day.
The 19 strikeouts by Braves pitchers also set an Atlanta record for a nine-inning game. Spencer Strider recorded 13 strikeouts in six innings, followed by relievers Rafael Montero and Dylan Lee, who combined for six more whiffs.
The only bright spot for the Rockies was the encouraging start by rookie right-hander Chase Dollander, a native of Evans, Georgia, who allowed four runs, three earned, in six innings.
The Rockies have 10 fewer wins than the Chicago White Sox, who have the second-worst record in the majors at 23-48.
Dollander said “just having a neutral mindset” is the key to remaining positive through a season already filled with low points for the team.
“Don’t ride the roller coaster,” Dollander said. “You know, there’s going to be lots of ups and downs in this game. This game is really hard. So it’s just, you know, staying neutral and we just keep going.”
Dollander was the No. 9 overall pick in the 2023 summer draft. Among other top young players on the team are catcher Hunter Goodman, who might return to Atlanta for the All-Star Game on July 15, and outfielders Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle.
“You know we’re going to have our time,” Dollander said. “I mean, it’s just one of those things that you kind of learn as you go. I’ve been very fortunate to be here for a little bit now, and I can help us going forward.”
The 34-year-old Farmer said one of his jobs is to help the younger players endure the losses.
“For sure, keeping guys accountable and teaching them the right way to do stuff,” said Farmer, the first baseman whose double off Strider was one of only four hits for the Rockies.
“Keeping their heads up and they’ve got to show up each day and play, no matter our record. It’s your job and you worked your whole life to get here. Enjoy it. This is a great opportunity for a young guy to show what they can do.”