Japan’s Forever Young will break from post 5 Saturday (October 31, 2026) at Keeneland as he attempts to join Tiznow as the only two-time winner of the 10-furlong Breeders’ Cup Classic, but the defending winner is hardly the only horse with a piece of history at stake in the 43rd running of the US$7 million race.
For the first time in more than three decades, two Kentucky Derby winners will meet in the Classic, with 2025 winner Sovereignty drawing post 2 and this year’s victor, Golden Tempo, drawing post 3 in a field of eight. The last such meeting came in 1991, when Unbridled and Strike the Gold were both defeated by Black Tie Affair at Churchill Downs.
Then there’s Godolphin, the global racing powerhouse whose extensive list of accomplishments still lacks a Breeders’ Cup Classic victory. Sovereignty forms one half of this year’s two-pronged attack from the royal blue, joined by stablemate Knightsbridge, winner of the Pacific Classic, from post 7.
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“One of the things it boils down to is Godolphin would really love to win the Classic, and we probably have a better chance of having two horses in there than just one,” Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said Monday.
Saturday’s 1 ¼-mile contest also includes Dubai World Cup winner, Magnitude, who defeated Sovereignty in the Stephen Foster Stakes, and a group of accomplished 3-year-olds joining this year’s Derby winner, led by Preakness winner Napoleon Solo.
