For finishing second in the World Series, each of the Toronto Blue Jays will receive an estimated $350,000, based on attendance receipts during the Major League Baseball playoffs. This would be the definition of a small consolation, since baseball at the pinnacle of the game is one of those zero-sum endeavors, as defined by the great NASCAR star Ricky Bobby:
"If you're not first, you're last."
Thank goodness Thoroughbred racing does not follow suit. The sport heaps plenty of praise upon its noble losers, especially when they bring their A-game to a Breeders' Cup challenge and accept defeat with head held high.
At the entry stage, the 2025 renewal at Del Mar was billed as the most international presentation in its 42-year history. The flags of many nations flew daily in the Southern California sun, prompting visitors to consult their almanacs for identification of banners bearing symbols rarely seen in these parts. Except perhaps by soccer nuts.
Among the winners, Japan led the way with the dauntless Forever Young, whose ability to fire his best shot right off numerous jet planes is an inspiration. Imagine these lines on the globe, dating to February of 2024 and his first trip abroad to Saudi Arabia, then on to Dubai, then home to prepare for the Kentucky Derby (G1), in which he was beaten two nasty noses.
After that he journeyed back to Japan for a Breeders' Cup prep, followed by a hop back across the Pacific pond to Del Mar for the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1). There being no rest for the wickedly good, Forever Young popped up again at the end of December to win a group 1 race in Japan before returning to the Middle East to win the 2025 Saudi Cup (G1) and then, as long as he was in the neighborhood, finish third in the Dubai World Cup (G1).
One smart run at Funabashi Racecourse near Tokyo Bay was all Forever Young needed to be ready for another trip to Del Mar this year and a third meeting with his American nemesis, Sierra Leone , who had beaten him twice. This time, it was Forever Young's turn, for all the best reasons, not the least of them the flawless ride delivered by 28-year-old Ryusei Sakai, who now must join the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki as Japanese sporting heroes of 2025.
It must be understood, however, that Sierra Leone was running with considerably more than his 126 pounds. The weight of history was resting on his dark bay shoulders. Since the inception of the Breeders' Cup in 1984, there have been 14 Classic champions attempt to win a second title, and 13 have failed. Only Tiznow, in 2000 and 2001, got the job done, which tells us just how hard it is, and just how good Tiznow was. At age 28, he still can be visited at WinStar Farm near Versailles, Ky., in case there is doubt such a horse exists.
Since the Breeders' Cup races are billed as championship contests, clarity should be expected in the results. But this year, with so many brief campaigns at the top of the game, it looks as if Eclipse Award voters will be asked to make some giant leaps over tradition.
Sovereignty, at least, makes the Horse of the Year contest easy. His constituency is both broad and deep. Being forced to miss the Classic with a brief illness only added to his mystique as a colt of transcendent talent. Please, Mr. Maktoum. Let the big horse run.
Among older males, Sierra Leone, for all his persistence, won only a single stakes race in 2025. Fierceness won two stakes and split two decisions with Sierra Leone. Mindframe won three graded stakes early, then had his season turned on its head when Irad Ortiz was knocked out of his saddle in the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1).
On paper, Mindframe merits a hard look. But the most satisfying votes probably will go to Forever Young, who began the year beating the international superstar Romantic Warrior in the Saudi Cup and ended business topping the best North America could muster.
Ted Noffey should be a unanimous choice as 2-year-old champ, unless there are oddballs casting votes for Gstaad, who had a wide but comfortable trip to beat a 58-to-1 shot by just three-quarters of a length in the Juvenile Turf (G1T). Michael McCarthy, the trainer of that 58-to-1 shot—Stark Contrast—is one guy who would like to run the race again.
"All he needed was a hole at the quarter pole," McCarthy declared after watching Kazushi Kimura pump the breaks before getting through inside.
For that matter, Ted Noffey had his hands full with a 20-to-1 shot who made his debut in a maiden claimer. Okay, so it was a $150,000 maiden claimer, one of the workarounds used by West Coast racing offices to shield promising maidens usually at the mercy of the million-dollar Bob Baffert babies. Mr. A. P., a son of American Pharoah , was claimed by David and Holly Wilson out of his debut for veteran Hector Palma and turned over to Vladimir Cerin, their trainer.
"David and I have been friends a long time, and we talked about claiming the horse," Cerin said. "His attitude is, 'I've spent millions through the years at yearling sales, and you wait three years to find out they can't run. This way I'll find out in five minutes.'"
For his new people, Mr. A.P. finished a close second sprinting and broke his maiden narrowly going a mile before his giant effort in the Juvenile. He earned $340,000 and a right to be followed as his 3-year-old campaign approaches.
"It seemed like he was gaining at the end, which gives us hope for the future," Cerin said. "He'll go to the farm this week for a month off, then we'll bring him back for next year."
The vet scratches of Sweet Azteca and Tamara from the Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) deprived fans of a legitimate showdown with Splendora, who took advantage of their absence to win by nearly five lengths. Her only other sprint win in 2025 came in an optional claimer.
Ethical Diamond's lightning strike for Willie Mullins in the Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) threw the Eclipse Award for the male division into disarray. Finishing second in the Turf will not be enough for Rebel's Romance to win a second straight title. Neither Deterministic nor Spirit of St. Louis, both two-time grade 1 stakes winners, showed up for a Breeders' Cup race. The rest of the grade 1 grass events at a mile or more were spread among more than half a dozen others, including the one-two finishers in the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T), Godolphin's Notable Speech and William K. Warren, Jr.'s Formidable Man.
Warren, who has been racing Thoroughbreds for more than half a century, entered the Mile with a 2-for-3 record at the Breeders' Cup, winning events with Saint Liam and City of Light , the sire of Formidable Man.
"I know why we didn't win that race," said William Warren, who watched Formidable Man lose for the first time in seven starts on the Del Mar grass.
The difference between winning and losing a Breeders' Cup race can come down to something as narrow as a bang-bang play at the plate. If Formidable Man had a valid excuse, he ran well in spite of it, falling just a length and a half short.
"I had in my right hand pocket my holy water," said Warren, who is a trustee of the University of Notre Dame, his alma mater. "I normally put some on the engine of the horse -- the rear end -- and they do very well. There in the paddock I had plenty of time ..."
But?
"But I got to talking to John Velazquez," Warren said, "and I didn't remember to do it."
