Breeders' Cup 2024 Review

Featuring 14 Grade 1 races during an international festival on November 1-2 worth more than $34 million in purses and awards ─ including a record 67 international horses entered ─ the 2024 World Championships entertained fans from around the globe as the sport’s best horses, owners, breeders, trainers, and jockeys competed over two days of world-class racing. 

Attendees enjoyed outstanding culinary experiences, high fashion, and top entertainment at Del Mar, “Where the Turf meets the Surf” on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

The 2024 World Championships began with the “Future Stars Friday” program of five races for 2-year-olds. Abdulla Al Khalifa’s Irish-based Magnum Force , sent off at odds of 12-1, surged to victory with a closing rush inside the sixteenth pole under Colin Keane to win the 5-furlong, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint by a half-length over Arizona Blaze (GB). Magnum Force gave trainer Ger Lyons his first Breeders’ Cup win.

Favorites won the next two races, headed by Godolphin’s 2-1 homebred Immersive, who cruised to a 4 1/2-length victory over Vodka With A Twist in the 1 1/16-mile, $2 million NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies for trainer Brad Cox and rider Manny Franco. In the 1-mile, $1 million John Deere Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith’s Lake Victoria, trained by Aidan O’Brien, backed up her odds-on status with a 1 1/2-length triumph over May Day Ready.

The longest shot of the day, 15-1 Citizen Bull, captured the 1 1/16-mile, $2 million FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile from start to finish under Martin Garcia for trainer Bob Baffert and owners SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Stonestreet Stables LLC, Dianne Bashor, Determine Stables, Robert E. Masterson, Tom Ryan, Waves Edge Capital LLC, and Catherine Donovan. 

In the 1-mile, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, the 3-1 favorite Henri Matisse broke second to last in the 13-horse field but delivered a masterpiece in the stretch, steadily passing horses under Ryan Moore to win by neck for the Coolmore connections of Magnier, Tabor, and Smith. The victory also marked the 20^th Breeders’ Cup triumph for Aidan O’Brien, which tied him with D. Wayne Lukas for most all-time Breeders’ Cup wins by a trainer.

Saturday’s program of nine World Championship races began with two surprises. First, C2 Racing Stable LLC, Agave Racing Stable, and Ken Reimer’s Soul Of An Angel looped five wide in the stretch to collar Society at the wire by a half-length in the 7-furlong, $1 million PNC Bank Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. Soul Of An Angel, sent off at odds of 19-1, gave trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. his first Breeders’ Cup win.

Mrs. Fitriani Hay’s 3-year-old Starlust (GB) delivered an even bigger shock to the Del Mar crowd in the next race, the 5-furlong, $1 million Prevagen Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, when he came from seventh in the stretch, split horses, and prevailed by a neck for first-time Breeders’ Cup-winning jockey Rossa Ryan and trainer Ralph Beckett. Starlust’s 33-1 odds made him the biggest longshot winner of the 2024 World Championships.

Conversely, Brookdale Racing, Inc., Mark Edwards, Judy Hicks and Magdalena Racing’s 3-year-old filly Thorpedo Anna was the shortest price of this Breeders’ Cup, dominating the 1 1/8 mile, $2 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff from start to finish, and winning by 2 1/2 lengths at odds of 2-5 for trainer Kenny McPeek.

Godolphin’s favored 6-year-old gelding Rebel’s Romance became the first horse to win the 1 1/2-mile, $5 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf in non-consecutive years, holding off the fast-closing Japanese gelding Rousham Park (JPN) to win by a neck under William Buick. Trained by Charlie Appleby, Rebel’s Romance won his first edition of the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf in 2022. 

An outstanding international cast lined up for North America’s richest race ─ the 1 1/4-mile, $7 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic – with Europe’s top horse City Of Troy and Japan’s outstanding Forever Young (JPN) leading the way. But it would be the American 3-year-olds who turned in all-star performances when 6-1 Sierra Leone, under Flavien Prat, swept off the far turn and overtook the favored Fierceness, the 2023 FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, to prevail in the Classic by 1 1/2 lengths. Chad Brown saddled Sierra Leone for owners Peter Brant, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, and Brook T. Smith. Forever Young finished third, with City Of Troy checking in eighth.

Prat was back on the winner of the 1 3/8-mile, $2 million Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf when he surged Canada’s 5-year-old mare Moira to a half-length victory over the favored Cinderella’s Dream (GB). It was the first Breeders’ Cup win for trainer Kevin Attard. The victory also clinched the Bill Shoemaker Award for Prat as the Most Outstanding Jockey of the 2024 Breeders’ Cup. 

In the 6-furlong, $2 million Cygames Breeders’ Cup Sprint, MyRacehorse’s Straight No Chaser outdueled longshot Bentornato in the stretch to prevail by a half-length for first-time Breeders’ Cup winning trainer Dan Blacker. The 5-year-old Straight No Chaser was ridden by John Velazquez, who garnered his 21^st Breeders’ Cup triumph and increased his all-time Breeders’ Cup earnings record by a jockey to more than $39 million.

The 4-year-old Kentucky-bred More Than Looks bested a cadre of international turf stars in the $2 million FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile, coming from eighth place in the stretch under Jose Ortiz and registering a three-quarter of a length victory for trainer Cherie DeVaux and owners Victory Racing Partners. It was the first Breeders’ Cup win for DeVaux, who also became the ninth woman to saddle a Breeders’ Cup champion.  

In the day’s final race, the $1 million Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, Hronis Racing LLC’s 5-year-old Full Serrano (ARG) took control at the quarter-pole under Joel Rosario and held off the late charge of Post Time for a 1 1/2-length victory at odds of 13-1 for trainer John Sadler.

Breeders' Cup 2024 Roll of Honour