Ken McPeek, trainer and co-owner of Thorpedo Anna, was interviewed on October 9 in a video clip that seemed to suggest that the 2024 Horse of the Year could retire before getting the chance to secure a repeat victory in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff. We’ll see.
While the racing world will learn the plans of Fast Anna’s four-year-old daughter in the coming days – and it would certainly be a blow to this year’s Breeders’ Cup roster – there are a number of former winners pointing to this year’s World Championships.
Now that we’re three weeks away from the Breeders’ Cup Friday, let’s take a look at some past winners who are expected to return for one of this year’s races. This year’s Breeders’ Cup is a recurring event at Del Mar, which could pair well with the return of last year’s winners.
Classic
The Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic figures feature a pair of previous Breeders’ Cup winners in Sierra Leone and Fierceness.
Led by Peter Brant, Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg and Brook T. Smith, Sierra Leone returns to the same track where he rallied from 11th place to take an emphatic victory in the 2024 Classic. That victory advanced him to the 3-year-old male championship.
He is ranked fourth this year and has added a win in the Whitney Stakes and placings in two other Grade 1 stakes.
Also back is last year’s Classic runner-up, Fierceness. Fierceness is currently run by breeder Repole Stable and by three owners from Sierra Leone in Magnier, Tabor and Derrick Smith. Fierceness captured the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to secure Champion 2-Year-Old Male honors.
He enters this year’s Classic on the back of a win on the track, when he overwhelmed seven opponents in the Aug. 30 Pacific Classic Stakes, scoring by 3 1/4 lengths.
Grass
Rebel’s Romance will aim to join one of the Breeders’ Cup’s most exclusive clubs as the homebred Godolphin son of Dubawi attempts to record a third victory in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf following scores in 2022 and last year when he earned the men’s turf champion accolade.
He would join Beholder and Goldikova as the only horses to win three Breeders’ Cup races and he would be the first male to win three times. Beholder won the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, 2013 Distaff and 2016 Distaff. Goldikova is the only horse to win Breeders’ Cup races in three consecutive years, as she won every edition of the Breeders’ Cup Mile from 2008 to ’10.
Sprint
Straight No Chaser will look to bring more magic to its MyRacehorse owners as the 6-year-old Speightster horse attempts to win the Cygames Breeders’ Cup Sprint for the second year in a row. This season, Straight No Chaser claimed a win in the Group 2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint in Saudi Arabia and finished in third place in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes presented by Estrella Jalisco.
Turf sprint
Gelding Nobals will try to win this race for the second time in three years. Led by Patricia’s Hope, the now 6-year-old son of Noble Mission earned a close victory in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita Park. He is second in the October 4 Nearctic Stakes presented by The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance at Woodbine.
Dirty mile
A trio of previous Breeders’ Cup winners are expected to meet at this year’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
Last year’s winner, Hronis Racing’s Full Serrano, will finish second in the Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita Park. While the son of Full Mast will only make his third start of 2025, trainer John Sadler said Daily racing form this week that his runner will start in top form.
“I think he’s right where he was last year,” Sadler told DRF. “I don’t see any decline in him. He is in good shape and strong.”
Also expected is 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner White Abarrio, who won the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes earlier this season. The 6-year-old son of Race Day ends up in a difficult fourth place in the Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.
White Abarrio worked a half-mile in:45.86 at Gulfstream Park on Oct. 9 and Joseph said the plan is to have him work the South Florida track two more times before shipping to Del Mar Oct. 23.
Also referencing the Dirt Mile is last year’s Juvenile winner Citizen Bull, who races for the partnership of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, Dianne Bashor, Certain Stables, Robert Masterson, Tom Ryan, Waves Edge Capital and Catherine Donovan.
Last year’s 2-year-old champion will score a victory on the Del Mar surface when the son of Into Mischief captured the Shared Belief Stakes by a mile on Aug. 31. Citizen Bull has won three of his four Del Mar starts.
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