The weekend racing followers await all 12 months lengthy is nearly right here as the highest horses within the nation and plenty of from all over the world will journey to Del Mar for the 2024 Breeders’ Cup. The motion kicks off on Future Stars Friday, Nov. 1, with 5 races for 2-year-olds: the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Dash, the John Deere Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, in addition to the 2 most distinguished 2-year-old races that will likely be run all 12 months, the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Introduced by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.
USA Community and FanDuel TV will each televise the primary day of this 12 months’s Breeders’ Cup. USA Community protection will happen from 4-8 p.m. ET / 1-5 p.m. PT and can embody two undercard races and the primary 4 Breeders’ Cup races. FanDuel TV protection of your entire Friday program will start at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT with the primary undercard race. Steady protection of all Breeders’ Cup races on Friday plus the 2 previous undercard races will stream reside on Peacock.
Let’s check out some key issues to know concerning the Future Stars Friday Breeders’ Cup races.
$1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Dash
Distance: 5 furlongs on turf
Submit time: 5:45 p.m. ET
Wagering Menu: Win/place/present, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, tremendous hi-5, day by day double, choose 3, choose 5, all-turf $3 choose 3
Background: This latest Breeders’ Cup race isn’t any Johnny come currently anymore. Will probably be run for the seventh time in 2024. Coach Michael Appleby gained this race final 12 months with a number of stakes-winning Irish invader Huge Evs, who was this race’s second European winner in a row after coach Charlie Appleby gained in 2022 with Mischief Magic. Coach Wesley Ward has gained three of the prior six runnings of this race however is with out a contender in 2024.
Favorites: Michael Appleby is searching for his second win in a row with Huge Mojo, who exits a second in the identical Irish prep race gained by Huge Evs final 12 months. The horse that beat Huge Mojo in that race, Aesterius, can also be a significant contender. Turf dash ace coach George Weaver saddles maybe the highest U.S.-based challenger, three-time stakes winner Governor Sam.
Attention-grabbing storylines: European invaders have swept the exacta on this race in each of the final two years. In the one prior working of this race at Del Mar in 2021, Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. guided the filly Twilight Gleaming to victory ($12.40 to win) atop a 12-horse discipline.
$2 million NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies
Distance: 1 1/16 miles on filth
Submit Time: 6:25 p.m. ET
Wagering menu: Win/place/present, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, tremendous hi-5, day by day double, choose 3, choose 4, particular Juvenile Fillies (Friday) – Distaff (Saturday) day by day double
Background: Certainly one of Friday’s “authentic seven” Breeders’ Cup races together with the Juvenile, the Juvenile Fillies has been a staple of the Breeders’ Cup for the reason that occasion’s inception in 1984. The winner of this race is nearly at all times voted the Eclipse Award champion 2-year-old filly, together with all the final 10 winners up by means of Simply F Y I in 2023.
Favorites: The 2024 Juvenile Fillies favourite possible will likely be one of many three winners of the important thing closing prep races for the Juvenile Fillies. This trio contains Scottish Lassie who gained the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes at Belmont on the Huge A, Immersive who gained Keeneland’s Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades Stakes, and Non Compliant, who gained the Oak Leaf Stakes Introduced by Oak Tree at Santa Anita Park.
Attention-grabbing storylines: This race is usually not pleasant to chalk with solely three favorites successful the previous 13 years together with Echo Zulu in 2021, Songbird in 2015, and My Miss Aurelia in 2011. Final 12 months’s favourite, Tamara, completed seventh in a 12-horse discipline, and 2022 favourite Chop Chop completed final.
$1 million John Deere Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf
Distance: One mile on turf
Submit Time: 7:05 p.m. ET
Wagering menu: Win/place/present, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, tremendous hi-5, day by day double, choose 3
Background: Considerably surprisingly, the Juvenile Fillies Turf has been dominated by U.S.-based fillies in its 16-year historical past since first being run in 2008. Meditate, who gained this race for coach Aidan O’Brien and jockey Ryan Moore in 2022, is one in all solely three European invaders to win together with Flotilla in 2012 and Chriselliam in 2013.
Favorites: One of many causes the Europeans typically strikeout on this race is as a result of they often don’t ship their top-caliber 2-year-old fillies to the Breeders’ Cup. That’s not anticipated to be the case this 12 months because of O’Brien’s Lake Victoria, who has begun her profession in sensational trend with 4 wins in 4 begins together with two Group 1 victories. Lake Victoria tops of a trio of O’Brien toughies that additionally contains Heavens Gate and Effervescent. If the North American runners maintain serve once more this 12 months, it might be because of Thought Course of, who exits a win in Santa Anita Park’s Surfer Woman Stakes.
Attention-grabbing storylines: Coach Chad Brown has been the dominating pressure on this race’s historical past with six wins within the 16 prior runnings of the race together with final 12 months’s winner Laborious to Justify, who joined Brown’s previous win parade that included Newspaperofrecord (2018), Dashing Fall (2017), New Cash Honey (2016), Girl Eli (2014), and Maram (2008). This 12 months, Brown’s hopes will relaxation on the runner-up from the Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes, Virgin Colada.
$2 million FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Introduced by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance
Distance: 1 1/16 miles on filth
Submit Time: 7:45 p.m. ET
Wagering menu: Win/place/present, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, tremendous hi-5, day by day double, particular Juvenile (Friday) – Basic (Saturday) double
Background: Arguably the featured race on Future Stars Friday, the Juvenile has been one of many Breeders’ Cup’s marquee occasions for the reason that first version in 1984. That includes the most effective and most precocious 2-year-old colts and geldings, the Juvenile is the place the place the search unofficially begins for subsequent 12 months’s Kentucky Derby Introduced by Woodford Reserve winner. Most Juvenile winners, together with Fierceness in 2023, Forte in 2022, Corniche in 2021, and Important High quality in 2020, have gone on to win the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old.
Favorites: High challengers will embody Keeneland’s Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity winner East Avenue and Chancer McPatrick, the back-to-back Grade 1 winner of each the Hopeful Stakes and Champagne Stakes. Coach Bob Baffert additionally will ship out two prime contenders together with his American Pharoah Stakes Introduced by DK Horse winner Citizen Bull and his Del Mar Futurity winner Gaming more likely to be among the many favorites.
Attention-grabbing storylines: The Juvenile has not been predictor of Kentucky Derby winners. Solely two winners within the historical past of this race gained the Derby the next 12 months, Road Sense in 2006 and Nyquist in 2015. Will the 2024 Juvenile produce a few of the principal contenders for the 2024 Triple Crown? Let’s see. Optimistic followers can level to the 2022 Juvenile the place the third- and fourth-place finishers, Nationwide Treasure and Blazing Sevens, missed the Derby however did come again to run 1-2 within the 2023 Preakness Stakes. 2020 was one other good 12 months for the Juvenile which produced a number of future stars together with the winner Important High quality, plus Scorching Rod Charlie, Jackie’s Warrior, and Rombauer. On the flip aspect, the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile did not yield one single starter within the 2022 Kentucky Derby. Fierceness, the winner of the 2023 Juvenile, was the one horse within the race to make it to this 12 months’s Kentucky Derby, the place he completed 15th. Fortunately for his followers he later made up for it when he gained the Grade 1 DraftKings Travers Stakes this summer time at Saratoga, and he’s now a number one contender for the Longines Breeders’ Cup Basic on Nov. 2.
$1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf
Distance: One mile on the turf
Submit Time: 8:25 p.m. ET
Wagering menu: Win/place/present, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, tremendous hi-5, particular Juvenile Turf (Friday) – Turf (Saturday) day by day double
Background: The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf was first held in 2007 – one 12 months earlier than the beginning of the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Not like in its filly counterpart on the Breeders’ Cup card, Europeans have traditionally carried out very properly on this race with wins in 12 of the primary 17 editions. Euro dominance was on full show in 2023 when Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore connections ran 1-2 with Unquestionable and Mountain Bear. Within the 2022 Juvenile Turf it was extra of the identical when Victoria Highway, representing Coolmore, beat Silver Knott, representing Godolphin, by a nostril in a thriller. The final American win within the Juvenile Turf was in 2020 when Hearth at Will pulled off the upset for Mike Maker, however even then, Europeans nonetheless managed to complete second, fourth, and fifth.
Favorites: This 12 months’s Juvenile Turf favorites may find yourself being the 1-2 finishers popping out of the Grade 1 bet365 Summer time Stakes at Woodbine – winner New Century and runner-up Al Qudra. Each are European imports who already benefit from that prior North American outing underneath their belts.
Attention-grabbing storylines: Counting Unquestionable final 12 months, O’Brien and jockey Ryan Moore have teamed as much as win six instances in 17 prior runnings of the Juvenile Turf, so whichever horse they present up with will likely be thought of by many to be the horse to beat in 2024. Mentee, winner of the Grade 3 Futurity Stakes at Belmont on the Huge A for coach Todd Pletcher in his final begin, is the complete brother to 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile champion Fierceness. Mentee will look to observe in his massive brother’s success – form of. Whereas Fierceness, additionally educated by Pletcher, earned his Breeders’ Cup glory on the filth, Mentee will attempt to make a reputation for himself on the grass.
