Top 5 questions to be answered at 2025 Breeders’ Cup

Two extraordinary days of racing at the 2025 Breeders’ Cup promise to deliver pulsating performances on the track, with wider historical repercussions.

As we settle in for Future Stars Friday and Championships Saturday, here are the top five questions that will be answered at Del Mar.

How many returning champions will win again?

Two-time Breeders' Cup Turf (G1) star Rebel’s Romance is the most decorated of the past Breeders’ Cup winners who are back in action this year. The Godolphin globetrotter first won in 2022, regained his crown in 2024, and now seeks an unprecedented third Turf win. Only the great mares Goldikova and Beholder have won three Breeders’ Cup events during their Hall of Fame careers. 

Reigning Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) champion Sierra Leone will try to join Hall of Famer Tiznow (2000-01) as a two-time winner of the 1 1/4-mile prize. The past two Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) heroes – Fierceness (2023) and Citizen Bull (2024) – are competing in the Classic and Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1), respectively. The Dirt Mile also features defending champion Full Serrano as well as the 2023 Classic hero, White Abarrio, while Straight No Chaser goes for a repeat in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1). 

Will Aidan O’Brien break his own records?

Irish training legend Aidan O’Brien is on the verge of setting a new record as the all-time leading trainer in Breeders’ Cup history. Tied with the late Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas with 20 career wins at the championships, he has multiple chances over Friday and Saturday to claim the top spot outright. 

But O’Brien is chasing his own world record (28) for the number of Group 1 winners in a single season, and every Breeders’ Cup victory this weekend pushes him nearer to the magic number. Currently sitting at 25 Group 1 wins in 2025, he needs three more to equal his record from 2017, and four to establish a new mark. 

Four of his entrants are favored – True Love in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1), Precise (now scratched) in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1), Gstaad in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1), and Minnie Hauk in the Turf. 

Will Japan add to its historic success at Del Mar?

In the 2021 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, Yoshito Yahagi scored breakthrough wins for Japan with Loves Only You in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) and Marche Lorraine in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1). Hopes were high among the Japanese contingent for the 2024 championships back at the seaside track, but their best results were a pair of thirds, courtesy of Shahryar in the Turf and Yahagi’s Forever Young in the Classic.

Forever Young now returns to lead a smaller, but select, team from Japan, including his stablemates Switch in Love (Juvenile Fillies Turf) and American Stage (Sprint). His other compatriots are Invincible Papa and also-eligible Puro Magic in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1), Argine in the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1), and Alice Verite in the Distaff.

How much will Spendthrift celebrate?

Spendthrift Farm’s Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) contender Tamara, a homebred daughter of their Hall of Fame racemare Beholder, could be part of a giant weekend for the historic Bluegrass nursery. 

On Friday, Spendthrift’s Ted Noffey is the 4-5 favorite to remain undefeated in the Juvenile, stamping himself as the early favorite for the 2026 Kentucky Derby (G1). Homebred Tommy Jo aims to enhance her Kentucky Oaks (G1) profile in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).

Both Ted Noffey and Tommy Jo are by the farm’s perennial leading sire, Into Mischief, who shares the record for the most Breeders’ Cup wins as a sire (eight). His influence looms large, extending into the second generation of such contenders as 2024 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan (Dirt Mile) and Spendthrift’s own Brave Deb (Juvenile Fillies Turf). 

Mystik Dan will try to emulate his sire Goldencents, a son of Into Mischief who won back-to-back runnings of the Dirt Mile (2013-14), while Brave Deb is by Into Mischief’s 2020 Kentucky Derby and Classic-winning son Authentic. Both stand alongside their sire at Spendthrift.

Moreover, Spendthrift’s brilliant filly Kopion (by another of the farm’s stallions, Omaha Beach) takes on males in the Sprint. 

Which Eclipse Award divisions will receive clarity?

The Breeders’ Cup will settle championship honors in some divisions, especially among the two-year-olds. Logical outcomes in the turf races would also streamline the voting for the champion turf male and female. 

Other Eclipse Award categories may be murkier, depending upon the results. The Distaff should go a long way toward clarifying the three-year-old filly and the older dirt female picture, and the Classic promises to sift through the older dirt males. But upsets would muddy the waters. 

Sovereignty, unfortunately scratched from the Classic after spiking a fever, wrapped up the three-year-old male title after sweeping the Derby, Belmont (G1), and Travers (G1). His form could be boosted by his familiar rivals, Journalism and Baeza, who would complement him by performing well against elders in the Classic.