Monday Morning Message with Jason Beem Nov. 2, 2026

Jason discusses T.O. Elvis' huge win in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) and the rare air of a performance that impressive. 

A good Monday morning to you all! Writing today from my home in Florida, and other than my allergies rushing back, it’s good to be back in my own bed in my own house! 

Breeders’ Cup week was very fun and honestly the highlight was getting to talk to many racing fans and folks who work in the industry while I was visiting Kentucky. Truly a worthwhile visit and I’ll share more about my trip and impressions on the event on the podcast both Monday and Tuesday. 

But for this column, I wanted to focus on T.O. Elvis’ win in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1). When we started the Monday and Thursday column here, the idea for the Monday column was always something I enjoyed from the previous weekend. Something that stood out. I feel like T.O. Elvis’ win was the embodiment of that idea. I don’t remember feeling that amount of shock and awe after a race in a long time. Since Zenyatta honestly. It was that incredible and jaw-dropping. 

Watching that race live, when they went into the turn, I was really only watching Englishman. America’s top sprinter seemed to be traveling well with a comfortable journey just outside of the early pacesetter. Jose Ortiz started to look around at the quarter pole to see who was coming or who wasn’t. When they began to kick away at the top of the stretch, it really did appear as though this was going to be a three-sixteenths of a mile coronation for the new king of speed in the United States. 

When T.O. Elvis saw daylight and started to rally, I just assumed he’d get up and finish a clear second. I didn’t entertain him winning until it was clear he was going to. That final furlong of his was one of the most impressive stretch kicks that I can remember. A few years ago I remember longtime announcer Vic Stauffer telling me that “if you see a horse who passes another horse that is pulling away from the rest of the field, it’s usually the sign of a serious racehorse.” That’s exactly what we saw on Saturday in the Sprint. If you watch the race as though T.O. Elvis doesn’t exist, Englishman dismantled the rest of that group. Truly a monster performance to beat a horse who ran so well and is extremely talented. And to do it off of the layoff like he did, just as impressive. 

As someone who watches a lot of races, I think you can sometimes get a bit jaded from being wowed by a performance like that. Often when a favorite wins or a horse dominates I ask myself “well who did they beat?” I think some of that cynicism stems from always wanting to beat favorites or think outside of the box in terms of looking for value on horses. So the desire to poke holes in the cases of short-priced favorites or strong contenders becomes the first line of thought. But there was no denying what T.O. Elvis did on Saturday. I dropped the guard of cynicism and just was wowed by a performance the likes of which I don’t remember seeing in many years. Truly special stuff. 

I thought the Breeders’ Cup started out a bit slow as Friday wasn’t particularly memorable in my opinion. Saturday kind of started out that was as well but it definitely got more exciting as the day wore on. The Classic (G1) was an ultimately satisfying result as we got to see Sovereignty once again assert his dominance and turn in a memorable Classic run. And selfishly I was so excited to see The Puma run so well as he was our Tampa Bay Derby (G3) champ this year and he’s had a great season. 

Have a great week everyone and hope you cashed big in the Breeders’ Cup!