History of the Breeders’ Cup Classic Post Positions

If you study the history of the Breeders’ Cup Classic post positions, gate 4 has shown the best results. Five Champions have entered the 4 slot to win the richest North American race of the year. Legendary runners such as Zenyatta, Curlin, and most recently American Pharoah, have graced stall 4 in the starting gate.

The only other post position to show as much promise in the Breeders’ Cup Classic is the 6 hole, with 4 total winners. The size of the field often dictates how many stalls are actually available in the starting gate, so the historical trends can become skewed due to that. The only post position that hasn’t produced a winner in the Classic is stall 12. That may change in the coming years as saturated fields compete in upcoming renewals.

Post Position

4 — 5 wins
6 — 4 wins
1, 8, 10 — 3 wins
2, 3, 9, 11, 13 — 2 wins
5, 7, 14 — 1 win

There has been only one repeat champion at the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Tiznow accomplished this feat at the turn of the century by running from post positions of 10 and 13.

Ironically, Cigar was considered an unbeatable stud in the mid-90’s and won the Classic from post 10 in 1995. Yet, Cigar was upset by Alphabet Soup in the following year, who ran from the same post position.

Two horses have won from the inside stall with Ghostzapper being the most recent in 2004. Skip Away and Awesome Again both won back-to-back efforts at the 1997 and 1998 Breeders’ Cup Classics respectively.

The 2016 Breeders' Cup will be hosted by Santa Anita Park on Saturday, November 5th. Staying true to its 1 ¼ mile distance, the Classic will be highlighted by talents like California Chrome, Arrogate, Nyquist and Frosted amongst others. You can bet on the 2016 Breeders' Cup Classic by wagering here at Twinspires.com.

[Note: In earlier runs of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, horses wore bibs with numbers like “1A or 1X” to indicate owners running multiple entrants. Their post positions have been listed instead.]