Since its beginning in 1984, the Breeders' Cup has provided 20 Kentucky Derby (G1) winners with an opportunity to reaffirm their excellence in a prestigious fall race, either during their 3-year-old season or later as older horses. For half a dozen of these runners, it has been the stage for championship-defining victories—for others, a reminder that spring excellence can fade by the fall and in subsequent years of racing.
This year's Breeders' Cup nearly included two Derby winners, but illness intervened. Sovereignty, the 2025 Kentucky Derby hero, was scratched Oct. 29 after spiking a fever. So that leaves the 2024 Derby winner, Mystik Dan , to represent in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) Nov. 1 at Del Mar. He bids to join a rare club that has parlayed Derby glory into Breeders' Cup success.
Select Greatness
No surprise, the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) has long been the preferred target of Derby winners. The $7 million race directly mirrors the Derby in terms of distance and prestige. At the same 1 1/4-mile trip of the Run for the Roses, it differs from the Derby in that it is six months later in the year and is not simply restricted to 3-year-olds, but instead for 3-year-olds and up. Except for those years when the Breeders' Cup rotation sent the event to Churchill Downs, the Classic was contested over a different main track than the Derby.
Ferdinand (1987), Alysheba (1988), Sunday Silence (1989), Unbridled (1990), American Pharoah (2015), and Authentic (2020) became legends and deserving Eclipse champions with their Breeders' Cup Classic success.
Derby winners are 6-3-2 in 22 Classic starts, with some—including the aforementioned Alysheba—making two starts in the race. They are 0-for-5 in other Breeders' Cup races.
The Breeders' Cup Classic assembles the best older horses from both North America and abroad, and many Derby winners take on the challenge following taxing campaigns. Even the best can look weary by November.
Four others raced in supporting races on Breeders' Cup Saturday. The 1982 Derby winner, Gato Del Sol ran eighth in the 1984 Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T); the speedy roan filly Winning Colors, front-running winner of the 1988 Derby, nearly repelled Personal Ensign when second to her in the 1988 Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) and was ninth in the same race the following year; Mine That Bird, who upset the 2009 Derby at 50-1 odds, ran 10th in the 2010 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile a year after running ninth in the Classic; and the versatile Animal Kingdom, the 2011 Derby winner, fired fresh off a lengthy layoff to run second in the 2012 Breeder's Cup Mile (G1T) on grass.
Standard Setters: Ferdinand and Alysheba
Few Breeders' Cup moments resonate like the 1987 Classic—when Ferdinand triumphed over Alysheba by a nose in a battle of consecutive Derby winners. The race set the standard for all subsequent runnings.
Ferdinand's victory also sealed Horse of the Year honors and validated the Breeders' Cup as the defining stage of the American racing season.
A year later, under fading light at Churchill Downs, Alysheba shone brightest in his Breeders' Cup moment of glory, outrunning Seeking the Gold.
Only the resilient nose of the unbeaten Personal Ensign in the Distaff would deny the crowd from seeing two Breeders' Cup-winning Derby winners that year at Churchill Downs when she nailed Winning Colors on the wire.
Achievements at 3, 4
Derby winners have been more successful as 3-year-olds than 4-year-olds in the Classic, evidenced by the victories of Sunday Silence, Unbridled, American Pharoah, and Authentic during their sophomore seasons. Ferdinand and Alysheba scored their Classic wins a year later at 4.
Due to retirements—well-bred Kentucky Derby-winning colts are of high value as stallions—3-year-old Derby winners tend to get more opportunities than their older counterparts.
American Pharoah Ends Drought
Twenty-five years passed from when Unbridled pulled off the Derby/Classic double until Triple Crown American Pharoah did so in 2015. The latter's wire-to-wire Breeders' Cup Classic victory completed an unprecedented "Grand Slam"—with the Classic the fourth component after his success in the Triple Crown. No horse had ever done it before, and none has since. Justify , the 2018 Triple Crown winner, never returned to competition after sweeping the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes (G1), and Belmont Stakes (G1).
Derby winners like Silver Charm and California Chrome ran almost too good to lose in the 1998 and 2016 Classics, only to be denied by Awesome Again and Arrogate, respectively.
Some, such as Funny Cide (ninth and 10th in two Classic attempts) and War Emblem (eighth), struggled against Breeders' Cup opposition and were never quite as brilliant as they were on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs. Even Fusaichi Pegasus, who many believed was a 3-year-old of exceptional talent, finished a nonthreatening sixth in 2000.
Their unplaced efforts underscore the challenge of sustaining peak form from May to November, or for that matter, into follow-up years.
Authentic might be considered an outlier given that he racked up his wins within a shorter period in 2020. Five years ago, the Derby was postponed until the first Saturday in September due to the onset of COVID-19, and he won the Breeders' Cup Classic two months later.
Mystik Dan's Prospects
Mystik Dan enters the Dirt Mile in good form, having won the Lukas Classic Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs despite a troubled trip. He is winless in grade 1 company since winning the Derby, however.
Three of those he beat in the 2024 Derby—Sierra Leone , Fierceness , and Forever Young—would finish 1-2-3 in the 2024 Classic, underscoring the legitimacy of his Derby victory. But Mystik Dan did win the Run for the Roses with an assist from a fearless, ground-saving trip from Brian Hernandez Jr., which may have very well been a difference maker. Hernandez, in his usual humility, directed credit to Mystik Dan for having the courage and acceleration to shoot through a narrow hole when it appeared on the second turn of the Derby.
Francisco Arrieta, aboard for the Lukas Classic when Mystik Dan prevailed by three-quarters of a length over Disarm, returns in the irons in the Dirt Mile, subbing for Hernandez, who remains sidelined while recovering from injuries sustained in a spill.
The Dirt Mile seemingly gives Mystik Dan the best opportunity to win another grade 1, a consideration before he begins stallion duty next year at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky. McPeek, who trains Mystik Dan for owners Lance Gasaway, 4 G Racing, Daniel Hamby III, and Valley View Farm, called the Dirt Mile "a stallion race."
A lifetime earner of more than $4.8 million, Mystik Dan is a son of Goldencents , who won back-to-back runnings of the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile in 2013-14.
Last week, McPeek acknowledged "a lot of depth" to the Classic, though that has been diminished somewhat by the scratch of morning-line favorite Sovereignty that followed entries being taken. A highly versatile runner who has won from 5 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/4 miles, Mystik Dan is 6-1 on the morning line in a Dirt Mile, which is headed by Nysos at 8-5 and defending race winner Full Serrano at 7-2.
The Dirt Mile is an unconventional path, but one that seems suited to Mystik Dan.
