The Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In continues this week with a Friday Happy Hour-timed qualifier, as the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1) is positioned for late afternoon Sept. 18, opening day of the Belmont Park fall meet.
The 108th running of the Jockey Club Gold Cup offers a paid, automatic berth into the $7 million Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) Oct. 31 at Keeneland, and serves as a centerpiece of a nine-race Friday program that marks the return of racing to Belmont following a three-year reconstruction project to modernize the grounds and facility.
The 1 1/4-mile race lost some of its star power when reigning Horse of the Year Sovereignty, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, was forced to miss the race because of interrupted training from a minor injury, but the race still landed Japanese star Forever Young, plus a couple of other Breeders' Cup hopefuls in Baeza and Phileas Fogg.
FOX will televise the Jockey Club Gold Cup during an hour-and-a-half program that begins at 3 p.m. ET. The Jockey Club Gold Cup is the fifth race with a 4:14 p.m. post time.
Forever Young, last year's Breeders' Cup Classic winner and the reigning champion older dirt male in the United States and Horse of the Year in Japan, headlines the race in making his first start since finishing second in the March 28 Dubai World Cup (G1) at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates. The 5-year-old son of Real Steel has won 11 of 15 starts and earned more than $31 million for owner Susumu Fujita, including consecutive victories in the $20 million Saudi Cup in 2025-26.
Over the past three seasons, Forever Young has been given the summer off, aimed at the Breeders' Cup in the fall and high-value races in the Middle East early in each campaign. He ran third in the 2024 Classic at Del Mar.
The past two years, Forever Young prepped in Japan on his way to the Breeders' Cup, but this year trainer Yoshito Yahagi has deviated from that routine, bringing his stable star to New York for the Jockey Club Gold Cup, giving the historic race a marquee attraction as Belmont begins its next era.
"I wanted a challenge. I'd like to win Belmont's Jockey Club Gold Cup because this is opening day and that's why I really try to win this," Yahagi told reporters Sept. 17 in remarks translated by Fujita's racing manager Hiroshi Ando.
Forever Young has already earned a paid berth for the 2026 Classic, with the Saudi Cup part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series.
Yahagi expressed no reservations about Forever Young's time off, believing him ready. The colorful trainer was on-site Thursday to watch Forever Young gallop over the Belmont main track under regular jockey Ryusei Sakai. The horse worked two days earlier in a 5-furlong move, timed in 1:02.17.
Forever Young will face at most four rivals Friday after entrants Banishing and Chunk of Gold were rerouted for races later this month in Kentucky. Forever Young's outside post in the short field should allow Sakai options to keep him well spotted.
Friday's race is about preparation rather than qualification, with the Gold Cup providing a 1 1/4-mile test roughly six weeks before the $7 million Classic over the same distance.
The Jockey Club Gold Cup has long been one of the most important races on the American calendar. Its list of winners includes Man o' War, War Admiral, Kelso, Forego, Cigar, Skip Away, and Curlin , and three Gold Cup winners—Cigar in 1995, Skip Away in 1997, and Curlin in 2007—went on to capture the Classic that same year.
But almost 20 years have passed since Curlin won back-to-back renewals of the Jockey Club Gold Cup in 2007-08. He ran fourth in the 2008 Classic when it was run over an all-weather track that fall at Santa Anita Park.
Mott, who trained Cigar to win 16 consecutive races at one stage during the horse's remarkable career, has been a frequent Jockey Club Gold Cup participant. He has won the race four times, most recently in 2022 with Olympiad , who subsequently finished second to eventual Horse of the Year Flightline in the 2022 Classic at Keeneland.
Mott runs a pair in Friday's race: C R K Stable and Grandview Equine's grade 1 winner Baeza, a leading contender, and Frassetto Stables' Stars and Stripes, a 15-1 outsider. Forever Young is 3-5 and Jupiter Stable's Phileas Fogg, trained by Gustavo Rodriguez, is 4-1.
Baeza, a 4-year-old son of McKinzie , finished third in both the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1) last year before winning the Pennsylvania Derby (G1). He then finished sixth in the 2025 Breeders' Cup Classic, behind Forever Young. This year, he has finished third in the Alysheba Stakes (G2), second in the Stephen Foster Stakes (G1) and fourth behind Sovereignty in the Whitney Stakes (G1).
Baeza has been his own worst enemy this year, breaking tardily in all three of his races and prompting Mott to remove the blinkers Friday in an attempt to have him break with the field.
"I think he's lost a couple races just because he's got himself left at the gate," Mott told New York Racing Association publicity. "It's not anybody that's done anything wrong; he's just been hesitating a little bit, and we've got to find out what's going to make him comfortable and want to leave there in a hurry."
Junior Alvarado rides.
The defections of Chunk of Gold and Banishing leave Phileas Fogg in position to control the pace under Kendrick Carmouche. The speedster's best races have come when he has been able to dictate terms, showcased by back-to-back front-running triumphs in the Suburban Stakes (G2) the past two years at Saratoga Race Course.
Stars and Stripes, well beaten by Phileas Fogg in this summer's Suburban, will have to try to wear down the leaders, as will the Kenny McPeek-trained longshot Render Judgment.
Both are late finishers, though not of the caliber of a horse such as Godolphin's Sovereignty, who Mott still hopes can make the Breeders' Cup. But if he runs in the Classic, it will be without a prep since his victory in the Aug. 8 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga.
"We had a setback with a hindfoot with him; he had an abscess, and we had to wait for that to toughen up. He's been back on the track for two days now in Saratoga, and everything is going well," Mott said. "Right now, the way everything went the last two days, he's on schedule to go back to the racetrack tomorrow as well."
Mott said he is hopeful Sovereignty can still make Classic this year at Keeneland. Sovereignty missed the 2025 race after being scratched because of illness.
"That's been the goal all year," Mott said. "We would have loved to run in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, but we had a setback, so we had to make adjustments, call an audible, and we'll train up to the Breeders' Cup."
