The seventh game of the 2026 World Series—if needed—is scheduled for the same Oct. 31 date as Day 2 of the 2026 Breeders' Cup World Championships. Thankfully, now that this Southern California household has been liberated from caring about the MLB season, there will be no conflict of interest.
In fact, the deck has been cleared completely for the rest of October to wallow in anticipation of Thoroughbred racing's biggest day. That is, the North American version. Leave it to Australia and Great Britain to upstage the fifth Saturday in October with spectacular racing on the third, Oct. 17.
Most of us had a nap scheduled this Friday afternoon Oct. 16 before viewing the huge doubleheader broadcast from Down Under. It will be worth it, though, to see if Ka Ying Rising can win The Everest (G1) at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney for the second straight year. Post time is 1:15 a.m. ET Saturday morning. Then, one hour later from Caulfield Racecourse down Melbourne way, 18 runners will square off in a wide-open version of the Caulfield Cup (G1) at a mile and one-half. How wide? Half Yours, the topweight and defending champ, is better than 20-1 on the line.
The Everest carries a purse of AU$20 million, which translates to $13.9 million in United States greenbacks. The more modest Caulfield offers the equivalent of $4.5 million, even though they must run twice as far.
For those who can't get back to sleep after all that excitement, a subsequent Randwick race will feature Autumn Glow, Australia's best miler, in the $3.4 million King Charles III Stakes (G1). The Land of Oz seems paved with gold.
By then, you could make a case for blowing off bedtime and keep going to the start of Saturday's British Champions day festival at Ascot Racecourse. First post is 7:55 a.m. Mimosas optional.
With 22 wins from 24 starts, the New Zealand-bred Ka Ying Rising has pretty much secured his place atop the Longines World's Best Racehorse standings at 135 pounds. Sitting at a respectable second, however, is Ombudsman, the Godolphin star who will put his reputation on the line in the $1.7 million Champion Stakes (G1), the last of five group 1 races on the day.
John Gosden, who trains Ombudsman with his son, Thady, has been watching the skies this week in hopes his horse will catch a break with the course condition.
"We are told it will be good ground, not the usual autumn bog," the elder Gosden reported Friday.
Ombudsman must deal with defending champ Calandagan, the 3-year-old Coolmore standout Constitution River, and Bay City Roller, second earlier this month in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1). The winner will receive a fees-paid berth for the Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T), to be run Oct. 31 at Keeneland. Only two Champion Stakes winners have bounced right back to take the Breeders' Cup Turf—Kalanisi in 2000 at Churchill Downs and Pebbles in 1985 at Aqueduct Racetrack.
"I was riding Pebbles," said Steve Cauthen, although not that day in New York. Cauthen had won the Eclipse Stakes (G1) with the filly that summer, but then he had to give her up for the Champion when otherwise engaged on Slip Anchor for his contract holder, Henry Cecil. They finished second.
Lucky Pat Eddery picked up Pebbles and kept her for the Breeders' Cup, while Cauthen landed on the Australian ace Strawberry Road for Patrick Biancone.
"I had Eddery pinned down on the rail, then he scooted up on the inside," Cauthen recalled. "Teleprompter and Tony Ives were on the lead, and I was lapped on him turning into the stretch, trying to hold him tight. But then Teleprompter drifted off the friggin' rail, and Pebbles shot up in there. I went after her and still only got beat half a length."
Actually, it was only a neck.
"I couldn't get mad at Tony, 'cause he could have beaten me up," Cauthen said with a laugh. "But I never forgot it."
In contrast, the Champion Stakes brings back fond memories for Cauthen. In 1983, he was aboard the 3-year-old filly Cormorant Wood, while under contract to Barry Hills, and came along late with a ferocious finish in a driving rain to split horses on the money and win by a nose.
Seven years later, Cauthen teamed with another 3-year-old filly to take a second Champion Stakes, this time for trainer David Elsworth. Her name was In the Groove.
"She was right there with those real good fillies I was lucky enough to ride," said Cauthen, who proceeded to tick off a list topped by Oh So Sharp, Indian Skimmer, Cormorant Wood, and Triptych.
In Cauthen's day, the Champion was run at Newmarket Racecourse over a straightaway 1 1/4 miles, with the start far off to the western horizon, with the A14 running along just to the other side of a stand of trees. Earlier that year, they had already teamed to beat the boys in the International Stakes (G1) at York Racecourse.
"She was always tracking where I wanted to," Cauthen said of that day at Newmarket. "At the bushes, which is 3 furlongs out and you're just about to go down the dip, I was still cruising. I didn't want to get there too soon. But eventually you're going too good you don't want to discourage them too much. So, I let her roll, and she shot to the front to win comfortably."
In 1991, Cauthen and In the Groove turned up at Churchill Downs for the seventh running of the Breeders' Cup Turf. They split the field of 13 without raising much of a fuss.
"The mile and a half was a little out of her range, and the turf at Churchill might have been a little firmer than she liked," Cauthen said. "But in truth, she was probably over the top by then. It was her last race."
The '91 Turf also marked Cauthen's eighth and final ride in a Breeders' Cup event. He retired at the end of the 1992 British season, at 32, and returned to his native Kentucky, where he bought a farm and commenced raising horses and a family. In 1994 Cauthen was elected to the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame and in 2023 he joined Lester Piggott, Willie Carson, Frankie Dettori, and Eddery in the newly established British Racing Hall of Fame.
The 1985 Turf was the closest Cauthen ever came to winning a Breeders' Cup event, but he hopes to correct that oversight at this year's championships. As racing manager for the stable of Bill and Donna Shively's Dixiana Farm, Cauthen has high hopes for their 4-year-old filly Lush Lips, a likely starter in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T). The daughter of Ten Sovereigns was beaten a nose by Classic Q last time out in the First Lady Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland.
"She was as good as she could be the other day," Cauthen said. "I think she got to the front too soon, though, and she just did get caught.
"I was riding for Henry Cecil back then, and he didn't like to travel, so I didn't get many chances," Cauthen added. "Bill wants to win a grade 1 race for the farm, and the Breeders' Cup would be a good place to do it. That would be cool for me, too."
