Horse racing-Forever Young hangs on to win Breeders’ Cup Classic

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(Reuters) -Japan’s Forever Young held on through the final straight to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar racetrack in Southern California on Saturday, overcoming one of the most competitive fields in the race’s history.

The bay colt went off at 7/2 odds after finishing third last year and settled into the pack midway through the 1-1/4 mile race before pulling away around the final turn.

He fended off a late challenge from last year’s winner Sierra Leone (7/2) down the final straight, as the Todd Pletcher-trained favourite Fierceness (3-1) slipped to third place in the final moments after getting off to an early hot start.

It was a moment of sweet redemption for Forever Young, who took third at the 2024 Kentucky Derby when the runner-up Sierra Leone bumped him down the final straight multiple times in a controversial finish.

Jockey Ryusei Sakai had told members of the media he was out for “revenge” at the 42nd running of the year-end championships and guided the four-year-old colt with a near-perfect performance.

“It’s an amazing horse,” the breathless jockey Ryusei Sakai said in a televised interview after the race. “It’s a dream.”

Trainer Yoshito Yahagi, the first from Japan to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic, pumped his fists in celebration and pledged to return next year.

“It’s like a Japanese team won the World Cup,” he said via a translator. “Horse racing industry – people never expect (us) to win the Breeders’ Cup … Each time we give 100%.”

Forever Young had won three of his last four races leading into Del Mar, with a disappointing third-place finish in Dubai in April. He has never finished worse than third in his career.

The $7-million race was widely considered among the most competitive in recent memory, even after the favorite, Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty, was scratched due to illness.

(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; editing by Clare Fallon, Rod Nickel and Lincoln Feast.)