Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Forever Young Noses Into Third: Mystik Dan #3, ridden by jockey Brian J. Hernandez Jr. (R), crosses the finish line ahead of Sierra Leone #2, far left, ridden by jockey Tyler Gaffalione and Forever Young, center, ridden by jockey Ryusei Sakai to win the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 04, 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky.
(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) The Breeders’ Cup Classic’s bracingly huge field of 14 drew their post positions and had their morning line odds stamped upon them at Del Mar on October 28, and the$7-million race is now officially in play. There were some surprises. The international second- and third favorites, City of Troy (5-2) and Forever Young (6-1) were posted well inside, the former in the three hole and the latter, unfortunately for him, on the rail.
Fortunately for Forever Young, he’s proven himself in arguably the only horse race in the world with a worse crush than this one, running third in the Kentucky Derby, pictured above. For his part, Fierceness clung on, barely, to top billing in the morning line, at a flat 3-1, which is to say, he’s a narrow, if not a lukewarm, morning-line favorite. With that assessment, it seems the gimlet-eyed Del Mar oddsmakers are very mindful of the many possibilities that a crush of 14 horses brings not simply to the start but also to the grinding inner mechanics of a mile-and-a-quarter.
If as it seems the 2024 Breeders’ C.
