The year 2025 is roaring to its conclusion, but anyone thinking that the racing calendar had already peaked ought to think again. Yes, the Cheltenham Festival, Kentucky Derby, and Saudi Cup were all showstoppers. But the best is yet to come.
The Breeders’ Cup Classic is the most lucrative race on the American circuit, and by some distance, and the Del Mar showcase once again looms on the horizon. Last fall, Sierra Leone turned the Classic into its proving ground, unleashing a surge that silenced doubters and shattered expectations. Now, one year removed from his finest hour, the weight of repeat history sits on the reigning champion’s withers—and the pressure couldn’t be higher.
Can Sierra Leone Upset the Favorite?
Awaiting him, Sovereignty, the new prince of Stateside racing. The two-year-old blitzed two-thirds of the American Triple Crown earlier this year, romping to glory at both the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes. In fact, he very well may have become the first horse to win all three races since Justify in 2018, but trainer Bill Mott opted to sit out the Preakness, instead conserving energy for the end-of-year extravaganza.
Despite Sierra Leone’s reigning champion tag, it’s his younger rival who online horse betting sites make the favorite to leave Del Mar with the crown. One can bet on horses at Bovada, and the betting giant currently makes Sovereignty a mightily short +150 favorite for the title, with the 2024 victor out at +500. But sometimes, when two superstars are so evenly matched, it’s the jockey in the saddle who can make all the difference.
The classic has seen a slew of sensational riders reign supreme. Here are three that managed to steal the show on America’s grandest stage.
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Mike E. Smit
Find a major US racing day and look for the calmest man in the paddock; odds are it’s Mike E. Smith. When you’ve got the nickname “Big Money Mike,” chances are you’re the man for the big occasion, and that’s the case with this icon of the saddle. But don’t take our word for it, look at the numbers: A record 27 Breeders’ Cup wins, four of which are triumphs in the marquee Classic.
Take a breath and rewind to 2009: Zenyatta, the lone filly, under Smith, trailing—seemingly lost—until the final furlong. The stretch run defied logic and physics; Big Money timed the rally with balletic poise, weaving through the field and flying past the traditionally more powerful colts. It wasn’t just an upset. It was a shockwave. “I’ve never felt anything like it,” Smith admitted in the aftermath of his crowning moment, his words trailing in disbelief. Fire back to ‘97’s assertive win on Skip Away, then leap forward to Drosselmeyer’s tactical masterclass in 2011 and the sheer force of Arrogate half a decade on from that. Talk about longevity.
Hall of Fame induction in 2003 was a formality. His huge career earnings, nearly 6,000 wins, and the record-setting 2018 Triple Crown triumph with Justify, at age 52 no less, are milestones few can match. “Pressure is just another challenge,” Smith once said—and for him, racing’s biggest days are simply opportunities to etch his legend deeper.
Frankie Dettori
Some jockeys deliver wins; Frankie Dettori delivers theater. From Milan to Meydan, his charisma lights up the weighing room, but beneath the bravado beats the nerve of a professional assassin. The Italian’s resume cracks the mind: 287 Group 1 wins, 23 British Classics, 3,300+ total victories, the backbone of Godolphin glory—and a signature leap off every major winner, forever re-imagining what racing celebration looks like.
But in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Dettori had a single shining summit: Raven’s Pass, 2008. Facing Curlin, the American titan and without question the best horse on the planet, Dettori plotted a course that felt equal parts improv and predetermination—a prowl, a pause, then a slingshot run that battered past the odds-on favorite and into the finish-line lights. The outpouring was colossal: Dettori had bridged continents and egos, and his punch-the-air glee became the instant classic. Thirteen other Breeders’ Cup titles swell his US haul, but this one was the career-defining twist.
A three-time British Champion Jockey and immortalized with a 2023 Ascot Hall of Fame induction, and even a knighthood by the British Royal Family, Dettori combines drama with deep craft. His daring on the track is emboldened by a scholar’s understanding of pace, ground, and tempo—a fact sometimes masked by his boyish joy in winning. Ask racing fans—from Newmarket to Santa Anita—and there’s likely nobody who doesn’t recognize the pose, the voice, and the mischievous charisma.
John R. Velazquez
When the stakes climb, chaos crowds the final furlong—but John R. Velazquez rides with the patience of a mathematician and the nerve of a chess grandmaster. Johnny V is the statistical powerhouse, his 15 Breeders’ Cup wins tied for second all-time and Classic glory captured not once, but twice—each time, he made brilliance look inevitable.
2020: Authentic. The pressure was ferocious; the analysis, unremitting. Velazquez settled the favorite in the stalk, gauged every breath, and on the home turn, struck, foiling challenger after challenger in the drive to the line. The story was the same in 2017 with Gun Runner, whose smooth acceleration mirrored Velazquez’s own unflappable composure. More than 6,700 wins and a fourfold Eclipse Award haul—in a country where every race is a battle, Velazquez wins wars.
