We have already been treated to plenty of horse racing headlines throughout the first half of 2026. Golden Tempo had rewritten the American Triple Crown conversation by June, following Kentucky Derby glory with a Belmont Stakes triumph that turned a talented colt into a genuine story. Across the Atlantic, I Am Maximus went and did something almost nobody manages at Aintree, winning the Grand National for the second time in three runnings. And more is still to come.
Despite there being less than half of the year remaining, there are still plenty of blockbuster horse races to come this year. But who are the favorites to win those races? Let’s take a look.
Breeders’ Cup Classic — Forever Young (9/2)
Try explaining to someone outside the sport why a horse getting beaten by two noses matters more than most winning margins ever will. That’s the two-nose Kentucky Derby defeat Forever Young carries into every conversation about him, the one that made his 2025 Breeders Cup Classic win at Del Mar — first Japanese-trained horse ever to do it — feel like a debt finally settled.
Online betting sites had made Sovereignty the one to beat in America’s most lucrative race 12 months ago, but when he was scratched 24 hours before the race, suddenly the presumed procession was blown wide open. Forever Young was the happy recipient of the title, powering home to edge out defending champion Sierra Leone, despite the popular Lucky Rebel Sportsbook listing the eventual winner as a 7/1 afterthought before Sovereignty’s withdrawal.
His year since that success, however, hasn’t been tidy. A career-best Saudi Cup demolition was followed by a genuinely surprising loss to Magnitude in the Dubai World Cup. It was the kind of defeat that makes connections quietly reassess everything, right up until he answered it in the most direct way available, beating Nysos and pointing straight for Keeneland via the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
What does it say about his résumé that a repeat would make him only the second horse in history to win back-to-back Classics? Sovereignty is expected to finally attempt to secure his own signature Classic moment after last year’s disappointment, and the reigning Horse of the Year looks like the biggest threat to the defending champion’s hopes of going back-to-back.
Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe — Daryz (7/2)
Unraced at two. Written off after a flop in the Juddmonte International at York that had people quietly moving on. And then Daryz went and became the horse who overhauled hot favorite Minnie Hauk in a photo finish last October, a record eighth Arc win banked in the late Aga Khan’s colors — a result that meant rather more than a number given who was carrying those silks. This year, he’s answered every remaining question in exactly two starts: a foot-perfect Prix Ganay, then a Prix d’Ispahan won under hands and heels that told rivals everything they needed to know without him breaking a sweat.
Beat this field again, and he’s the first back-to-back Arc winner since Enable managed it in 2018 — genuine company, genuinely rare air. Minnie Hauk isn’t interested in the history lesson; beaten by a nose last year, she’s back specifically to correct it, with Diamond Necklace and Aventure adding depth to a Longchamp Sunday that could easily turn on whether the rain arrives when connections need it to.
The Everest — Ka Ying Rising (4/7)
Is there a shorter price anywhere in world racing than 4/7, and is there anywhere else it would look sane? Twenty straight wins. A huge bankroll built on sweeping Hong Kong’s biggest sprint prizes, engineered start by start by trainer David Hayes since a streak that began, almost quaintly now, in a Class 3 handicap under Zac Purton. A record-breaking Chairman’s Sprint Prize and a peak rating of 142 preceded a well-earned spell, and last October, he became the first Hong Kong-trained winner of The Everest — first time away from home comforts, no less.
Here’s the mechanical truth nobody says out loud in Sydney: barring a wide gate, this looks close to unbackable. That draw is the one lever nobody controls, the one scenario rivals are quietly hoping lands. Guest House and St Gotthard headline a chasing pack that mostly seems resigned to racing for second.
Melbourne Cup — Scandinavia (7/1)
Scratched from last year’s Cup after failing pre-race veterinary scans — a brutal way to end a campaign built entirely toward Flemington. Scandinavia’s answer was six straight wins, capped by a head verdict over defending champion Trawlerman in the Ascot Gold Cup that also handed Aiden O’Brien his 100th Royal Ascot winner. His sire Justify became only the third stallion, alongside Galileo and Frankel, to sire winners of all three legs of the English Triple Crown — not bad for a horse who couldn’t win as a juvenile himself.
Does O’Brien finally end his decade-long wait for a first Melbourne Cup, or does Flemington’s staying test and its famous unpredictability find him out again? He arrives as the classiest stayer in the field. Whether that’s enough over 3200 grueling meters is exactly why they run the race.
