Who Is Forever Young? Japan's Champion Racehorse Bound for the 2026 Breeders' Cup Classic

Who Is Forever Young? Japan's Champion in a Nutshell

Forever Young is a 5-year-old Thoroughbred from Japan and the reigning champion of the Breeders' Cup Classic, the $7 million race that closes the Breeders' Cup. On Sept. 18 he won the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup by 3¼ lengths at the rebuilt Belmont Park, and this week he moved to No. 1 in the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic rankings. If you've heard fans buzzing about the Forever Young racehorse (not the '80s song), this is the horse they mean.

He's chasing history on Saturday, Oct. 31, at Keeneland. Only one horse, Tiznow in 2000 and 2001, has ever won the Classic twice.

Forever Young Racehorse Record: 16 Starts, 12 Wins

Forever Young has raced in four countries and has never finished worse than third. He has also never run on grass. Every start has been on dirt, which is unusual for a Japanese star, because Japan's most famous races are on turf.

The table shows his biggest races. His other four wins all came in Japan, including a Japanese Grade 1 for 2-year-olds.

Three races that made his name

• The 2024 Kentucky Derby. He was part of the Derby's first three-horse photo finish since 1947, beaten a nose and a head by Mystik Dan and Sierra Leone.
• The 2025 Breeders' Cup Classic. At Del Mar he held off Sierra Leone by half a length, with Fierceness third, and became the first horse from Japan to win the Classic.
• Two Saudi Cups. He won the $20 million Saudi Cup in Riyadh in 2025 and again in 2026, the first horse to win it twice.

His family

His sire, Real Steel, is a son of the great Japanese stallion Deep Impact, and Real Steel's sister, Loves Only You, won a Breeders' Cup race in 2021 for the same trainer. His dam, Forever Darling, won the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes in California and is by the U.S. dirt sire Congrats. She's also a half-sister to Heavenly Love, the dam of Sierra Leone, so the horse Forever Young beat in the 2025 Classic is a close relative.

The Jockey Club Gold Cup: A Big Win That Left His Trainer Half Satisfied

Forever Young's Jockey Club Gold Cup win on Sept. 18 came in the first stakes race on Belmont Park's new main track, after a three-year rebuild. Scratches left only four runners going 1¼ miles (10 furlongs). He tracked the leader, Phileas Fogg, swung outside on the far turn, took the lead at the quarter pole and beat Stars and Stripes by 3¼ lengths in 2:01.23, with Baeza third.

The Gold Cup is a "Win and You're In" race, so the victory also locked in his spot in the Classic, with entry fees paid.

Yet trainer Yoshito Yahagi said he was 100% happy with the result and only about 50% satisfied with the performance. It was the horse's first start in nearly six months, and Yahagi felt he wasn't mentally sharp and didn't accelerate the way he expected.

Two details stood out:

• A slow pace. The early pace was not quick, and jockey Ryusei Sakai said a faster pace would be better for the horse in the Breeders' Cup.
• No lead change. Forever Young never switched leads in the stretch. A "lead" is the front leg that reaches farther forward at the gallop; American racehorses usually run on the left lead around turns and switch to the right lead on the straight to share the effort.

Yahagi plans to keep training him at Belmont through Oct. 20, then ship to Kentucky, and he hopes to have the horse sharper by Classic day.

Forever Young vs. Sovereignty: The Rivalry That Hasn't Happened Yet

Here's the twist: Forever Young and Sovereignty have never raced each other. Sovereignty was scratched from the 2025 Classic days before the race with a fever, and an abscess in his left hind hoof knocked him out of this year's Gold Cup.

Who is Sovereignty?

The Sovereignty horse fans talk about is a 4-year-old owned and bred by Godolphin, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott and usually ridden by Junior Alvarado. In 2025 he won the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes and the Travers, and he was named Horse of the Year.

His 2026 season started slowly, with a second in the Oaklawn Handicap and a third in the Stephen Foster, before a 4¾-length win in the Whitney at Saratoga on Aug. 8. By mid-September he was trotting again after the abscess, and Mott expected him to start galloping soon.

How the Breeders' Cup Classic 2026 rankings stack up

The Breeders' Cup's weekly Classic rankings poll media members, horseplayers and a panel of racing directors and secretaries. After the Gold Cup, Forever Young jumped from second to first.

The early odds agree. The morning line for Pool 2 of the Classic Future Wager has Forever Young at 5-2, Sovereignty at 3-1 and Knightsbridge at 6-1, a snapshot of opinion rather than a tip, since the field isn't official until entries are taken.

Head to head

• The distance: both have won at the Classic's 1¼ miles. Forever Young did it in the Classic and the Gold Cup; Sovereignty in the Derby, the Travers and the 2025 Belmont, run at that distance at Saratoga.
• Travel: Forever Young is used to long flights and new tracks, with wins in four countries. Sovereignty has never raced outside the United States.
• Fitness: Forever Young now has a race under him; Sovereignty would arrive 12 weeks after the Whitney, with his training interrupted.
• The link horse: Magnitude, trained by Steve Asmussen, is the one horse to beat both this year. He won the Dubai World Cup with Forever Young second and the Stephen Foster with Sovereignty third.

Also in the mix: Sovereignty's stablemate Knightsbridge, the Pacific Classic winner, and Golden Tempo, winner of the 2026 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes for trainer Cherie DeVaux.

Why Japanese Horses Now Travel to America's Biggest Races

Japan-trained horses have been trying to win the Breeders' Cup Classic since the 1990s (Taiki Blizzard ran in 1996 and 1997), and before Forever Young's 2025 win their best finish was Derma Sotogake's second place in 2023. So why does a Japan-based star now fly across the Pacific for American Grade 1 races? Several things changed.

• Proof it can be done. In 2021, Yahagi became the first Japanese trainer to win a Breeders' Cup race, taking the Filly & Mare Turf with Loves Only You and the Distaff with Marche Lorraine on the same Del Mar card.
• A Middle East stepping stone. The $20 million Saudi Cup in February and the Dubai World Cup a few weeks later offer huge purses for dirt horses. Japanese-trained horses have won the Saudi Cup three times (2023, 2025 and 2026), all for Yahagi, and Ushba Tesoro won the 2023 Dubai World Cup.
• Official pathways. Since 2017, Churchill Downs' Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby has offered a starting-gate spot to the winner of a points series for Japan-based horses. Forever Young's 2024 Derby spot came from his UAE Derby win, worth 100 qualifying points.
• A bigger dirt program at home. In 2024 Japan reorganized its races for 3-year-olds on dirt into a Triple Crown of Dirt, with the renamed Japan Dirt Classic at Ohi as the final leg. Forever Young won the first edition under that name.
• Breeding value. A Grade 1 win on American dirt tells breeders worldwide that a future stallion can handle the toughest dirt racing.

Japan's push isn't only on dirt: Admire Terra and Meisho Tabaru carry its hopes in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Oct. 4. Forever Young's own team weighed a turf route to the Arc this spring before choosing the Gold Cup and the Classic.

What to Watch Next

• Belmont workouts through Oct. 20. Timed works will show whether Yahagi is getting the sharper horse he wants before the trip to Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky.
• Sovereignty's return to galloping. Steady weekly workouts will be the best sign that he's on track for the first meeting.
• Oct. 4: the Arc at ParisLongchamp, Japan's big turf test of the fall.
• Oct. 31: the Classic at Keeneland. For post time, TV channels and streaming, see our Breeders' Cup 2026 guide.

New to Racing? Four Terms That Make This Story Click

• Dirt and turf: dirt is the main American track, a cushion of sand, silt and clay; turf is grass.
• Furlong: one-eighth of a mile. The Classic's 1¼ miles is 10 furlongs.
• Win and You're In: a race whose winner earns an automatic, fees-paid spot in a Breeders' Cup race.
• Morning line: the early odds a track's oddsmaker sets before betting opens. It reflects opinion, not a guarantee.

Find more terms in our glossary, meet the Thoroughbred in our breeds guide and see where racing fits among horse sports in disciplines.