Ten Things You Should Know: Breeders’ Cup Juvenile
By Kevin Martin, Hello Race Fans Contributing Editor
Originally published on October 30, 2013
1) The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile is part of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, which is held annually in the fall. The Juvenile is restricted to 2-year-olds and is run over the dirt at 1 1/16 miles.
2) The race was run for the first time in 1984 during the inaugural Breeders’ Cup. It is one of the seven original races that have been run every year since the founding of the event.
3) Twenty-three winners of the BC Juvenile have also won the Eclipse Award for 2-year-old colt, making it and the BC Juvenile Filly the most significant races on the calendar in determining end-of-year champions. The 1997 winner, Favorite Trick, was awarded the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year.
4) Only three winners have gone on to win a 3-year-old Triple Crown race. Timber County was the first, winning the 1995 Preakness. In 2007, Street Sense became the first BC Juvenile winner to win the Kentucky Derby and in 2016 undefeated Nyquist became the second.
5) Since 2000, four second-place finishers of the BC Juvenile have gone on to win a Triple Crown race. Union Rags won the 2012 Belmont Stakes and Lookin at Lucky won the 2010 Preakness. Point Given and Afleet Alex won both the Preakness and Belmont in 2001 and 2005.
6) The top three finishers of the inaugural running in 1984 collectively had the best 3-year-old U.S. campaigns of any BC Juvenile trifecta. The winner, Chief’s Crown, won the 1985 Blue Grass, Preakness and Travers Stakes. Tank’s Prospect, the second-place finisher, won the Arkansas Derby and placed second in the Preakness. The third-place runner, Spend A Buck, won the 1985 Kentucky Derby.
7) In 1985, Storm Cat finished second to Tasso. Storm Cat would race only two more times in his career but would go on to a legendary 20-year career at stud in which his progeny earned a reported $127 million. At the height of his career, Storm Cat stood for an astounding $500,000.
8) Arguably the greatest entry in the BC Juvenile finished second in the race when Easy Goer finished behind Is It True in 1988. He went on to a career that included wins in the Belmont, Travers, Whitney, Woodward, Suburban and Jockey Club Gold Cup. Easy Goer was inducted in the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1997.
9) Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas has won a record five editions of the race, including three in a row from 1986 to 1988. He also won the race in 1994 and 1996.
10) Jockeys Laffit Pincay Jr. and Jerry Bailey are tied at three with the most wins in the race. Pincay won three of the first five runnings of the BC Juvenile. Bailey won three between 1996 to 2000.