5 Fast Facts: Breeders' Cup Juvenile

Nov 01, 2017 Alastair Bull/TwinSpires.com

5 Fast Facts about the Breeders' Cup Juvenile

1. Just eight of the 33 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winners did not receive the Eclipse Award for Champion 2-Year-Old Male: Success Express, 1987 (lost to Forty Niner), Is It True, 1988 (lost to Easy Goer), Brocco, 1993 (lost to Dehere), Unbridled’s Song, 1995 (lost to Maria’s Mon), Wilko, 2004 (lost to Declan’s Moon), Vale of York, 2009 (lost to Lookin At Lucky), New Year’s Day, 2013 (lost to Shared Belief), and Texas Red, 2014 (lost to American Pharoah).
2. It’s well documented that only three Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winners have gone on to win 3-year-old Triple Crown races: Timber Country, Street Sense, and Nyquist. The record is a little better for those that finished second or third in the Juvenile, with 10 winning Triple Crown races: they are Tank’s Prospect, Spend A Buck, Alysheba, Easy Goer, Tabasco Cat, Editor’s Note, Point Given, Afleet Alex, Lookin At Lucky, and Union Rags.
3. Eleven wagering favorites have won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, a strike rate of 33 percent. The average win odds are 7.56-1. Inaugural victor Chief’s Crown is the shortest-priced winner at 0.7-1; the biggest outsider to win was English raider Vale of York at 30.6-1 in 2009.
4. Three colts that won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile have gone on to sire a winner of the Juvenile. The 1985 winner Capote sired 1996 victor Boston Harbor; 1995 winner Unbridled’s Song is the sire of 2008 champ Midshipman, and 2010 winner Uncle Mo is the sire of 2015 champion Nyquist.
5. When Rhythm won the 1989 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in November 1989, there was no doubt great hope he’d sire also horses like himself that won major November races. He did, though perhaps not what was expected: he’s the sire of Ethereal, who won the Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday in November in 2001.

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(Nyquist Photo courtesy of Breeders' Cup Ltd.)