2025 Breeders' Cup Underdogs: Emerging Stars and Cinderella Stories

Key takeaways:

• The Breeders’ Cup often crowns new stars, with underdogs seizing the spotlight in unforgettable fashion.
• Ground Support has already pulled off two upsets and looks ready to take another big step forward in the Juvenile Fillies Turf.
• Lovesick Blues, a hard-knocking veteran, finally broke through at Grade 1 level and could keep the fairy-tale run going in the Sprint.
• Touch of Destiny, the Uruguayan prodigy, has dominated every challenge so far and faces his toughest—and most exciting—test yet in the Dirt Mile.

Sometimes, the best horses in the world are obvious. They continue a historic win streak like Cigar or Zenyatta. They keep justifying their place at the top of the sport, like when American Pharoah—already the first horse in 37 years to win the Triple Crown—ended his career by sauntering over the finish line all alone in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Classic, or when Arc de Triomphe winner Enable followed that triumph up with victory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

However, part of the thrill of the Breeders’ Cup is that not all the stars are the ones you can guess. Sometimes, the event is defined by an unexpected triumph, and those become truly unforgettable moments not only in Breeders’ Cup history, but in horse racing history.

Arcangues tried dirt for the first time in the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Classic, and jockey Jerry Bailey knew very little about the horse he was riding. The public hardly knew him either, sending him off at 133-1 odds. Bailey and Arcangues rolled home, shocking the Thoroughbred racing world. Over 30 years later, he is still the longest shot to win a Breeders’ Cup race.

Da Hoss, the winner of the 1996 Breeders’ Cup Mile, didn’t race for almost two years after that. He came back in an allowance the month before the 1998 Breeders’ Cup, won that despite such a long layoff, and trainer Michael Dickinson had him ready to topple the best turf milers in the world the next month. Tom Durkin declared Da Hoss’s victory to be the greatest comeback since Lazarus, a call that still echoes through time.

Court Vision raced in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Mile despite having been absent from the winners’ circle—and off the board in every start—since winning the Woodbine Mile (G1) in 2010. Sent off at 64-1, he launched an improbable rally to get up by a nose. Court Vision’s win was made all the more improbable by the fact that he thwarted

These horses have already beaten the odds to make it to the 2025 Breeders’ Cup, and if they can win at Del Mar, they will become part of horse racing lore.

Naturally, you can bet which horses will win their Breeders’ Cup races at FanDuel Racing. Also, discover 2025 Breeders’ Cup odds and bet the Breeders’ Cup with exclusive bonuses and promos.

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf: Ground Support

When the public sends a horse off at 100-1, they’re not expected to win. They’re not expected to hit the board. If they cross the wire anywhere near the winner, it’s seen as a victory of sorts—they fit the race better than the public thought. They outran their odds.

Ground Support, trained by Kelsey Danner for NBS Stable, had the Kentucky Downs faithful picking their jaws up from off the ground on August 30. First-time starters tend to struggle at Kentucky Downs, and the rail can be a challenge in a full field of 12. The start was rough: Ground Support spotted everyone else in the field a length or more. But jockey Adam Beschizza did not panic. He eased the son of Army Mule up into a stalking spot and kept her there under a comfortable hold. Beschizza saved ground around the turn, slipped inside of the pacesetter into the long stretch, and drove her clear midstretch. She held to win by three-quarters of a length.

When a horse wins at 100-1, horseplayers have a phrase about betting them the next time: if you weren’t at the wedding, don’t attend the funeral. But, take away the mind-boggling debut odds, and what did you have on Ground Support heading into the Miss Grillo (G2) on October 4 at Belmont? You had a horse who had already won over the demanding mile at Kentucky Downs, who was good enough to overcome a tough start and get a good tactical trip, for connections who were still going to go off at a price at Belmont. And, to the tune of 12-1, Beschizza and Ground Support made the lead and never looked anywhere close to giving it up.

Friday, Ground Support faces her toughest test yet. She’ll face not only the best juvenile turf fillies in America but also European horses like multiple Group 1 winner Precise, and a filly from Japan as well. She’ll have to break from an outside stall for the first time. But, she has faced seemingly insurmountable challenges already in her young career … so don’t count her out.

Breeders’ Cup Sprint: Lovesick Blues

Look through the races open to older horses on Breeders’ Cup Saturday, and it’s a rarity to see a horse who has raced over 30 times, much less 40. Even more surprising is a horse making just his second start in top-level company. But, sometimes it takes a few years to become an overnight sensation…just ask anyone who knows Breeders’ Cup Sprint contender Lovesick Blues.

California-bred gelding Lovesick Blues, owned by Mia Familia Racing Stable and trained by Librado Barocio, is seven years old. Like so many by his sire Grazen, he shows up consistently on the Southern California circuit: he’s a 10-time winner in 43 starts, and has hit the board in 29 of his starts.

But, when he started his career in the barn of trainer Steve Miyadi, expectations were modest. He finished last in a California-bred maiden claimer on debut in October of his juvenile year, 2020. He got his diploma third-time out at Los Alamitos 10—at night, going 1,000 yards in a race open to both Thoroughbreds and quarter horses.

In time, he figured it out. He started clearing his allowance conditions as a four-year-old. In the spring of his five-year-old year, he cleared his first open allowance condition on the dirt at Santa Anita, then missed by only a neck in the Daytona (G3) on the downhill turf, his graded-stakes debut. Through the rest of his five- and six-year-old seasons, Lovesick Blues didn’t win, but he kept running honestly in starter, allowance, and even California-bred stakes races, finishing second and third often.

For his seven-year-old year, he moved to Barocio’s barn. Barocio had just won his first-ever graded-stakes race the year before, upsetting the Senorita (G3) with Visually in May. Lovesick Blues thrived on the change: he was second behind Air Force Red in the San Simeon (G3) down the hill in March, won the Siren Lure at six furlongs on the grass two starts later.

Two starts after that, he ran his best race yet—switching to dirt for the Bing Crosby (G1), his first-ever top-level try, he settled near the rear and surged ahead in the lane to win by 1 ¾ lengths. The unexpected victory was his first stakes win and first Grade 1 win, all in one fell swoop. And, it was an automatic qualifier to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Lovesick Blues has a pattern going on of winning every other race this year…and with his final prep for the Breeders’ Cup being a nose defeat down the hill at Santa Anita, watch out for him to become an overnight success at the Breeders’ Cup, five years in the making.

Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile: Touch of Destiny

Breeders’ Cup Friday is a day full of emerging stars. But, if there’s one horse facing older foes on Saturday who qualifies in that category, it’s Touch of Destiny.

Touch of Destiny was bred in Uruguay, but sired by a horse well known to anyone who follows the Breeders’ Cup: Midshipman, winner of the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Racing in his native country, he got a blazing-fast start to his career, winning his debut at Hipódromo Maroñas, going about five furlongs on the dirt. He just kept blowing his fellow juveniles out of the water over and over again: in his next four starts, in stakes races ranging from five furlongs to seven furlongs on the dirt, the result was the same: Touch of Destiny, then some daylight, then everyone else who was trying to chase him home.

After a seven-length procession in the Clásico Campeones Juvenile on June 1 at Maroñas, Touch of Destiny had proven everything he was ever going to be able to prove against his own age group. Trainer Raimundo Soares and owner Haras Phillipson then pointed him toward a new challenge—the Clásico Asociación Uruguaya de Propietarios de Caballos de Carrera (G3). Not only would it be his internationally-graded stakes debut, but it would be the first-ever Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In race in Uruguay.

Oh, and it would be Touch of Destiny’s first start against older horses … while he was still a two-year-old … with a bid to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at stake.

Breaking from the rail in the field of six, Touch of Destiny soon settled on the lead under Luis Caceres, his regular rider. Latte Macchiato tracked him in second, looking like he was consistently being asked to keep Touch of Destiny in his sights. But Touch of Destiny was going too comfortably. Under some hand urging into the lane, he opened up a gaping lead, and that was that. Touch of Destiny had beaten older horses with ease, earning a ticket to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile before his third birthday—August 1, as he was born in the southern hemisphere.

Touch of Destiny makes his North American debut at the Breeders’ Cup, but has gotten plenty of time to settle in California. He went to the barn of Michael McCarthy, and has been working since early September. Caceres comes to the Breeders’ Cup to ride the horse he has already guided to stardom in Uruguay. This will be Touch of Destiny’s toughest test yet, as he will face foes like Breeders’ Cup Classic winner White Abarrio, Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan, and the repeatedly impressive Nysos. But, Touch of Destiny has risen to every challenge so far … and rising to this one, too, could make him the most interesting horse in the world.

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