Breeders’ Cup Classic 2023: It’s Arcangelo’s Challenge, But He’s Got A Deep Field To Beat

It’s a given that every Breeders’ Cup Classic field will be a highly competitive patchwork of proven younger and older athletes, and this November 4 running at Santa Anita is shaping up in that form. The Classic’s pre-entry book tells the tale: Barring the unforeseen, the better-known stakes winners Arcangelo, Mage, Zandon, Geaux Rocket Ride, and White Abarrio can be there to duke it out for the winner’s cut of the $6 million.

A second level of the Classic’s tradition is that the race is occasionally shaped by athletes who are absent, especially those among the immediate class of Triple-Crown running three-year-olds. Nowhere in the Classic’s landscape, for instance, is the Bob Baffert-trained Preakness winner National Treasure, although Baffert does have a solid possible runner in the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series qualifier Arabian Knight.