As 2025 comes to an end, this seems like a good time to look back at the past 12 months and reflect on the best races of the year. Here is a highly subjective list of the top 10 races of 2025, with the criteria being stretch battles, close finishes, and/or exceptional performances in important races at the top levels of competition. We hope you will enjoy plenty of good racing and wagering again in the year ahead. Good luck and happy new year!

1. Preakness Stakes: Journalism wins a jaw-dropper

Journalism came into the second jewel of the 2025 Triple Crown off a second-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, and with Derby winner Sovereignty sitting out the race, Journalism was the even-money favorite among nine horses contesting a historic 150^th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. Things would not be easy for him, however, as he raced in severe traffic entering the home stretch. Jockey Umberto Rispoli was forced into a narrow opening and made hard contact between Goal Oriented and Clever Again as all three horses narrowly avoided disaster. Gosger took advantage to run off to a seemingly insurmountable lead in the stretch until a resurgent Journalism rocketed home in a gutsy effort to score an improbable and dramatic victory.

2. Personal Ensign Stakes: Thorpedo Anna edges Dorth Vader

Reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna took to the track as the heavy 3-4 favorite in Saratoga’s Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes but had to fend off an unexpectedly fierce challenge from Dorth Vader throughout the stretch until prevailing by the narrowest of nose margins as the pair dueled down to the wire while 9 ¾ lengths clear of the rest of the field. The Personal Ensign turned out to be the final victory of Thorpedo Anna’s exceptional career.

3. Churchill Downs Stakes Presented by Ford: Mindframe prevails in a four-way photo

Racing fans were treated to an instant classic on the Kentucky Derby undercard in the Churchill Downs Stakes as some of the top older horses of 2025 battled down to the wire in a thrilling four-way photo finish won by Mindframe. Nysos dead-heated with Banishing for second, a neck behind Mindframe, in Nysos’ only career loss to date, and it was only a head back to sprint division Eclipse Award contender Book’em Danno who was unfortunate to settle for fourth.

4. Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve: Sovereignty is crowned

A sloppy racetrack on a showery day at Churchill Downs did not dampen the mood or spoil the competition among the 19-horse field in the world’s most famous race. Curlin Florida Derby Presented by Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms at Xalapa runner-up Sovereignty and Santa Anita Derby winner Journalism rallied from the rear half of the field with big moves on the turn and briefly hooked up in a battle in the stretch until Sovereignty prevailed in decisive fashion in front of an on-track crowd of 147,406.

5. Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic: Forever Young turns tables on his 2024 rivals

Sovereignty was scratched before the race and his presence was missed, but it did not take away from a memorable running of the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar. The Classic drew a standout field worthy of the 2025 season’s climactic race, topped by the 1-2-3 finishers of the 2024 Longines Classic also held at Del Mar: Sierra Leone, Fierceness, and Forever Young. In the end, it was Japan’s Forever Young that was able to outfinish Fierceness and then fend off a final bid by Sierra Leone to score a landmark victory.

6. Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile: Nysos defeats stablemate by a head

The Breeders’ Cup gave us one more thriller late in the Saturday card when favorite Nysos fought hard to catch frontrunning Citizen Bull and got up at the wire in a head-bobbing photo finish, securing an exacta for trainer Bob Baffert.

7. Del Mar Handicap Presented by the Japan Racing Association: Gold Phoenix nabs a four-peat

Veteran 7-year-old Gold Phoenix has just refused to lose in the Del Mar Handicap since he first competed in 2022. On Aug. 30, he stalked the pace in midpack and made his move in the stretch to prevail in a multi-horse scramble for the win, his fourth consecutive triumph in the signature turf race of Del Mar’s summer meet.

8. Juddmonte Spinster Stakes: Changing of the guard in a key race

The 2025 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland drew only a five-horse field and was expected by many to be another in a long line of wins in the career of Thorpedo Anna. That wasn’t what happened, however, as Thorpedo Anna faded to fourth in what would be her final career race. Instead, Gin Gin dug in gamely and fought off runner-up Nitrogen by a head after a dramatic stretch battle. Finishing third by just 1 ¼ lengths was next-out Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Scylla.

9. Further Ado’s maiden win, Oct. 10 at Keeneland: A 20-length tour de force

Any of Ted Noffey’s spectacular 2-year-old wins could have qualified for the list, but this spot in the top 10 goes to his Spendthrift Farm fellow juvenile stablemate Further Ado, who turned what appeared to be an otherwise ordinary Keeneland maiden race on Oct. 10 into an eye-popping runaway. Further Ado moved like a tremendous machine in the stretch to extend his winning margin to 20 lengths, and followed that up with a more workmanlike 1 ¾-length victory in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs in November, earning 10 points for the 2026 Kentucky Derby.

10. Doncho’s world record-setting win, Aug. 7 at Ellis Park: A new turf dash benchmark

Sometimes a truly standout performance comes entirely from out of nowhere and that’s what happened at Ellis Park in western Kentucky during the peak of summertime when 4-year-old turf sprinter Doncho stepped on the gas pedal and blew away his opposition in an allowance optional claiming race while setting a 5 ½-furlong turf world record time of :59.75.