The marquee North American race for fillies and mares on the dirt has long been the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, a staple of the World Championships since the inception of the event in 1984.

The Distaff has been won by Hall of Famers such as Princess Rooney, Lady’s Secret, Personal Ensign, Bayakoa, Dance Smartly, Paseana, Inside Information, Azeri, Ashado, Zenyatta, Royal Delta, and Beholder as well as 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna.

The 2026 Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff will be held Oct. 31 at Keeneland Race Course, which hosts the Breeders’ Cup for the fourth time. The $2 million, 1 1/8-mile dirt race drew a deep field headlined by champion Nitrogen along with a trio of horses who own Breeders’ Cup wins in different World Championships races.

The Distaff will be the seventh of nine Breeders’ Cup races on Championship Saturday. It will be televised on NBC and FanDuel TV and streamed on Peacock with an expected post time of 4:58 p.m. ET.

The Breeders’ Cup Distaff Cheat Sheet will be updated Monday, Oct. 26 with post positions and morning-line odds after the post-position draw. Read on for more information on each of this year’s contenders.

Eunomia (Eclipse Sportswire)

Eunomia

Jockey: TBA

Trainer: Saffie Joseph Jr.

Owners: St. Elias Stables and WSS Racing

Career record: 16 starts – 5 wins – 1 second – 2 thirds

Career earnings: $566,193

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 109

Pedigree: Tiz the Law – Speedy Vanessa, by American Pharoah

Age: 4

Color: Bay

Running style: Press the pace

Analysis: Eunomia is a filly who needed some time to find her calling as a racehorse, competing in sprints and two-turn races as well as on grass and dirt in 11 starts over her first two years of racing in 2024 and 2025. She closed out her 3-year-old season last year with back-to-back wins at the allowance level in dirt route races and has continued to be effective in similar races at age 4. In her first three starts this year, she placed in a pair of graded stakes and earned her first stakes win in a division of the one-mile Fasig-Tipton Sandy Bottom Stakes in March at Colonial Downs. Eunomia’s breakthrough graded stakes victory came in her final prep for the Distaff when she pressed the pace at 12.40-1 odds and scored a half-length upset win in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes Presented by Oak Tree Racing Association at Del Mar Aug. 1. She improved her Equibase Speed Figure seven points to a career-best 109 for the win and now owns four wins, one second, and one third in her last seven races. Eunomia also has run well on the Keeneland main track with two wins from three starts, plus a close second in a graded stakes in the spring. I expect her to outrun her odds in the Distaff as a potential live longshot.

Fully Subscribed (Eclipse Sportswire)

Fully Subscribed

Jockey: Flavien Prat

Trainer: Chad Brown

Owner: Klaravich Stables

Career record: 10 starts – 6 wins – 3 seconds – 1 third

Career earnings: $1,441,800

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 106

Pedigree: Tiz the Law – Sweetbaby, by Candy Ride

Age: 4

Color: Chestnut

Running style: Stalker

Analysis: After closing her 3-year-old season with back-to-back graded stakes wins at Aqueduct, Fully Subscribed has followed with a strong 4-year-old campaign and enters the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on a three-race winning streak. She won the Grade 2 Shuvee Stakes in July and dominated the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes in August, both at Saratoga. The Tiz the Law filly then posted a 3 ¼-length win as the odds-on favorite at this track and distance in the Grade 1 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes Oct. 4. Fully Subscribed finished second, 12 ¾ lengths behind Nitrogen, in the Ogden Phipps Stakes Presented by Ford in June. That is a lot of distance to make up on Nitrogen, but Fully Subscribed is in career-best form for trainer Chad Brown and has never finished outside the top three in 10 starts.

Immersive (Eclipse Sportswire)

Immersive

Jockey: TBA

Trainer: Brad Cox

Owner: Godolphin

Career record: 12 starts – 6 wins – 4 seconds – 2 thirds

Career earnings: $2,367,400

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 100

Pedigree: Nyquist – Gap Year, by Bernardini

Age: 4

Color: Bay

Running style: Press the pace

Analysis: The undefeated champion 2-year-old filly of 2024 after winning the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies to close a 4-for-4 season, Immersive has not been as dominant in two subsequent seasons with only two wins in eight starts at ages 3 and 4. The Nyquist filly has been consistent, however, as she has never finished outside the top three in her career while racing exclusively against stakes competition in 11 starts since her debut. Immersive posted a three-quarter-length win on a muddy track in June at Churchill Downs in the Grade 2 Fasig-Tipton Fleur de Lis Stakes that indicated a possible return to peak form, but she subsequently finished third by 8 ½ lengths in the Fasig-Tipton Locust Grove Stakes behind Splendora and was 9 ¼ lengths behind winner Fully Subscribed when third in the Juddmonte Spinster Stakes Oct. 4. Trainer Brad Cox has won this race three times with Monomoy Girl (2018, 2020) and Idiomatic, but Immersive was soundly defeated in her last two starts by runners she must turn the tables on here and does not appear to be fast enough, on paper, to win the Distaff.

Measure (Coady Media)

Measure

Jockey: Manny Franco

Trainer: Mark Casse

Owners: Gary Barber, Bridlewood Farm, and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners

Career record: 8 starts – 1 win – 3 seconds – 2 thirds

Career earnings: $393,616

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 96

Pedigree: Essential Quality – Fateer, by Eskendereya

Age: 3

Color: Dark bay or brown

Running style: Closer

Analysis: This Essential Quality filly has not been able to break through for her first career stakes win in three recent Grade 1 races against 3-year-old fillies, so facing older females in the Distaff represents a challenging task. Measure finished third and 6 ¾ lengths behind winner Counting Stars in the Coaching Club American Oaks in July, finished just a neck behind My Guns Loaded in the Alabama Stakes Presented by Keeneland Sales in August, and most recently ran third when 3 ½ lengths behind winner Bodacious Bay in the Sept. 19 Cotillion Stakes. One aspect that could work in Measure’s favor in the Distaff is the probability of a fast pace with most of the top contenders preferring to race on or near the lead. That should set up well for an off-the-pace runner like Measure, but she would need to boost her Equibase Speed Figure by about 15 points to be a major factor in the race.

Nitrogen (Eclipse Sportswire)

Nitrogen

Jockey: Jose Ortiz

Trainer: Mark Casse

Owner: D. J. Stable

Career record: 18 starts – 9 wins – 6 seconds – 3 thirds

Career earnings: $3,068,354

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 117

Pedigree: Medaglia d’Oro – Tiffany Case, by Uncle Mo

Age: 4

Color: Bay

Running style: Pacesetter

Analysis: Nitrogen finished second in the 2025 Breeders’ Cup Distaff to close the chapter on a championship season that produced six wins and three seconds in nine races, including multiple graded stakes wins on both dirt and turf. The Medaglia d’Oro filly has raced exclusively on dirt in 2026, with three wins, two seconds, and a third in six starts. She earned a 114 Equibase Speed Figure for winning the Beldame Stakes Sept. 25 at Belmont Park and a career-best 117 speed figure for her June 5 win in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes Presented by Ford at Saratoga. While she has set the pace in each of her last three races, Nitrogen is versatile enough to race just off the pace and win. She finished second at this distance in the 2025 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes in her lone previous start on the main track at Keeneland but should be tough to beat as the probable favorite.

Regaled (Eclipse Sportswire)

Regaled

Jockey: TBA

Trainer: Whit Beckman

Owners: Ribble Farms, Hoolie Racing Stable, and Kamp Racing Stables

Career record: 24 starts – 5 wins – 4 seconds – 4 thirds

Career earnings: $1,301,823

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 102

Pedigree: Mohaymen – Ascot Walk, by Daaher

Age: 5

Color: Dark bay or brown

Running style: Closer

Analysis: Regaled has won the Grade 3 Delaware Handicap the last two years, taking this year’s edition by three lengths on a muddy track Oct. 3 at Delaware Park in her final prep race for this year’s Distaff, but those are her only graded stakes wins to date. She’s a deep closer in a race that projects to have several early speed horses who could set up her late rally, and she has excelled throughout her career on “off” (wet) tracks with three wins and three seconds in six races on tracks rated muddy or sloppy. On a wet track and/or with a fast pace, Regaled would move up significantly in this race as she did a year ago when closing for third after a swift opening half-mile in :45.75 in the 2025 Distaff at Del Mar. The 5-year-old Mohaymen mare has been tested in a pair of Grade 1 races this year, both with much more moderate pace scenarios, and finished a well-beaten fourth in both of them. With an ideal setup, Regaled could close powerfully to finish in the top three ... and there is a ton of speed in this race. Worth a long look for exacta and trifecta tickets, even more so if there is rain in the forecast.

Scottish Lassie (Eclipse Sportswire)

Scottish Lassie

Jockey: TBA

Trainer: Jorge R. Abreu

Owners: Sportsmen Stable, Parkland Thoroughbreds, Photos Finish, Corms Racing Stable, and Jorge Abreu

Career record: 10 starts – 3 wins – 2 seconds – 3 thirds

Career earnings: $954,510

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 105

Pedigree: McKinzie – Bodebabe, by Bodemeister

Age: 4

Color: Dark bay or brown

Running style: Press the pace

Analysis: The 2025 runaway winner of the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks returned from an 8 ½-month layoff in June at Saratoga and dominated the opposition in a sprint allowance race in her 4-year-old debut. The McKinzie filly returned to graded stakes competition for the Grade 2 Shuvee Stakes at 1 1/8 miles in July and led in early stretch before she was caught late by Distaff entrant Fully Subscribed. Her final prep for the Distaff was a similar result — second to Fully Subscribed in the 1 1/8-mile Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga — but by a much wider margin as she was 9 ¾ lengths behind her familiar foe. Scottish Lassie has amassed a win, two seconds, and a third in four career races at this 1 1/8-mile distance and she should be among the first flight of runners near the lead, but she would need to take a big step forward to turn the tables on Fully Subscribed.

Splendora (Eclipse Sportswire)

Splendora

Jockey: Juan Hernandez

Trainer: Bob Baffert

Owners: Boyd Racing and By Talla Racing

Career record: 16 starts – 10 wins – 4 seconds – 0 thirds

Career earnings: $1,843,700

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 110

Pedigree: Audible – Miss Freeze, by Frost Giant

Age: 5

Color: Dark bay or brown

Running style: Pacesetter/Press the pace

Analysis: Splendora earned the first graded stakes win of her career last fall in the PNC Bank Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, powering to a 4 ¾-length runaway victory at Del Mar. She had finished second previously in graded stakes around two turns and entered last year’s Filly & Mare Sprint off a one-mile stakes win, so it’s no surprise that Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert tried her again in longer races, and Splendora has thrived. She began the year with a front-running, 5 ¾-length romp in the Grade 1 B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile Stakes Presented by FanDuel. After a defeat sprinting, she ripped off three straight dominant wins at 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 2 Shawnee Stakes at Churchill Downs, Grade 2 Molly Pitcher Stakes at Monmouth Park, and Grade 2 Fasig-Tipton Locust Grove Stakes at Churchill by margins ranging from 2 ¾ to 5 ½ lengths. She has won setting the pace and pressing the pace this year, and her Breeders’ Cup win a year ago came from off the pace, so Splendora is versatile and in terrific form, but she has never won at this 1 1/8-mile distance.

Super Corredora (Eclipse Sportswire)

Super Corredora

Jockey: Joel Rosario

Trainer: John Sadler

Owners: Spartan Equine Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds, Robert C. Gardiner, and Michael W. Olszewski

Career record: 7 starts – 3 wins – 1 second – 0 thirds

Career earnings: $1,220,100

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 102

Pedigree: Gun Runner – Super Simple, by Super Saver

Age: 3

Color: Bay

Running style: Pacesetter

Analysis: Nothing went right to start the year for 3-year-old Super Corredora, last year’s NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and Eclipse Award winner as champion 2-year-old filly. After she was unplaced and soundly defeated in her first two races in 2026, Super Corredora was sidelined with an undisclosed illness and given significant time off. She returned a fresh and much-improved racehorse 6 ½ months later when she led from start to finish Sept. 27 at Santa Anita Park to defeat older females by 2 ¾ lengths in the Grade 2 Zenyatta Stakes Presented by FanDuel. Her return race was reason for optimism and earned her a career-best 102 Equibase Speed Figure, but she will need to run significantly faster to be a win candidate against a strong cast in the Distaff and is unlikely to be left alone on the lead as she has been in her best performances to date. Three-year-olds can improve significantly in the second half of the year, but this is a difficult assignment.