There were some great performances from 3-year-olds over Breeders’ Cup weekend Oct. 30-31 at Keeneland. Bacio lived up to his connections’ boast as the “Fastest Horse in the World” with a front-running win over older horses in the Prevagen Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, Toyota Blue Grass Stakes winner Further Ado won a thriller in the Dirt Mile, and Pennsylvania Derby winner The Puma ran a gutsy second in the $7 million Longines Classic to name a few.

But the 3-year-old who entered 2026 with the most hype has yet to step into the starting gate this year. Ted Noffey, the 2025 champion 2-year-old male after winning all four of his starts as a juvenile, was sidelined in January with bone bruising that forced him off the Triple Crown trail entirely.

The gray or roan Into Mischief colt returned to serious training in August at Saratoga Race Course with his first timed workout. Ted Noffey has trained steadily since then with 12 workouts from Aug. 10 to Oct. 31 for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher and owner Spendthrift Farm. Now, he has been entered in Saturday’s $200,000 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park.

Ted Noffey wins the 2025 Breeders' Cup Juvenile. (Eclipse Sportswire)

“He’s put in three solid works [at Belmont],” said Stu Hampson, assistant to Pletcher. “He worked with a kind of war horse we have. He gave us what we wanted in his last works at Saratoga. In the subsequent works since he’s been at Belmont, he has disposed of his company pretty easily, and they were both generous work horses, so we’re happy with what we’ve seen.”

Ted Noffey is one of 10 horses entered in the Dwyer, a one-mile race restricted to 3-year-olds, along with stakes winners Bravaro, Igniter, Sea Strike, and Mailata. It’s worth remembering ahead of the Dwyer just how good Ted Noffey was last year.

After debuting with a 1 ½-length win sprinting 6 ½ furlongs last summer at Saratoga, Ted Noffey won the seven-furlong Spendthrift Farm Hopeful Stakes by 8 ½ lengths at the Spa in his stakes unveiling. He then followed with a facile 2 ¾-length win in the $650,000 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland when stretching out to two turns and capped an unbeaten season with a one-length win in the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance at Del Mar. During the string of three straight Grade 1 wins, he recorded Beyer Speed Figures of 98-97-97 and earned a career-top 107 Equibase Speed Figure for the Breeders’ Cup victory.

“We’ve got him as fit as we can get him without running him. The rest is up to him,” Hampson added. “He’s offered a few generous gallop-outs, seems to be working closely to the Ted Noffey that we knew last year as champion 2-year-old. Now, we just need to hope he shows up and replicates it in the afternoon.”