Had he been born in a different year, there is a very good chance Baeza would have a victory in a Triple Crown race on his resume. Surely, he would have won a Grade 1 race before the Pennsylvania Derby Sept. 20 at Parx Racing.
Arguably no region across the U.S. has been more intertwined with the Breeders’ Cup World Championships than Southern California. The first Breeders’ Cup in 1984 took place at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif., and since then racetracks in SoCal have hosted the World Championships 16 more times, with another on the horizon this Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Baeza was forced to settle for third in both the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve and the Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets this spring, but he could not be denied a Grade 1 win any longer.
Each week a panel of media members, horseplayers, and Breeders’ Cup World Championships officials release a poll tabulating their votes on the nation's top contenders for the 2025 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic. The rankings are a weekly rating of the top 10 horses in contention and are determined by each voter ranking their top 10 horses with points assigned on a descending 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
A plethora of juvenile races across North America this past weekend, including the first Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve and Longines Kentucky Oaks qualifying points races of the season, caused major changes on the Equibase leaderboard for 2-year-olds.
With lucrative purses and qualifying points on the line, new names emerged, divisions were reshuffled, and new rising stars began to take shape.
