The weekend racing fans wait for all year long is almost here as the top horses in the country and many from around the world will travel to Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., for the 2023 Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

The action kicks off on Friday, Nov. 3, with five races for 2-year-olds. “Future Stars Friday” will feature three races on grass: the Juvenile Turf Sprint, the Juvenile Fillies Turf, and the Prevagen Juvenile Turf, as well as the two most prominent 2-year-old races that will be run all year, the NetJets Juvenile Fillies and the FanDuel Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance. Both the Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies will be run at 1 1/16 miles on the dirt. The winners of those races often win the Eclipse Awards as champions of their respective divisions.

USA Network and FanDuel TV will both televise the first day of this year’s World Championships. USA Network coverage will take place from 4-8 p.m. ET / 1-5 p.m. PT and will include one undercard race and all five Breeders’ Cup races, concluding with the Juvenile Turf. FanDuel TV coverage will begin at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT with the first undercard race and will conclude with undercard Race 10.

Let’s take a look at some key things to know about the Friday Breeders’ Cup races.

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint

Distance: Five furlongs on turf

Post time: 5 p.m. ET

Wagering Menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, Daily Double, Pick 3, Pick 5, All-Turf $3 Pick 3

No Nay Mets (Coady Photography)

Background: It’s hard to believe that this relative newcomer race on the Breeders’ Cup program will be run for the sixth time in 2022 after debuting in 2018. The five prior winners of this race included three winners trained by Wesley Ward after Todd Pletcher trained the inaugural winner of the race, Bulletin, in 2018. The dynamic duo of trainer Charlie Appleby and jockey William Buick won the 2022 edition with Mischief Magic, who closed from last-to-first to top a 12-horse field and form an all-European exacta with Dramatised.

Favorites: Trainer George Weaver is expected to saddle two of the favorites in the field including No Nay Mets and Crimson Advocate. The latter shipped to Royal Ascot earlier this year and won the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes. Amidst Waves, first on the also-eligible list, is also trained by Weaver.

The favorite in a wide-open field may be Big Evs, the winner of three stakes this year including the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster in his last start. The Juvenile Turf Sprint will be his first race around a left-hand turn.

Interesting storylines: In the only prior running of this race at Santa Anita in 2019, the 3-2 favorite Four Wheel Drive went gate-to-wire under Irad Ortiz Jr. for trainer Wesley Ward. Judging by his past success in this race, it’s surprising to see Ward doesn’t have a horse pre-entered in the race.

NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies

Distance: 1 1/16 miles on dirt

Post time: 5:40 p.m. ET

Wagering menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, Daily Double, Pick 3, Pick 4, Juvenile Fillies (Friday) – Distaff (Saturday) Daily Double

Tamara (BENOIT photo)

Background: One of Friday’s “original seven” Breeders’ Cup races along with the Juvenile, the Juvenile Fillies has been a staple of the Breeders’ Cup since the event’s inception in 1984. The winner of this race is almost always voted the Eclipse Award champion 2-year-old filly, including all of the last nine winners up through Wonder Wheel in 2022. This race is typically not friendly to favorites. Last year’s favorite, Chop Chop, finished last in the 13-horse field, and the only favorites to win in the last 12 years were Echo Zulu in 2021, Songbird in 2015, and My Miss Aurelia in 2011. Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas was the king of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in the early years of the race, winning it six times in 1985, 1988, 1994, 1999, 2005, and 2014.

Favorites: The Juvenile Fillies favorite, Tamara, will be one of the headline stories of Future Stars Friday. Tamara will look to follow in the footsteps of her very famous mother (dam), Beholder, the 2012 Juvenile Fillies winner. Beholder won four Eclipse Award championships, earned over $6.1 million, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022.

Tamara has started her career 2-for-2 including a win in the Grade 1 FanDuel Racing Del Mar Debutante Stakes, and is trained by Hall of Fame member Richard Mandella, who also trained Beholder. Todd Pletcher is expected to start three horses in the race and all three will be among the favorites including Candied, Life Talk, and Scalable.

Interesting Storylines: Fillies using the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes as a prep have won six of the last 12 runnings of the Juvenile Fillies, including three last-out Frizette winners: My Miss Aurelia (2011), Jaywalk (2018), and Echo Zulu (2021). This year’s Frizette winner is Just F Y I, who enters the Juvenile Fillies sporting a 2-for-2 record.

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf

Distance: One mile on turf

Post time: 6:20 p.m. ET

Wagering menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, Daily Double, Pick 3, Pick 4

She Feels Pretty (Eclipse Sportswire)

Background: Trainer Aidan O’Brien and jockey Ryan Moore won this race in 2022 with Meditate, who was already a three-time group stakes winner coming into the race. Somewhat surprisingly, aside from last year, however, this race has been dominated by U.S.-based fillies in its 14-year history since first being run in 2008. Meditate is one of only three European invaders to win since 2012 (Flotilla in 2012, Chriselliam in 2013). Celebrity chef Bobby Flay has owned two Juvenile Turf winners (More Than Real in 2010, Pizza Bianca in 2021).

Favorites: Amongst the North American runners, She Feels Pretty, the unbeaten winner of the Grade 1 Johnnie Walker Natalma Stakes with an impressive speed figure, and Buchu, the rapidly improving winner of the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes Presented by Keeneland November, could be the horses to beat. Five European horses are pre-entered, and a pair of those are expected to be amongst the favorites: Porta Fortuna, who won the Group 1 Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes at Royal Ascot, and Les Pavots, a French Group 2 winner who finished third behind the leading juvenile filly in Europe, Opera Singer, in a Group 1 race last time out.

Interesting storylines: One big reason for the success of American fillies in this race has been trainer Chad Brown, who has single-handedly won five of the 15 editions of Juvenile Fillies Turf, with Newspaperofrecord (2018), Rushing Fall (2017), New Money Honey (2016), Lady Eli (2014), and Maram in the inaugural running in 2008. Chad Brown lost in 2022 when Free Look finished fifth, but he will have a big chance to re-assert his dominance in the 2023 Juvenile Fillies Turf with Hard to Justify, winner of the Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes.

FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance

Distance: 1 1/16 miles on dirt

Post Time: 7 p.m. ET

Wagering menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, Daily Double, Pick 3, Juvenile (Friday) – Classic (Saturday) Daily Double

Prince of Monaco (BENOIT photo)

Background: Arguably the feature race on Future Stars Friday, the Juvenile has been one of the Breeders’ Cup’s marquee events since the first event in 1984. Featuring the best and most precocious 2-year-old colts and geldings in the land, the Juvenile is the place where the search unofficially begins for next year’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve winner. Most Juvenile winners, including Forte in 2022, Corniche in 2021, and Essential Quality in 2020, have gone on to win the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old.

Favorites: It’s going to be difficult to bet against Muth, who stretched out and looked like a monster who will run all day when blowing the doors off the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at this track and distance for trainer Bob Baffert. Muth was a $2 million purchase as a 2-year-old and appears ready to deliver on his potential in the Juvenile. For good measure, Baffert will also start undefeated 3-for-3 Prince of Monaco and Wine Me Up, who was second to Muth in the American Pharoah. Top challengers will include Locked, winner of the Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity, and the Brad Cox-trained Grade 1 Champagne Stakes winner Timberlake.

Interesting Storylines: The Juvenile has not been a good predictor of Kentucky Derby winners. Only two winners in the history of the race won the Derby the following year: Street Sense in 2006 and Nyquist in 2015. Will this year’ race produce some of the principal contenders for the 150^th Derby? Let’s review recent editions.

The 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile failed to yield one single starter in the 2022 Kentucky Derby, and the 2022 Juvenile field contained just one horse who made it to the first Saturday in May (Verifying finished sixth in the Juvenile and 16^th in the Derby).

On the optimistic side, 2020 was a good year for the Juvenile with the race producing several future stars including the winner Essential Quality and runner-up Hot Rod Charlie. Those two horses ran third and second, respectively, in the 2021 Kentucky Derby (both were moved up a spot via disqualification). The 2020 Juvenile also produced top-class Jackie’s Warrior and Rombauer, who finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Jackie’s Warrior became a champion sprinter, while Rombauer won the 2021 Preakness Stakes.

The Juvenile’s third- and fourth-place finishers in 2022, National Treasure and Blazing Sevens, missed last spring’s Kentucky Derby but did come back to run 1-2 in the Preakness Stakes.

Prevagen Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf

Distance: One mile on the turf

Post Time: 7:40 p.m. ET

Wagering menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, Daily Double, Juvenile Turf (Friday) – Turf (Saturday) Daily Double

Carson's Run (Eclipse Sportswire)

Background: The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf was first held in 2007. Unlike in its filly counterpart on the Breeders’ Cup card, Europeans have historically done very well in this race as European-trained invaders have won 11 of the first 16 editions. Euro dominance was on full display in the 2022 Juvenile Turf when Victoria Road, representing Aidan O’Brien and Coolmore, beat Silver Knott, representing Charlie Appleby and Godolphin, by a nose in a thriller. In 2020 when Kentucky-bred Fire at Will pulled off the upset for Mike Maker, Europeans still managed to finish second, fourth, and fifth. Appleby’s Euro invader Modern Games won the Juvenile Turf in 2021 while North American-based runners settled for a moral victory with second- through ninth-place finishes that year.

Favorites: Trainer Aidan O’Brien and jockey Ryan Moore have teamed up to win five times in 16 prior runnings of the Juvenile Turf. O’Brien is expected to send out likely favorite Unquestionable off that horse’s second-place finish in the Group 1 Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp last time out, and Ryan Moore is expected to ride. O’Brien also has three other legitimate contenders pre-entered including Johannes Brahms, Mountain Bear, and River Tiber. The American hopefuls will be led by trainer Todd Pletcher who sends out Grade 2 Pilgrim Stakes winner Agate Road as well as Grade 2 Castle & Key Bourbon Stakes second-place finisher Noted.

Interesting Storylines: One of the horses with the biggest rooting sections from a sentimental standpoint on Breeders’ Cup weekend will be Carson’s Run, the winner of the Grade 1 bet365 Summer Stakes at Woodbine in his last start for trainer Christophe Clement. Carson’s Run was named in honor of Carson Jost, the son of Wade Jost, a longtime friend of co-owner Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds. Carson Jost suffers from Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, the same rare genetic disorder that was brought to light last year (and this year) by Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Cody’s Wish. Cody’s Wish was named for Cody Dorman, who battles the same disease and whose inspiring story became known to horse racing fans around the world during the lead-up to last year’s World Championships.

If Carson’s Run turns out to be half as good as Cody’s Wish, he will earn thousands more fans, warm a lot of hearts, and pad a lot of bankrolls on Future Stars Friday at Santa Anita.