Preakness Stakes winner Journalism will race next year before he retires to stud at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, according to Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, one of the colt’s co-owners.

Click to subscribe!

The decision to race in 2026 was widely expected after Coolmore did not mention Journalism in a Nov. 4 press release noting fees for its new sires — Citizen Bull, Fierceness, and Sierra Leone.

Journalism, a 3-year-old son of Curlin, raced for owners Bridlewood Farm, Don Alberto Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Elayne Stables 5, and Robert LaPenta through March before the Coolmore-affiliated Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith joined as partners.

“As of right now, our intention is to freshen him up at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, bring him back to [trainer] Michael McCarthy toward the beginning of next season, and bring him back for an American campaign,” Wellman said, while noting overseas races had not entirely been ruled out at this stage.

Journalism, a three-time Grade 1 winner in 2025, is widely regarded as the second-best dirt 3-year-old in North America, trailing only Godolphin’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets, and DraftKings Travers Stakes winner Sovereignty. The latter is all but certain to win the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old male and very likely the most coveted prize of Horse of the Year when those championships are announced at a ceremony Jan. 22 in South Florida, two days before the Jan. 24 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes.

An announcement by Godolphin clarifying Sovereignty’s racing status for 2026 has not yet been made. Although he is a highly valuable stallion prospect, races such as the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 28could entice his connections to continue racing him. Godolphin’s founder, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, is the ruler of Dubai and the creator of the Dubai World Cup.

Journalism exercises at Del Mar (Eclipse Sportswire)

Journalism, fourth in his most recent start in the Nov. 1 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, beaten by 3 3/4 lengths, will face an older-horse division next year depleted by recent retirements. Although Breeders’ Cup Classic hero Forever Young will race in 2026, others from the race will not. Runner-up Sierra Leone, third-place Fierceness, and fifth-place Mindframe — all 4-year-olds of 2025 — enter stud next year, the latter at Claiborne Farm.

Forever Young, based in Japan, is expected to make his first start of 2026 in the $20 million Saudi Cup in February.

In describing the decision to race Journalism at 4, Wellman said. “He’s a horse bred, built, and designed to get better with age. He’s had an incredibly hearty campaign at the highest level, showed up every time, didn’t take his track with him. He’s a three-time Grade 1 winner, a classic winner. His résumé speaks for itself. But we still have conviction that the best is yet to come. Our plan is to showcase him on American soil, hopefully win some major races and enhance his already immense value as a stallion prospect.”

Journalism, trained in Southern California by McCarthy, has six wins, three seconds, and one third in 11 starts with earnings of $4,348,880. He won four of eight races this year, earning $4,190,000. Five of his six career victories have been in graded stakes.

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners — headed by Wellman, its president and founder — bought Journalism in 2023 for $825,000 from the Denali Stud consignment at Fasig-Tipton’s The Saratoga Sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Don Alberto Corporation bred Journalism out of the multiple Grade 1-placed graded stakes winner Mopotism, who Don Alberto bought for $1.05 million during Fasig-Tipton’s November Sale in 2019 out of Kingswood Farm’s consignment.

Mopotism died at age 11 in July; Journalism is her first of four foals.