2026 Jockey Club Gold Cup Cheat Sheet
Japanese star Forever Young, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and a career earner of more than $31.7 million, trains at Belmont Park in preparation for Friday’s Jockey Club Gold Cup. (Coglianese photos)
The road to the 2026 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic makes an important stop at Belmont Park on Friday, Sept. 18 as older male dirt horses go 1 ¼ miles in the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes. The Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series “Win and You’re In” qualifier for this fall’s $7 million Classic to be run Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
The Jockey Club Gold Cup will be held for the 108th time in 2026 and is one of horse racing’s most prestigious races. Traditionally run at Belmont Park for decades before the creation of the Breeders’ Cup, the Jockey Club Gold Cup had served as a de facto fall championship race in the handicap division. As such, the race has been won by a roll call of equine legends through its illustrious past including Man o’ War, Gallant Fox, War Admiral, Citation, Hill Prince, Nashua (twice), Sword Dancer, Kelso (five times), Buckpasser, Damascus, Arts and Letters, Shuvee (twice), Forego, Exceller, Affirmed, John Henry, Slew o’ Gold (twice), Easy Goer, Cigar, Skip Away (twice), Mineshaft, Funny Cide, and Curlin (twice), just to name a few. In the Breeders’ Cup era, the race has since evolved into one of the key national prep races for the Classic.
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The Jockey Club Gold Cup returns home to Belmont Park for the first time since 2020 after being run at Saratoga from 2021 through 2025. This year’s edition will be run from a newly configured 1 ¼-mile starting point on Belmont Park’s unique 1 ½-mile oval. The field includes defending Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Japanese superstar Forever Young.
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Read on for information about the 2026 Jockey Club Gold Cup contenders.
Baeza this summer at Saratoga (Eclipse Sportswire)
1. Baeza (9-2 morning-line odds)
Jockey: Junior Alvarado
Trainer: Bill Mott
Owners: C R K Stable and Grandview Equine
Career record: 12 starts – 2 wins – 4 seconds – 3 thirds
Career earnings: $2,224,700
Top Equibase Speed Figure: 114
Pedigree: McKinzie – Puca, by Big Brown
Age: 4
Color: Bay
Running style: Closer
Analysis: Baeza won the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby in 2025 but mostly has settled for second- or third-place finishes when entered in top-level competition in numerous prior races, such as the Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets, and Jim Dandy Stakes Presented by Mohegan Sun in 2025, and in this year’s Alysheba Stakes Presented by U.S. Army and Stephen Foster Stakes. His most recent outing came against high-level competition versus the likes of Sovereignty and Nitrogen in Saratoga’s Grade 1 Whitney Stakes, but that was far from his best effort, and he finished fourth by six lengths. In his one previous meeting against Forever Young, he finished sixth and beaten by 9 ½ lengths in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Classic. Perhaps Baeza has an outside chance at an upset based on his very best effort if Forever Young has an off day, but it is more likely he will end up in a familiar second- or third-place role once again in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott teamed up with jockey Junior Alvarado to win the 2022 Jockey Club Gold Cup with Olympiad for a partnership that included Baeza’s co-owners Grandview Equine.
Stars and Stripes wins 2026 Ben Ali Stakes (Coady Media)
2. Stars and Stripes (15-1)
Jockey: John Velazquez
Trainer: Bill Mott
Owner: Frassetto Stables
Career record: 9 starts – 5 wins – 1 second – 1 third
Career earnings: $542,033
Top Equibase Speed Figure: 109
Pedigree: Not This Time – Pearl River, by Quality Road
Age: 4
Color: Bay
Running style: Stalker
Analysis: Trainer Bill Mott has won the Jockey Club Gold Cup on four prior occasions dating all the way back to 1995 with the legendary Cigar, and Stars and Stripes is the second of his two entrants for this year’s race. Jockey John Velazquez has won four of the last 11 runnings of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, including last year aboard Antiquarian. Stars and Stripes has been in good form with wins in three of his last four races, including a nose decision in Saratoga’s $200,000 Birdstone Stakes at 1 ¾ miles last time out, but he has mostly avoided top-caliber competition to date with the exception of a win over Batten Down in the Grade 3 Ben Ali Stakes in May at Keeneland. Two races ago, he faced his Jockey Club Gold Cup opponent Phileas Fogg at this 1 ¼-mile distance and was beaten by 17 ¼ lengths. He’s certainly capable of good efforts, but he’ll need to do even better to get the best of horses like Forever Young, Baeza, and the speedy Phileas Fogg in this spot.
Chunk of Gold wins 2025 West Virginia Derby (Coady Media)
3. Chunk of Gold (12-1)
Jockey: Jaime Torres
Trainer: Ethan West
Owner: Terry L. Stephens
Career record: 12 starts – 3 wins – 7 seconds – 1 third
Career earnings: $951,511
Top Equibase Speed Figure: 110
Pedigree: Preservationist – Play for Gold, by Cairo Prince
Age: 4
Color: Gray or roan
Running style: Pacesetter
Analysis: Chunk of Gold has been scratched from the Jockey Club Gold Cup in favor of the Grade 2 Lukas Classic Stakes Sept. 26 at Churchill Downs, as reported by David Grening of Daily Racing Form.
Phileas Fogg wins 2026 Suburban (Eclipse Sportswire)
4. Phileas Fogg (4-1)
Jockey: Kendrick Carmouche
Trainer: Gustavo Rodriguez
Owner: Jupiter Stable
Career record: 24 starts – 11 wins – 5 seconds – 1 third
Career earnings: $1,170,373
Top Equibase Speed Figure: 120
Pedigree: Astern– Merino, by More Than Ready
Age: 6
Color: Bay
Running style: Pacesetter
Analysis: Phileas Fogg is a two-time winner of the Grade 2 Suburban Stakes presented by Subourbon Life at this 1 ¼-mile distance, including a 10-length wire-to-wire runaway victory at Saratoga last time out with a 114 Beyer Speed Figure that stamps him as the most serious challenger in this field. Even Forever Young has never reached as high as a 114 Beyer in his three American races to date. Phileas Fogg is a horse that has proven – even at a distance – that he can get out front to the lead and just keep on going all the way against good competition, and his chances in this race hinge on him being able to do so again on an even bigger stage. As the probable pacesetter, Phileas Fogg got a break when two other entrants in the field with early speed – Chunk of Gold and Banishing – both were scratched. That very likely results in a pace scenario with Phileas Fogg on the lead and Forever Young doing the dirty work in hot pursuit, giving Phileas Fogg an outside chance of being able to hold off the champ.
Banishing wins Jeff Hall Memorial Stakes (Coady Media)
5. Banishing (12-1)
Jockey: Joel Rosario
Trainer: David Jacobson
Owners: David Jacobson, Sharaf Mohammed Al Hariri, and Lawrence P. Roman
Career record: 32 starts – 11 wins – 7 seconds – 3 thirds
Career earnings: $3,290,989
Top Equibase Speed Figure: 117
Pedigree: Ghostzapper – Dowager, by A.P. Indy
Age: 6
Color: Chestnut
Running style: Stalker/press the pace
Analysis: Banishing has been scratched from the Jockey Club Gold Cup in favor of the Grade 2 Lukas Classic Stakes Sept. 26 at Churchill Downs, as reported by David Grening of Daily Racing Form.
Jockey Club Gold Cup entrant Render Judgment (Coady Media)
6. Render Judgment (20-1)
Jockey: Manny Franco
Trainer: Ken McPeek
Career record: 14 starts – 2 wins – 5 seconds – 1 third
Career earnings: $408,205
Top Equibase Speed Figure: 101
Pedigree: Blame – Barbara Gordon, by Commissioner
Age: 4
Color: Bay
Running style: Stalker/closer
Analysis: Render Judgment has taken many shots in high-profile stakes races before in his 14-race career, but he has never been successful at the stakes level, including a fifth-place finish when beaten by 10 lengths two races ago in the Grade 3 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap. The highest level that Render Judgment has achieved to date was a first-level allowance win going 1 3/16 miles at Churchill Downs in June 2026, so at least we have an idea he can handle a distance. Jockey Manny Franco won the Jockey Club Gold Cup earlier in his career aboard Discreet Lover in 2018 and is coming off a historic 2026 Saratoga summer season when he won the jockey title with a meet-record 73 wins. Even Franco, however, may not be enough to get Render Judgment to the finish line first against this caliber of competition.
Forever Young after 2025 Breeders' Cup Classic (Anne M. Eberhardt/BloodHorse)
7. Forever Young (3-5)
Jockey: Ryusei Sakai
Trainer: Yoshito Yahagi
Owner: Susumu Fujita
Career record: 15 starts – 11 wins – 1 second – 3 thirds
Career earnings: $31,758,590
Top Equibase Speed Figure: 114
Pedigree: Real Steel – Forever Darling, by Congrats
Age: 5
Color: Bay
Running style: Press the pace/stalker
Analysis: 2025 Breeders’ Cup Classic victor Forever Young is being pointed to a Classic repeat in 2026, thereby making the Jockey Club Gold Cup an important steppingstone for this world-renowned dirt horse who will be making his fourth lifetime start in the U.S. Forever Young arrives at Belmont Park needing no introduction as his credentials speak for themselves including back-to-back wins in the $20 million Saudi Cup in 2025-’26 and multiple Group 1 victories in his native Japan to go along with last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Classic triumph. Just like most of the great ones, however, Forever Young is not infallible, but at least his losses tend to come only in the biggest races on the global stage, such as when third in the both the 2024 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve and the 2024 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic and when third in the 2025 Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airline. Now, he has not raced in nearly six months since finishing second to Magnitude in the 2026 running of the Dubai World Cup. Will Forever Young be fully cranked-up for this race off the layoff, or will this be a prep race as he targets the Breeders’ Cup Classic in his next start? Is Forever Young so good and so much better than his Jockey Club Gold Cup competition that it won’t even matter? Those are all valid questions that horseplayers will be asking themselves when Forever Young goes off as the odds-on favorite in this race, where he will need to do all the pace dirty work in order to keep tabs on Phileas Fogg as that rival attempts to sneak away up front.
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