For the second straight year, Forever Young hooked up in a stretch duel with a highly talented rival in the long stretch at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and for the second straight year, he prevailed. This time, it was in the $20 million 2026 Saudi Cup at the expense of runner-up Nysos.

Both Forever Young and Nysos sat comfortably off the pace early in the race held at 1,800 meters (about 1 1/8 miles) on Feb. 14. Turning for home, jockey Ryusei Sakai slipped Forever Young through an opening along the rail while Flavien Prat urged Nysos up on the outside. It was close to the 200-meter marker when it began to appear Forever Young would not be caught. The final margin was a length.

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"I prefer shorter stretches, but it wouldn't have made any difference," said Nysos's trainer Bob Baffert, who now has finished second in this race four times.

Forever Young was clocked in 1:51.03 for the distance. He paid $2.70 for a $2 win wager in international pari-mutuel wagering.

Tumbarumba finished another 3 3/4 lengths behind Nysos in third while one length better than Bishops Bay in fourth. Rattle N Roll, who was fifth a year earlier, finished ninth. Baffert's second runner, Nevada Beach, finished 12th of 13 starters.

Actually, Forever Young, a 5-year-old son of the sire Real Steel, seemed to have an easier time of it than when he edged Hong Kong's globetrotting champ Romantic Warrior in a back-and-forth battle in the 2025 Saudi Cup.

"He's still not 100 percent, but when (Nysos) approached the top of the stretch, I was confident," said trainer Forever Young's trainer Yoshito Yahagi, a.k.a. "the Man in the Hat." Yahagi now has won three of the seven runnings of the Saudi Cup including with Panthalassa in 2023.

Forever Young burst on the Japanese racing scene in October of 2023, winning his first three starts. His connections then sent the colt to Saudi Arabia for the 2024 Saudi Derby. Looking sluggish at the top of the long stretch in that race, it appeared Forever Young was well beaten as New Jersey-based Book'em Danno spurted out to a huge lead. But once in gear, Forever Young closed the gap and won by a head.

Forever Young had an easier time of it winning the UAE Derby in Dubai a month later and earned a trip to the 2024 Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve, a race that produced a memorable three-way photo with Forever Young finishing third, two noses behind Mystik Dan and Sierra Leone.

After a long rest, Forever Young returned to win the Japan Dirt Classic in October, then was third in the 2024 Longines Breeders' Cup Classic won by Sierra Leone. He concluded that season with a win in the G1 Tokyo Daishoten at Oi Racecourse.

Forever Young produced his signature win in the 2025 Saudi Cup. In what boiled down to a two-horse race, he surrendered the lead to Romantic Warrior, then rallied to catch and defeat that proven world traveler by a neck. Trainer Yahagi blamed pre-race misadventure for his subsequent third in the 2025 Dubai World Cup.

After another long layoff and a prep in Japan, he returned to Del Mar to win the 2025 Longines Breeders' Cup Classic, holding off familiar foe Sierra Leone by a half-length.

With the Saudi Cup part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" series, Forever Young earned a paid, automatic berth into this fall's Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland.

Nysos' performance, even in losing, arguably was a triumph in its own right. Despite his record coming into the Cup of seven wins from eight starts, Nysos has been a project for Baffert, his career interrupted by setbacks. He came to Saudi Arabia after winning the 2025 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes in his last two races.

Baffert noted the Saudi Cup is "a hole in my résumé. It's one race I haven't won and I want to win it. If we don't get it done this year, we'll keep coming back."

If he does, he may have to face Forever Young again.

"I'm delighted how he won," said owner Susumu Fujita. "The plan was to retire at the end of the year. But I could extend that by two more months for another Saudi Cup."