The weekend racing fans wait for all year long is almost here as the top horses in the country and around the world travel to Keeneland for the 2026 Breeders’ Cup World Championships. The action kicks off on Friday, Oct. 30, with Future Stars Friday including five Breeders’ Cup races for 2-year-olds: the Juvenile Turf Sprint, the Juvenile Fillies Turf, the Juvenile Turf, the Juvenile Fillies, and the Juvenile.

Television coverage Friday, Oct. 30, will go from 1-6 p.m. ET on USA Network and Peacock. FanDuel TV will present live, continuous coverage of every Championship and undercard race through the “Breeders' Cup Players' Show,” available on FanDuel TV, BreedersCup.com, the official Breeders' Cup mobile app, Breeders' Cup YouTube, Facebook, and X social channels, major advance-deposit wagering platforms, and simulcast outlets worldwide. New this year, the Players’ Show will also be available on Peacock.

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

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint

Distance: 5 ½ furlongs on turf

Post time: 2:55 p.m. ET

Wagering Menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, double, pick 3, pick 5, all-turf $3 pick 3

Background: This newest Breeders’ Cup race is not so new anymore as it will be run for the ninth time in 2026. Last year, trainer George Weaver ended a European streak of three straight wins in this race with the filly Cy Fair getting the victory at Del Mar.

Favorites: The Juvenile Turf Sprint is expected to attract several European entrants including some top contenders in the race like Libertango, a filly that beat Europe’s divisional leader Sun Goddess at Royal Ascot, and Nabati, a Godolphin-owned Group 2-winning colt trained by Charlie Appleby, who won this race in 2022 with Mischief Magic. The top American hope, and perhaps the favorite in the race, will be Brickyard Belle, a filly that is 2-for-2 to begin her career with a pair of very fast wins including in Belmont Park’s Grade 3 Matron Stakes.

Interesting storylines: Trainer Wesley Ward won three of the first four runnings of the Juvenile Turf Sprint. This year, Ward’s top contender, Ruiva, who has come close in three graded/group stakes in the States and at Royal Ascot, is on the also-eligible list and will need defections to draw into the race.

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies

Emphatic (Coady Media)

Distance: 1 1/16 miles on dirt

Post Time: 3:35 p.m. ET

Wagering menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, double, pick 3, pick 4, special Juvenile Fillies (Friday)–Distaff (Saturday) daily double

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 12 winners up through 2025 winner Super Corredora.

Favorites: The top contender in this race is often the winner of the Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades Stakes, especially when the Breeders’ Cup is at Keeneland. This year that horse is the undefeated Emphatic, who has begun her career with three wins in three starts at three different tracks for trainer Brendan Walsh. Trainer Bob Baffert has a strong contender with Grade1 Del Mar Debutante winner Miss Monica, who has been training in Kentucky since September. Other contenders who were winners of the major prep races include Belmont Park’s Frizette Stakes winner Dotsy, Domain Expansion, winner of the Oak Leaf Stakes Presented by Oak Tree Racing Association at Santa Anita Park, and Manuka Honey, who won the Pocahontas Stakes at Churchill Downs.

Interesting Storylines: Super Corredora was the upset winner of this race last year ($19.60), further underscoring this race’s status as one best Breeders’ Cup races for longshots. The favorite has only won the Juvenile Fillies four times in the last 15 years (Immersive in 2024, Echo Zulu in 2021, Songbird in 2015, My Miss Aurelia in 2011). Surprisingly, trainer Bob Baffert has won this race only twice in its long history and has no wins since 2007 when he last scored with Indian Blessing.

Fans of the Star Wars series have a longshot to root for in Revenge of the Sis. The Girvin filly is winless in two starts and comes in off of a third-place finish in the Frizette, and she is cleverly named as a full sister (same sire and dam) to the Grade 1-winning mare Dorth Vader.

John Deere Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf

Sun Goddess (Eclipse Sportswire)

Distance: 1 mile on turf

Post Time: 4:15 p.m. ET

Wagering menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, double, $3 Late Pick 3

Background: This race was once mostly dominated by U.S.-based fillies, who won 12 of the first 14 runnings from 2008 to 2021, but more recently the race has been taken over by Europeans, who have won three of the last four including last year’s winner Balantina who came over from Ireland to win by 1 ¼ lengths and paid $43.20 to win.

Favorites: One of the reasons the Europeans did not often win this race in the past was because they weren’t sending their top-caliber 2-year-old fillies to the Breeders’ Cup. That is not the case anymore. The Juvenile Fillies Turf will attract an international field of contenders, but the clear-cut favorite will be trainer Aidan O’Brien’s Sun Goddess, Europe’s top 2-year-old filly and winner of three Group 1 races who O’Brien has described as a “freak.” The leading American hope in the race will be the Chad Brown-trained Domestic Agenda who exits a win in Belmont’s Miss Grillo Stakes.

Interesting storylines: Brown has been one of the dominant forces in the history of the Juvenile Fillies Turf with six wins in the 18 prior runnings of the race. O’Brien still has a long way to go to match Brown’s success in this race, but he has been catching up lately with wins in two of the last four years including heavy favorite Lake Victoria in 2024 and Meditate in 2022. It’s no surprise that this year’s two leading contenders, Sun Goddess and Domestic Agenda, are trained by O’Brien and Brown, respectively.

FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance

Hughes (BENOIT photo)

Distance: 1 1/16 miles on dirt

Post Time: 4:55 p.m. ET

Wagering menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, double, special Juvenile (Friday)–Classic (Saturday) daily double

Background: The Juvenile has been one of the Breeders’ Cup’s marquee events since the first Breeders’ Cup in 1984 and it still stands as the most high-profile race by far on Friday’s Breeders’ Cup program. The search for next year’s top Kentucky Derby prospects kicks into high gear in this race. Most Juvenile winners go on to win the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old including last year’s winner Ted Noffey, who joined every winner in the 2020s so far including Citizen Bull (2024), Fierceness (2023), Forte (2022), Corniche (2021), and Essential Quality (2020) as Eclipse champions.

Favorites: Trainer Bob Baffert’s talented American Pharoah Stakes Presented by DK Horse winner Hughes is undefeated in four starts and will be the heavy favorite and horse to beat. The two top challengers look like the 1-2 finishers from Keeneland’s Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity, American History and Coach Pope. More 2-year-olds with a shot include Champagne Stakes runner-up Gaudreau, who beat Coach Pope in both horses’ career debut at Saratoga, and Baffert’s “other” horse, long-striding Iroquois Stakes winner Salahudin.

Interesting Storylines: The prospective would-be co-favorite in this year’s Juvenile, Champagne Stakes winner U. S. S. Valor, is healthy but his connections have elected to bypass the race. Perhaps that is because the Juvenile has not at all been a good predictor of future Kentucky Derby success. Only two winners in the history of the Juvenile have won the Derby the following year (Street Sense in 2006 and Nyquist in 2015). Recent outliers were 2022 when the Juvenile produced the 2023 Preakness Stakes 1-2 finishers National Treasure and Blazing Sevens, and 2020 when the Juvenile produced several future stars including Essential Quality, Hot Rod Charlie, Jackie’s Warrior, and Rombauer. Essential Quality won the 2021 Belmont Stakes, and Rombauer the 2021 Preakness.

Other than that, the Juvenile has become a negative key race in terms of the Kentucky Derby. Last year’s Juvenile produced only two 2026 Kentucky Derby starters as Litmus Test and Intrepido exited fourth- and fifth-place Juvenile finishes and made it to the Derby where they finished 17^th and 16^th. The 2024 Juvenile produced only two 2025 Kentucky Derby starters with Juvenile winner Citizen Bull going on to finish 15^th in the Derby. The winner of the 2023 Juvenile, Fierceness, was the only horse in that race to make it to the 2024 Kentucky Derby, but he finished 15^th. The 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile failed to yield even one single starter in the 2022 Kentucky Derby.

Brown Advisory Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf

Al Hudaiba (Michael Burns/Woodbine)

Distance: 1 mile on the turf

Post Time: 5:35 p.m. ET

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

Background: The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf was first held in 2007 – one year before the start of the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Europeans have historically done very well with wins in 14 of the first 19 editions including the last five in a row. Over the years, this race has become a prime battleground between trainer Aidan O’Brien and his Coolmore connections, which have teamed up to win the race seven times, and Godolphin represented by trainer Charlie Appleby, who teamed up to win this race in 2013, 2018, and 2021. The last American win in the Juvenile Turf was back in 2020 when Fire at Will pulled off the upset for trainer Mike Maker. Even that year, however, Europeans still managed to finish second, fourth, and fifth.

Favorites: The field is expected to include several European top contenders including Irish Group 1 winner Folsom Blues trained by Joseph O’Brien, and Godolphin contender Al Hudaiba, who already crossed the pond and won the Grade 1 bet365 Summer Stakes at Woodbine. The U.S. contingent will be led by How’s Al Today, who exits a win in the Pepsi Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile Stakes, and Agate, who won Keeneland’s local prep race, the Grade 2 Castle & Key Bourbon Stakes.

Interesting Storylines: O’Brien is going for an amazing fifth straight win in this race and has his choice amongst many horses to bring with him to Keeneland from his base in Ireland. This year he has entered Great Barrier Reef, Haffner, Man’s Best Friend, and Florida Bay, who are all four owned by Coolmore. Any and all of them may be among the favorites, but based on past history, the Coolmore entrant to watch may be the one ridden by jockey Ryan Moore. O’Brien and Moore have teamed up to win this race seven times including three in a row from 2022-24. Moore missed the 2025 Breeders’ Cup with an injury.