This year marks the seventh running of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1T), which for this edition is a 5-furlong dash for 2-year-olds of either sex over Del Mar’s Jimmy Durante turf course. The exact length of the race every year depends on the host track’s capability to run the distance and in some cases the distance is lengthened to 5 ½ furlongs or shortened to five to accommodate the turf sprinting limitations as it was at Churchill Downs in 2018, Santa Anita in 2019 and 2023 and Del Mar in 2021 and again this year.
This race was run initially in 2018 during the first day of the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs and was ungraded. It was a grade 2 in 2019 and was a Grade 1 for the first time in 2022In 2018, WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and SF Racing’s Bulletin was a 2 ¾-length winner under the Twin Spires for trainer Todd Pletcher and after one win from five starts in 2019, he returned in 2020 in the care of Steve Asmussen and didn’t hit the board in two starts for the Hall of Famer. He subsequently was exported to Australia, where he raced and finished second in a pair of barrier trials before two unplaced finishes in stakes at Rosehill and Randwick in the care of Gai Waterhouse.
The 2019 winner, Four Wheel Drive, went on the shelf after the Breeders’ Cup and returned with a dismal seventh-place finish in allowance company and stands at stud in Japan. Golden Pal, who won in 2020, is a member of the Ashford Stud stallion roster. The filly Twilight Gleaming was the winner in 2021, Mischief Magic was across the wire first in 2022 while Big Evs was the winner a year ago. Twilight Gleaming was retired and is a Stonestreet Farm broodmare, while the gelding Mischief Magic and Big Evs are still running, the latter winning a Group 2 at Goodwood in August.
Irad Ortiz Jr. was the winning pilot aboard Four Wheel Drive in 2019 Golden Pal in 2021 and Twilight Gleaming in 2021, while Javier Castellano guided Bulletin to victory in 2018, William Buick was in the saddle on Mischief Magic in 2022 and Tom Marquand was atop Big Evs last year. Wesley Ward trained both Four Wheel Drive, Golden Pal and Twilight Gleaming while Charlie Appleby was in charge of Mischief Magic in 2022. Mick Appleby won his first and only Breeders’ Cup race with Big Evs at Santa Anita in 2023.