Haffner Wins Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf, OBrien Reaches 23 Wins

Haffner rallied late to win the Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland on Friday, October 30, closing out Future Stars Friday and giving trainer Aidan OBrien his 23rd career Breeders Cup victory, a new record.

The son of Justify covered the mile on firm turf in 1:35.19 and paid $9.46 on a $2 win wager as the second choice in a field of 12. He finished 1 3/4 lengths clear of the favorite Folsom Blues, who rallied from the back of the field after a slow start, with Avec Toi third. Oscar finished fourth, the best result by a United States based horse in any of the turf races on the Friday card.

A record that changed hands twice in one hour

The Juvenile Turf was the last of five championship races for 2-year-olds on Friday, and the record book moved twice in the final two races. In the race before, Hughes won the Breeders Cup Juvenile on dirt for Bob Baffert, tying OBrien at 22 career Breeders Cup wins. Haffner answered about 90 minutes of racing later, putting OBrien back in front on his own.

It was OBrien's second win of the day. His filly Sun Goddess had already won the Juvenile Fillies Turf, and the Juvenile Turf title itself is becoming his personal property. Haffner is his fifth straight winner of this race and his ninth winner in the 20 runnings of the event.

How the race was run

Haffner broke a step slowly, then recovered quickly and saved ground behind the pacesetting Avec Toi down the backstretch and around the second turn. Jockey Ryan Moore brought him off the rail for the stretch run and he moved past the leaders with a sustained rally.

Folsom Blues, the 5-2 favorite, ducked out at the break and collided with Sale Shark, then had to circle five wide into the stretch. He finished fastest of all to take second from the tiring Avec Toi, but the winner had already gone clear.

Haffner is owned by a partnership that includes Coolmore, Peter Brant, Derrick Westerberg and Brook T. Smith. The win was his fourth in seven starts at 2 and his first in a Grade 1 race. He came into Friday off a win in the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket 13 days earlier, his final prep for Keeneland.

What comes next

The Breeders Cup continues on Saturday at Keeneland with nine more Grade 1 races, led by the $7 million Breeders Cup Classic, scheduled for 6:16 p.m. Eastern. The Juvenile winner Hughes is already being talked about as the early horse to watch on the road to the 2027 Kentucky Derby, and Haffner's turf form will point him toward the major European mile races for 3-year-olds next season.

For OBrien, the numbers now stand apart from every other trainer in the event's history: 23 Breeders Cup wins, built largely on turf, with two of them arriving on the same Friday afternoon in Kentucky.