This was the reported activity Thursday for the horses entered in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Arthur’s Ride

Trainer: Bill Mott

Jockey: Junior Alvarado

Morning activity: Galloped 1 3/8m with exercise rider Damian Hinds.

Planned activity: Scheduled to gallop Friday morning.

Mott: “He had a nice gallop today and he looks good to me. He seems happy and I have not seen anything negative, which is unusual, right?”

City Of Troy

Trainer: Aidan O’Brien

Jockey: Ryan Moore

Morning activity: Along with the Ballydoyle brigade and always second in the single file behind four-time Group 1 winner Luxembourg, City Of Troy did a jogging lap then a galloping lap of the Del Mar dirt track. This time galloping eight furlongs, rather than the seven furlongs Wednesday, and at a slightly quicker pace.

Planned activity: Will have another similar easy day Friday, one day before his expected career finale in the Classic.

Closer Look: City Of Troy, myth or material?

A horse named City Of Troy, could it be more appropriate? Is he a history-making icon here to tip the ultimate scales and be remembered for years, rolling into a foreign land to first be admired and then destroy all before him? Time will tell and nearly every racing fan this week at Del Mar has at least once considered whether he can do it.

Aidan O’Brien, the master trainer of Ballydoyle’s global operation, believes he might be the one. After failing 17 times in the now $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, the 18-time Breeders’ Cup-winning conditioner tentatively suspects he might have covered enough bases to capture the ultimate bucket-list item for an international powerhouse operation such as his.

“I’ve looked back at those losses 100 times, of course, and we try to learn everything we can, all the time,” O’Brien said. “If we make a mistake, and there’s always loads of mistakes that we make, obviously when they run bad and get beat, then that’s another stone we have to look under. At the moment, we think we’ve looked under them all for a horse that has never run here in America.

“We’re very happy with the preparation,” O’Brien continued. “We’ve given him a hard time lately and it’s like going into a world championship boxing match. You have to be ready to be driven over and bulletproof and we think he’s as bulletproof as we can have him before he runs.

“Then, who knows, maybe there could be more things we should have done.”

Humble and mindful, O’Brien has been a media darling all week, understanding the breadth of this moment in horse racing’s history. As a student of it, he seems to grasp the enormity of what success this weekend could mean for not only longtime racing investors and Coolmore partners Mr. & Mrs. John Magnier, Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor, but also for proudly Irish team he brings here from the quiet hills of Tipperary.

“Actually, it’s unbelievable,” he explained. “For us, the lads bought (Justify) and had raced the mare and put so much into this colt. From Coolmore, he’s been reared and brought on and then come over to Ballydoyle. A lot of people put a lot of time into him. For us, it’s been a dream. To be with him as a total homebred, it’s quite special.”

Although many believe that the Justify aspect of his pedigree could be what tips the scales to the positive, there is skepticism as to the proximity of turf-laden Galileo, sire of his Grade 1-winning dam Together Forever. Arguably, the only horse in recent memory to be successful at the top level on dirt with Galileo as a grandsire is Lea, a son of First Samurai who won the 2015 Donn Handicap (G1) before finishing third in the Dubai World Cup (G1) and second in the Dirt Mile (G1).

“City’ is probably, if you sent a mare to a stallion you were trying to take the best out of both mare and stallion, he came the very best out of mare and stallion,” O’Brien explained. “He has a very long, low stride with very low head carriage and that would come from both the grandsire and the sire. Obviously, there’s plenty of Galileo in him because of the way he’s worked out in Europe, but we think there’s loads of Justify in him, but we’re going to learn how much Justify is in him, if that makes sense.”

In the end, the incredibly intriguing odyssey of City Of Troy will roll into Del Mar and come to a head on Saturday afternoon with the world of sport watching. There will be a sea of ‘I told you so’s’ from either side of the discourse and a roar from the crowd when he is ultimately asked the question.

None of it would happen if connections such as O’Brien, the Magniers, Smith and Tabor were not just as sporting and excited to find out how it all concludes.

“Every time every horse comes along, we try to expose them in every way, good and bad,” O’Brien concluded. “The lads at one time used to be all about commercial value, but now it’s all about getting the horse to show what they can do and can’t do. If we didn’t do this, we would probably say for forever, ‘why didn’t we do it’.

“Obviously, we fail all the time, but if we don’t fail, we don’t get better and we always learn more from your failures than your wins. That’s just the way it is.”

Derma Sotogake

Trainer: Hidetaka Otonashi

Jockey: Christophe Lemaire

Morning activity: He did an easy exercise on the main track

Stable representative: “We will put blinkers on him. I expect him to race aggressively.”

Fierceness

Trainer: Todd Pletcher

Jockey: John Velazquez

Morning activity: Galloped approximately a mile under exercise rider Danny Wright. Schooled at paddock and gate.

Planned activity: Scheduled to gallop approximately a mile again.

Closer look: Fierceness can rocket to top of Repole’s greatest hist

After a few quiet mornings this Breeders’ Cup week at Del Mar, there was a far different vibe outside Todd Pletcher’s barn Thursday morning with the arrival of breeder-owner Mike Repole.

Before and after his homebred colts, full brothers Fierceness and Mentee, went to the track to gallop, the enthusiastic New Yorker stood for interviews with media from around the world. Repole talked about his horses, the 41st Breeders’ Cup, breeding programs across the country, and playfully did a video in which he was asked to name a human athlete that reminded him of his equine stars.

Repole talked at length about Fierceness, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and the 3-1 second choice in the $7 million Classic. He said the City of Light colt could climb to No. 1 on the Repole Stable hit parade with a victory Saturday.

“If he wins this, I would almost have to put him at the top,” Repole said. “Uncle Mo probably could go down as one of the most brilliant 2-year-olds in history. Fierceness was two out of three. He was a champ. Uncle Mo, because of his liver ailment, we didn’t get to see his brilliance at 3.

“But there’s never been a horse that has won a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and, as a 3-year-old, the Classic. You’re talking about one of one. Then he also has the brilliance of Uncle Mo, because when he’s right, he wins big. Where I had Forte, who would win at the same percentage but won by a head or won by a length, this horse, when he wins … The Florida Derby might have been one of the most impressive Grade 1 wins I’ve ever seen in my life.”

In his three-race career, the 2-year-old Mentee has won on grass and dirt. He will run Friday in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Fierceness emerged as a top runner with his upset victory at 16-1 in last year’s Juvenile, a 6 1/4-length romp that earned him an Eclipse Award as the top 2-year-old male.

That eye-opening Juvenile performance followed a 20-length loss in the Champagne (G1) at Aqueduct. Fierceness has mixed terrific and not-so-terrific outings this year, but he arrived at Del Mar on Sunday as a top contender after wins at Saratoga in the Jim Dandy (G2) and the Travers (G1).

“He’s a great analogy for life,” Repole said. “Nothing’s ever a straight line. Nothing is ever straight up or straight down. He’s had eight starts, and if being up and down is, five wins and three losses, I think most people will take that.

“If the lows include winning the Florida Derby and the Jim Dandy and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile we’ll take that. And, by the way, we’ll add the Travers and the favorite in the (Kentucky Derby). I don’t see it as up and down as most people. I’ve been in this game now for 20 years and if you win 20 percent of the time, you’re one of the top owners in the country. He’s a special horse.”

Fierceness opened the season with a third as the 1-5 favorite in the Holy Bull (G3). He followed that race with a blowaway 13 1/2-length victory in the Florida Derby (G1). The victory at Gulfstream made him the 3-1 favorite in the Kentucky Derby, in which he ended up 15th, beaten by 24 1/2 lengths.

“Todd said to me the day after the race, even if he won the Kentucky Derby, we had a zero percent chance of going to the Preakness,” Repole said. “So I said, ‘Let’s train into the Belmont. The good thing is for Todd, we didn’t (win).”

Pletcher did not like how Fierceness looked and was training approaching the June 8 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga and the decision was made not to enter and aim for the Jim Dandy on June 27. He beat Sierra Leone by a length.

“It’s funny,” Repole said, “right after the race, we assumed he would regress like he’s done in other races. And Todd and I separately in interviews said he will not run the Travers. Then, like, within three or four or five days it was like, ‘this didn’t take anything out of him. He’s jumping around. If anything he’s galloping even stronger. Maybe he’s maturing. Maybe he’s growing up.”

Repole stopped talking and pointed at Fierceness, who was tacked up and walking the shedrow.

“He’s right there. Anyone taking a picture?” Repole said. “He looks great. He looks different than he did in Saratoga.”

Repole and Pletcher were searching for the right path to the Classic from Saratoga after the Jim Dandy and decided to see whether he could muster back-to-back wins for the first time in the Travers.

“At the end of the day, when he said that to me, I said ‘worst-case scenario, he’ll lose the Travers, he’ll have nine weeks off, and he’ll be great for this race,’ ” Repole said. “But he won the Travers. He’s been training like this, eating everything. He looks great. A lot of people talk about how he looks. He grew up. There’s some late-maturing teenagers. He happened to be one of them.”

Forever Young

Trainer: Yoshito Yahagi

Jockey: Ryusei Sakai

Morning activity: He did a light work on the main track and gate schooled

Sakai: “All goes well. I just asked little on the homestretch when we breezed, and he reacted well.”

Highland Falls

Trainer: Brad Cox

Jockey: Luis Saez

Morning activity: Galloped 1 1/2 miles with exercise rider Katie Tolbert

Planned activity: Scheduled to gallop 1 1/2 miles Frida

Tolbert: “He’s a strong horse, but he listens. He doesn’t try to run off.”

Mixto

Trainer: Doug O’Neill

Jockey: Kyle Frey

Morning activity: Galloped 1 1/2 miles with Tony Romero up.

Planned activity: Gallop scheduled for Friday.

O’Neill: “He has two wins over this track and the only one in the (Classic) field to have won at the (1 1/4-mile) distance here. I definitely feel like he has a chance.”

Newgate

Trainer: Bob Baffert

Jockey: Frankie Dettori

Morning activity: Galloped 1 1/2 miles under exercise rider Humberto Gomez.

Planned activity: Scheduled to gallop Friday morning

Baffert: “He has looked beautiful out there. That is all you can ask for. This is like the playoffs. When I look around in the mornings, all of them look good. We don’t have a favorite in any of the (Breeders’ Cup) races. What you have is what you have. We’re excited about it.”

Horse: Next

Trainer: Doug Cowans

Jockey: Luan Machado

Morning activity: Galloped 1 1/2 miles

Planned activity: Scheduled to gallop 1 1/2 miles

Closer Look: The claim of a lifetime keeps on winning

It’s a good thing that horses can’t talk or care about their status. If they did, several horses in the Classic would have a lot to brag about. Sierra Leone could boast about being purchased for $2.3 million, and Highland Falls could gloat that his owners are the rulers of Dubai. Next would have the bragging rights as the winningest horse in the field.

Michael Foster’s Next, a Not This Time gelding, broke his maiden in his second career start and followed that with an even more impressive win at Keeneland that encouraged his connections to step him up into the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, in which he was last. A year and a half later on April 16, 2022, trainer Doug Cowans claimed Next on behalf of Foster for $62,500 at Keeneland, and the horse began to show his true potential.

Next comes into the Classic undefeated in four starts this year and riding a seven-race win streak overall. He has developed into a marathon specialist, winning the 1 1/2-mile Greenwood Cup (G3) at Parx for the second consecutive year by 10 lengths in his most recent start.

“Since we’ve had him, we’ve run him 10 times, and he’s won eight out of the 10, and he’s won his last seven,” Cowans said. “It’s just been extra special. We’ve talked to a lot of people who have nice horses and things. You know, Grade 1 horses that win, but they don’t keep winning and winning in the fashion that he does and dominating their division like he does. He’s been extra special about that.”

Cowans, a native of Columbus, Ohio, who has about 50 horses in his care at Turfway Park and the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, Ky., said he decided to claim Next after watching some of his races.

“It was just a couple things,” Cowans said. “One is, I had watched him run a couple times at Turfway, and he exited some key races. I thought he was a horse that would fit in our stable and we’d have a chance to have fun. We never dreamed he’d be extra special.

“Early on, we noticed that he had a unique style of stamina, and we knew there was something different. We just didn’t know what it was at that point in time, and we just wanted to go down some different avenues. After the Ellis Park race (July 16, 2022), where he was fourth, I’m like, this horse seems better than that. I’m missing something. Let’s try him at a mile and a half, you know, because he’s got a lot of stamina. We didn’t know if it would work, but the rest was history.”

Next will be the first Breeders’ Cup starter for Foster, Cowans and jockey Luan Machado. They started charting the course that got them here nearly two years ago.

“We put together a whole thing in January (2023), two seasons in a row,” Cowans said. “We mapped out a plan for the horse, and we stuck to that plan all the way. One of the reasons we didn’t try a mile and a quarter before the Breeders’ Cup was we didn’t want to deviate from the plan. And, once the plan was over then we said, we’ll see how the horse comes out of the Greenwood, and if that one goes well, we might try the Breeders’ Cup. He exited the race in good fashion, and we looked for every reason not to come to the Breeders’ Cup, and never found one. So that’s why we’re here.

“He’s special to the whole team, not just me, the owner, the assistant, the grooms, the exercise rider just the whole stable. He’s taken us a lot of different places. And not only taken us there, he’s won. He’s done it impressively, and he’s here. He’s made us all proud of him. He’s an extra special horse.”

Pyrenees

Trainer: Cherie DeVaux

Jockey: Brian Hernandez Jr.

Morning activity: Galloped 1 3/8 miles, schooled in the paddock

Planned activity: Same galloping routine planned Friday

Enrique Miranda, assistant trainer and exercise rider: “He was very focused this morning, so we’re going along very well. He’ll gallop tomorrow for his final preparations at the same time. We’ll stick to his routine.”

Closer Look: Faith runs deep in Pyrenees as he readies for Classic

Six years after starting her own training operation, Cherie DeVaux has reached a career milestone as Blue Heaven Farm’s Kentucky homebred Pyrenees will become her first starter in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

The 4-year-old Into Mischief colt has competed strongly at the Grade 1 level, with recent runner-up efforts in the Stephen Foster in June and the Jockey Club Gold Cup in September, finishing behind Kingsbarns and fellow Classic contender Highland Falls, respectively.

His enthusiasm for racing has been nursed along since the beginning by a patient DeVaux, who said Pyrenees already has stamped himself as a horse to remember.

“It’s special. He’s one that I will probably think back on in many years to come,” DeVaux said. “He didn’t show much as a 2-year-old and early 3-year-old. After we gave him some time, he’s a totally different horse than he was last year. He’s a horse that has taught me a lot, and it’s definitely something I’ll keep in the back of my mind for the rest of my training career.”

Pyrenees graduated in his fifth start in December at Fair Grounds, marking the start of a four-race win streak that was capped by a score in the Pimlico Special (G3) on May 17 in Maryland. The remarkable five-month span proved that Pyrenees was well worth the wait.

“Just patience and time,” DeVaux said of the secret to success. “Sometimes they just need to regroup, turn them out, let them come back. That’s what he needed. We didn’t change anything else. Just time and maturity.”

And even with another step up into top-level competition in his recent outings, Pyrenees has again proven his head is indeed in the game.

“Each race he’s been up for the task,” said DeVaux, seeking to become the seventh female trainer to win a Breeders’ Cup race. “He’s run second in two very good Grade 1s and he’s developing. I don’t think he’s reached his top, and he’s going to have to run that to be in it at the Breeders’ Cup. It’s definitely in him, and he’s making that trend.”

As he has matured, Pyrenees has retained a charming demeanor in the barn that makes his story all the more endearing for DeVaux.

“He’s a little goofy,” DeVaux said. “High energy, and you’ve got to watch him around the track, but in the barn, he’s usually pretty well behaved.”

A win with Pyrenees could close out a tremendous weekend for Blue Heaven Farm, who also co-bred Juvenile contender Getaway Car.

“To have two horses that we bred running this weekend is amazing,” Blue Heaven Farm co-owner Adam Corndorf said. “We didn’t grow up in this business, but my grandfather got involved with a few friends on racehorses in the ’90s and fell in love with the sport. We’ve always been a close family and my mom followed him into it, and I followed my mom.”

Blue Heaven Farm, which began operations in 2004, was founded and is co-owned by Corndorf’s mother, Bonnie Baskin. The farm seeks to purchase well-bred and conformed yearling fillies to race and breed, along with broodmares with strong pedigrees. That model led them to purchase the Grade 3-winning Newfoundland mare Our Khrysty in 2011. The mare went on to produce Grade 1-winner Grace Adler and Pyrenees.

“You hate to say one horse makes an operation, but if it does, she’s the one,” Corndorf said. “We can’t express how lucky and grateful we are to have her with what she has produced in the sales ring and on the racetrack. She’s a farm-changing horse, and we hope she lives forever. She’s nearing the end of her breeding career, and we’ll pamper her and give her a wonderful life for many more years.”

With such fondness for the mare and her offspring, Corndorf and the team at Blue Heaven Farm retained Pyrenees after he did not meet his reserve at auction twice.

“We thought we were sitting pretty with him, but the sales didn’t catch him at the right time,” Corndorf said. “We did believe in him, and we weren’t willing to give him away. I’m happy we kept him.”

The belief in Pyrenees runs strong through both his trainer and his owners. Corndorf said his faith in DeVaux is equal.

“We’re very lucky to partner with Cherie,” Corndorf said. “She’s been wonderful through the process and she has never wavered in her belief in him. Her and her staff have given him a wonderful opportunity to succeed, and she deserves this. I’m hoping it’s a great weekend for all of us.”

Rattle N Roll

Trainer: Kenny McPeek

Jockey: Jose Ortiz

Morning activity: Galloped 1 3/4 miles with exercise rider Danny Ramsey.

Planned activity: Scheduled to gallop Friday morning

McPeek: “I know most of the 3-year-olds (in the Classic) and I am not overly intimidated by them. I think this is a horse that can run with them. His first race back (third in the Lukas Classic, G2) was really good. If he runs his best race, I think he fits somewhere. He really wants every bit of a mile and a quarter and has for a long time.”

Señor Buscador

Trainer: Todd Fincher

Jockey: Joel Rosario

Morning activity: Galloped 1 3/4 miles under Dennis Means

Planned activity: Scheduled to gallop at Friday

Fincher: “He has handled every track he has run on except for Santa Anita. His comeback race here (in the seven-furlong Pat O’Brien, G2), the race did not set up for him.” Señor Buscador enters Classic off fifth-place finish in California Crown on Sept. 28 at Santa Anita.

Sierra Leone

Trainer: Chad Brown

Jockey: Flavien Prat

Morning activity: “He had an easy gallop (Thursday) and came back perfect. We’ll school him and a few others in races 2 and 3 (Friday),” Brown said

Planned activity: Schooling race 2 Friday

Closer Look: Brown expects the best of Sierra Leone

From three Breeders’ Cup Classic runners, four-time champion trainer Chad Brown has yet to hit the board. But he never has brought a horse as highly regarded as Sierra Leone to the big dance. Owned by who’s who of racing, Peter Brant, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg and Brook T. Smith, the son of Gun Runner has been held to a rather unenviable level of expectation, acquitting himself a record of 8: 3-3-2, topped by a win in Keeneland’s Blue Grass (G1) last April.

Still, this is not the Blue Grass and the venue is not Keeneland. After four consecutive stakes placings, three of those as the favorite, the $2.3 million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale yearling must shake off the “almost-horse” reputation over a track that doesn’t appear as conducive to his late-running style as connections would prefer.

“He will have to adapt to this track,” Brown said. “It will be a big factor. We’ll see how he does adapt and how the track is playing as the day goes on. He’s doing very well, though, and I know he’s coming into the race in the right way.”

A nose second in the Kentucky Derby when lugging in markedly under Tyler Gaffalione, the earner of $2,368,000 has had his career punctuated with high-profile losses, equipment shifts and a jockey change to Flavien Prat three races back. But Brown remains confident that he has the goods when it matters most, especially during a Del Mar Breeders’ Cup weekend. In the two editions so far at the San Diego oval, he has two wins, three seconds and three thirds.

“Two works back (four furlongs in 49 1/5 seconds on Oct. 19 at Belmont Park), he was very impressive in his work and, by design, did a little something easier one week out (four furlongs in 49 4/5 on Oct. 26 at Belmont Park) from the race,” Brown said. “He was very good in both works and I’m very pleased with him and his preparation. Certainly, we are hopeful for his best effort. The horse’s numbers are trending faster and I think he’s certainly one of the fastest of the crop. If he runs to his last couple of numbers, he will certainly be very competitive.

“I know we get a lot of publicity about being a turf operation, but we’ve done extremely well on the dirt, especially on the West Coast at Del Mar and Santa Anita,” he continued. “That, naturally, gives us some optimism that he will perform the way we expect him to. I know his style might not be necessarily conducive to being successful at Del Mar, which can be a little speedy, but our record is good there and our horses generally take to the track. I’m hoping we can continue that good run.”

Being a son of Gun Runner, a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner in his 4-year-old season who was markedly better in said campaign, compared to his sophomore year, it is no surprise that the 18-time Breeders’ Cup winner is hopeful that the handsome dark bay returns to his yard for one more go.

“They have not made the decision if he will stay in training,” Brown said. “The decision will be made at a later date, but of course I would love to keep the horse for next year.”

Tapit Trice

Trainer: Todd Pletcher

Jockey: Irad Ortiz Jr.

Morning activity: Galloped about one mile under exercise rider Amelia Green

Planned activity: Scheduled to gallop about one mile again

Pletcher on how has he been since his fourth in the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1): “He came back with a good win in the Woodward (G2). The Jockey Club was only a second start of the year, and I think having that race under his belt, the Woodward, hopefully will have him in a position to be at his best.

Ushba Tesoro

Trainer: Noboru Takagi

Jockey: Yuga Kawada

Morning activity: He did an easy exercise on the main track and paddock schooled

Racing manager: “He is in better form than he was last year. We would like to win again.”