Overview
- Post time for the $7 million Classic is 6:25 p.m. ET on Saturday on NBC at Del Mar.
- Trainer Bill Mott confirmed Sovereignty was withdrawn with a fever, prompting morning-line and strategy shifts for the championship race.
- Chad Brown entered Contrary Thinking as a pace horse for Sierra Leone, drawing an objection from Fierceness co-owner Mike Repole over the intent-to-win standard.
- The field brings back last year’s top finishers — Sierra Leone, Fierceness and Japan’s Forever Young — with 2025 standouts Journalism and Baeza among the nine starters.
- The two-day World Championships offer roughly $34 million in purses and are projected to generate at least $150 million for San Diego, with 55 international runners from a record 13 breeding nations.