Jose Ortiz celebrates aboard Magnitude after winning the 2026 Dubai World Cup, Credit Dubai Racing Club
Breeders’ Cup Press
If the results of one of racing’s premier international racing festivals, the March 28 Dubai World Cup card at Meydan Racecourse, are any indication, the sport is in for plenty of excitement in 2026. That excitement will culminate in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky. Oct. 30-31, and on Saturday four of the world’s top racehorses clinched their spots at the World Championships through the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In.
The Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series is an international series of stakes races, the winners of which receive automatic starting positions and fees paid into a corresponding race of the 2026 Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
The biggest star of the day was Winchell Thoroughbreds’ Magnitude, who took advantage of his early leading position in the $12 million Dubai World Cup (G1) to pull the upset on 2025 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Forever Young (JPN).
Jockey Jose Ortiz hurried the 4-year-old Not This Time colt out of the starting gate while Ryusei Sakai kept Forever Young just a length behind in second. However, Magnitude began to inch away as they turned for home. Forever Young took a while to get into gear, but slowly began to creep back up as Magnitude drifted out in the stretch. However, Magnitude was still too strong and held off the international champion by just under a length.
The colt is now in top form, rallying off three straight victories as he places himself atop the Classic division early in the year. His Hall of Fame trainer, Steve Asmussen, knows how to get a horse from Dubai to the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner’s circle, having trained Gun Runner to win the 2017 edition after finishing second in the World Cup earlier that year.
Aside from toppling the winner of last year’s edition, the victory was monumental for Magnitude as he proved himself at the same 1 1/4-mile distance of the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic, which he completed Saturday in 2:04.38. His only try at the distance before came last August in the Travers Stakes (G1), where he set the pace and faded to finish a very distant third to Kentucky Derby (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Sovereignty, who had been favored over Forever Young in the Classic before being scratched with a fever.
Magnitude was bred in Kentucky by Ron Stolich.
As for Forever Young, owner Susumu Fujita and trainer Yoshito Yahagi should not lose faith. After all, he was third in the Dubai World Cup last year before ending his season with victory in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar.
