Juvenile-Derby double is rare

Top trainers realize Breeders’ Cup victory for 2-year-olds doesn’t translate in Kentucky.

- BY JOHN CHERWA

The paddock at Del Mar was packed on Monday with owners, trainers and racing officials.

The drinks were flowing and the hors d’oeuvres nearby. The reason? They were drawing post positions for the 14 Breeders’ Cup races that will be held Friday and Saturday.

NBC’s Britney Eurton and Nick Luck moved through all the races efficiently. When it came time for the Juvenile for 2-year-old males, Eurton concluded by saying the winner of this race would be the Kentucky Derby favorite.

Favorite, yes. Winner, not likely.

In 41 runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, which is the ninth race on Friday’s card, only two horses have been able to pull off the Juvenile-Kentucky Derby double. Street Sense did it in 2006-2007 and Nyquist in 2015-2016.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has won the Juvenile six times and the Kentucky Derby six times. But never with the same horse. He won last year’s Juvenile with Citizen Bull, who finished 15th in the Kentucky Derby. Citizen Bull will be running in the Dirt Mile on Saturday.

"I think a lot of them [that win the Juvenile] are early maturing types," Baffert said. "Sometimes you can win the Juvenile with a precocious kind of horse ... Citizen Bull won it, but he had distance limitations."