2024 Breeders’ Cup trainer and jockey trends

The 2024 Breeders’ Cup will descend upon Del Mar on Nov. 1 and 2, when the top trainers and jockeys from around the globe compete in the 41st running of the World Championships.

Trainer Bob Baffert continues to inch closer to the all-time mark for Breeders’ Cup victories, but the current record holder, D. Wayne Lukas, still has a chance to add to his tally, too.

The all-time leading jockey in Breeders’ Cup earnings, Mike Smith, is also likely to appear in this year's two-day event, yet the door is wide open for John Velazquez to lessen the gap between him and Smith in both earnings and victories.

Below, TwinSpires dives deeper into these numbers and more with the top trainer and jockey trends ahead of 2024.

Three trainers could overtake Lukas’ wins record in 2024

With 20 Breeders’ Cup victories across his lengthy career, Lukas is the all-time leader at the World Championships, but any one of Baffert, Chad Brown, or Irish icon Aidan O’Brien could end up at the top of the wins rankings in 2024.

Lukas first visited the Breeders’ Cup winner’s circle in 1985, when Twilight Ridge won the Juvenile Fillies and Life’s Magic crossed the wire first in the Distaff. He could enhance his Breeders’ Cup win tally in 2024 with Preakness (G1) victor Seize the Grey, who’s pre-entered in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) and coming into the race in good form off a 3 3/4-length romp in the Pennsylvania Derby (G1).

Lurking close behind Lukas is that trio of trainers, with Baffert and O'Brien at 18 and Brown at 16. All of them have multiple Breeders’ Cup pre-entries this year, and any of them could hold the wins record by the end of Breeders’ Cup weekend.

Baffert the king of the Classic

When it comes to the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), Baffert is easily in the lead for earnings, with $22,124,400. He’s saddled four winners, six runners-up, and three third-place finishers from 29 starters and will go for a fifth victory in 2024 with Newgate.

All four of his previous victories have come in the last decade, beginning with Bayern in 2014, followed by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in 2015, Arrogate in 2016, and Authentic in 2020.

Behind Baffert are four trainers tied for second in Classic wins with two apiece: Bill Mott, John Sadler, Steve Asmussen, and Rick Dutrow. Sadler is the only other trainer to win the Classic twice in the last decade. He did so in 2018 with Accelerate and 2022 with Flightline, who achieved the largest margin of victory in the Classic at 8 1/4 lengths.

Aidan O’Brien too tough on the turf

In the Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1), European trainers tend to dominate, and no one is more successful than O’Brien, with seven Breeders’ Cup Turf successes and $17,535,600 in earnings. Of his 34 starters thus far, six have also placed second, and five have come home third.

Dating back to 2014, O’Brien has visited the winner’s circle three times in the Turf, including with last year’s victor Auguste Rodin. Charlie Appleby has also had multiple winners over the last decade, in 2021 with Yibir and 2022 with Rebel’s Romance, who’s looking for his second Turf title in 2024.

Only two American trainers have won the Turf since 2014: Graham Motion with Main Sequence in 2014 and Chad Brown with Bricks and Mortar in 2019. Four American trainers are pre-entered in the 2024 Turf: Francisco Garcia with El Encinal, Christophe Clement with Far Bridge, Phil D'Amato with Gold Phoenix, and Todd Pletcher with Grand Sonata.

Top jockeys headed to 2024 Breeders’ Cup

At the age of 59, Smith is still active in racing and could show up at Del Mar in an effort to extend his already staggering record of 27 wins at the World Championships. The Triple Crown-winning jockey has also earned a record $38,464,605 at the Breeders’ Cup, but John Velazquez is getting closer to that total, with $37,030,275 in earnings at the two-day event.

Velazquez and Irad Ortiz Jr. are tied for the second most wins by a jockey, with 20. Ortiz, at age 32, got his first Breeders’ Cup mount in 2012 and is on pace to far surpass Smith’s record by the time Ortiz retires. Dating back to 2018, he has won the Bill Shoemaker Outstanding Jockey Award at the Breeders’ Cup every year but 2022, when Ryan Moore earned the honor. At Keeneland that year, Moore had three Breeders' Cup victories, the same as Ortiz, but Moore tallied three second-place finishes compared to Ortiz's one.

Oldest, youngest winning Breeders’ Cup trainers, jockeys

The oldest trainer to win a Breeders’ Cup race is Lukas, who triumphed in the 2014 Juvenile Fillies with Take Charge Brandi when Lukas was 79. Now age 89, he could set a record with Seize the Grey should he seize the Dirt Mile.

O’Brien’s son Joseph became the youngest trainer (age 26) to win at the World Championships in 2019 with Iridessa in the Filly & Mare Turf. He’s likewise the youngest jockey to finish first at the Breeders’ Cup. Eight years prior to his feat as a trainer, Joseph guided St Nicholas Abbey to a win in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Turf. 

His brother Donnacha, age 26, will look to follow in his sibling’s footsteps as the trainer of Porta Fortuna, a pre-entry in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1).

The oldest jockey to win at the Breeders’ Cup is Bill Shoemaker, who was 56 when he guided future Horse of the Year Ferdinand to glory in the 1987 Classic. It was Shoemaker's lone victory at the Breeders’ Cup from 14 career mounts. He also finished second twice and third twice as well as earned $2,226,000 at the World Championships.