The 2017 Breeders' Cup Classic was the 34th running of the

Breeders' Cup Classic The Breeders' Cup Classic is a Grade I Weight for Age thoroughbred horse race for 3-year-olds and older run at a distance of on dirt. It is held annually at a different racetrack as part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships in late October o ...

, part of the 2017 Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships program. It was run on November 4, 2017, at

Del Mar Racetrack The Del Mar Fairgrounds is a event venue in Del Mar, California. The annual San Diego County Fair is held here, which was called the Del Mar Fair from 1984 to 2001. In 1936, the Del Mar Racetrack was built by the Thoroughbred Club with foundin ...

Del Mar, California Del Mar (; Spanish for "Of the Sea") is a beach town in San Diego County, California, located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Established in 1885 as a seaside resort, the city incorporated in 1959. The Del Mar Horse Races are hosted on the De ...

with a purse of $6,000,000. It was expected to be a showdown between the top two horses in North America,

Gun Runner Arms trafficking or gunrunning is the illicit trade of contraband small arms and ammunition, which constitutes part of a broad range of illegal activities often associated with transnational criminal organizations. The illegal trade of small ar ...

and

Arrogate Arrogate (April 11, 2013June 2, 2020) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2016 Travers Stakes in a track record time in his first graded stakes race, stakes appearance. He then won the Breeders' Cup Classic and was named the Ameri ...

, with several other Grade/Group 1 winners providing additional depth in an 11 horse field. However, Arrogate broke poorly and was never a factor in the race. Gun Runner led for most of the race and scored a comfortable victory, likely wrapping up Horse of the Year honors. The Classic is run on dirt at one mile and one-quarter (approximately 2000 m). It is run under

weight-for-age {{use dmy dates, date=October 2022 Weight for Age (WFA) is a term in thoroughbred horse racing which is one of the conditions for a race. History The principle of WFA was developed by Admiral Rous, a handicapper with the English Jockey Club. Rous ...

conditions, with entrants carrying the following weights: *Northern Hemisphere three-year-olds: 122 lb *Southern Hemisphere three-year-olds: 117 lb *Four-year-olds and up: 126 lb *Any fillies or mares receive a 3 lb allowance

Contenders

The 2017 Classic was the final encounter between

, who won the 2016 Classic, and

. Arrogate beat Gun Runner in the 2017 Dubai World Cup in an outstanding performance that made him the world's top ranked racehorse. After returning to North America, Arrogate finished a distant fourth in the

San Diego Handicap The San Diego Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually in late July/early August at Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. This Grade II race is open to horses, age three and up, willing to race one and one-sixteenth miles o ...

at Del Mar Racetrack, leaving questions about whether he liked the surface or if he was no longer at peak ability. He then finished second in the

Pacific Classic The Pacific Classic Stakes is a Grade I American Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds and older over a distance of one and one quarter miles on the dirt track scheduled annually in August at Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. The even ...

and trainer Bob Baffert decided to train the colt up to the Classic – a layoff of over two months. By contrast, Gun Runner had steadily improved in the summer of 2017, easily winning both the

Stephen Foster Handicap The Stephen Foster Stakes is a Grade I American Thoroughbred horse race for horses aged three and older over a distance of miles on the dirt run annually in mid-June at Churchill Downs Spring Meet in Louisville, Kentucky. The race is named in ho ...

and

Whitney Stakes The Whitney Stakes (run as the Whitney Handicap through 2013 and still sometimes referred to as such) is an American Grade 1 stakes race for Thoroughbred racehorses three years of age and older run at a distance of miles. The current purse is $1, ...

. In his final prep for the Classic, he won the

Woodward Stakes The Woodward Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race and is one of the premier races for older thoroughbred horses in the United States. It is named for prominent racehorse owner William Woodward. The race was first run in 1954 at Aqueduct Rac ...

by lengths. Based on these strong performances, Gun Runner was made the slight morning-line favorite for the Classic at 9–5, with Arrogate at 2–1. One question mark was that Gun Runner had never won at the distance of 10 furlongs. Other leading contenders included: * Collected, who defeated Arrogate in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar while leading wire-to-wire *

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

, winner of the

Travers Stakes The Travers Stakes is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race held at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is nicknamed the "Mid-Summer Derby" and is the third-ranked race for American three-year-olds according to internation ...

* Mubtaahij, winner of the

Jockey Club Gold Cup The Jockey Club Gold Cup, established in 1919, is a thoroughbred flat race open to horses of either gender three-years-old and up. It has traditionally been the main event of the fall meeting at Belmont Park, just as the Belmont Stakes is of the sp ...

In the post position draw held on October 30, Arrogate drew post 1 on the rail. To avoid getting trapped in traffic, jockey Mike Smith announced that he would ride the colt aggressively from the starting gate. Gun Runner drew the more favorable post position 5. Trainer

Bob Baffert Robert A. Baffert (born January 13, 1953) is an American racehorse trainer who trained the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify. Baffert's horses have won a record six Kentucky Derbies, seven Preakne ...

had a record four horses in the field – Arrogate, Collected, West Coast and Mubtaahij – all of whom were given strong chances to win. Baffert said of Gun Runner, "He's the only thing between me and a big, fat check." Baffert had won the Classic three years in a row with

Bayern Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

American Pharoah American Pharoah (foaled February 2, 2012) is a Thoroughbred racehorse who won the American Triple Crown and the Breeders' Cup Classic in 2015. He was the 12th Triple Crown winner in history, and in winning all four races, became the first ho ...

and Arrogate. Irish trainer

Aidan O'Brien Aidan Patrick O'Brien (born 16 October 1969 in County Wexford, Ireland) Aidan O'Brien bio NTRA. ...

had two entries,

Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...

and War Decree, neither of which has previously raced on the dirt. Churchill, a dual classic winner at a mile, was given the best chance of the two. "He is very like

Giant's Causeway The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (5 km) northeast of ...

", said O'Brien. "He is miler that you would like to think will get a mile and a quarter."

Race Description

Gun Runner broke well and quickly moved up to the lead with Collected pressing him on the outside. Gun Runner ran a fast opening quarter, then moved easily around the first turn and down the backstretch as jockey Florent Geroux kept him on a loose rein. Rounding the final turn, Collected closed ground and the two were head-and-head with a quarter of a mile remaining. Entering the stretch, Gun Runner responded to the challenge and pulled away, winning by lengths. Collected held on for second while West Coast was third. Gun Runner's win came against an apparent track bias: in most other races that week at Del Mar, races had been won by horses that raced off the rail and came from behind. "My horse was very comfortable right there, and flopping his ear back and forth", said Geroux. "I just tried to keep him as happy as I could." By contrast, Arrogate ducked in at the start and lost over 11 lengths to Gun Runner during the first quarter mile. Never a factor in the race, he made a mild rally in the stretch to finish in a dead heat for fifth place with Gunnevera. "He just can't find the plate", said Baffert. "I hate to make excuses for the big horse, but he's just not the horse he was." The performance solidified Gun Runner's bid for

American Horse of the Year The American Award for Horse of the Year, one of the Eclipse Awards, is the highest honor given in American thoroughbred horse racing. Because Thoroughbred horse racing in the United States has no governing body to sanction the various awards, "Hor ...

honors, based on his record of five wins and a second from six starts during 2017.

Results

Times: – 0:22.50; – 0:46.31; – 1:10.50; mile – 1:35.03; final – 2:01.29.
Fractional Splits: (:22.50) (:23.81) (:24.19) (:24.53) (:26.26) Source: Equibase Chart

Payout

Payout Schedule: * $1

Exacta Parimutuel betting or pool betting is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the Vigorish, "house-take" or "vigorish" are deducted, and payoff Odds#Gambling odds versus probabilities, odds a ...

(5-11) Paid $17.00 * $1

Trifecta Trifecta A trifecta is a parimutuel bet placed on a horse race in which the bettor must predict which horses will finish first, second, and third, in the exact order. Known as a trifecta in the US and Australia, this is known as a tricast in t ...

(5-11-8) Paid $64.50 * $1

Superfecta {{Wiktionary The superfecta is a type of wager in USA and Canada parimutuel betting in which the bettor, in order to win, must pick the first four finishers of a race in the correct sequence. This is even more unlikely than a successful wager in th ...

(5-11-8-4) Paid $1,433.50

References

{{BreedersCup Breeders' Cup

Breeders' Cup Classic, 2017