BC Classic Older Horse Rankings

By Jarrod Horak

In this BC Classic older horse rankings article, I will go through all of the 4-year-olds and up runners and rank them in order of preference. Ten older horses have been pre-entered in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. 

I ranked the eight sophomores in the BC Classic earlier this week, and now I will take a look at the ten older horses. To help sort out the older runners, I will use Today’s Racing Digest Final Time Ratings from their last start. 

BC Classic Older Horse Rankings

1 – White Abarrio earned a strong Digest Final Rating (see chart below) in his visually impressive triumph in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga. He sat behind overmatched early runner Giant Game and took over when that one weakened, and he was much the best over Zandon and Cody’s Wish. He traveled early to Santa Anita Park to prepare for the BC Classic and put in a strong workout on October. 27. He had a recent issue with his shoes but all of that seems behind him now. It looks like he is ready to run another quality race from a stalking position. The main question is the distance. He was up the track in his lone try at 1 1/4 miles in the 2022 Kentucky Derby.   

2 – Ushba Tesoro is the mystery horse from Japan, and he has looked good in his recent gallops at Santa Anita Park. He won his last six starts and captured the Grade 1 Dubai World Cup in March. He tuned up for the BC Classic with a nice win in Japan at 1 1/8 miles on Sept. 27. He is definitely not out of this. His speed ratings are unknown but he is classy and almost has to be as good if not better than most of the older horses in this race. 

3 – Zandon is a gem of consistency and he got a confidence boosting win in the Grade 2 Woodward on Oct. 1. The Grade 1 winner finished out of the trifecta once in his 13-race career, and hit the board in nine graded races. I have always liked this one and recommend using him in the exotics. 

4 – Proxy is a consistent, versatile son of Tapit. He is a Grade 1 winner and is 0-for-3 with a pair of runner-up finishes at 1 1/4 miles. He was second by a neck in the Big ‘Cap at this course and distance in March, and he missed by a nose in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at this trip last time. 

5 – Senor Buscador  is a late running exotics threat and his price should be big. He won the San Diego (G2) in July and got the wrong setup in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic and Awesome Again, and he came running for minor shares in the latter two events. 

6 – Bright Future suddenly got good at Saratoga in his last pair. The Curlin colt’s tactical speed should serve him well but this is a much better field than the one he beat in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at the Spa. 

7 – Clapton was an even fourth in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and made a nice late run to win the Grade 2 Lukas Classic at 1 1/8 miles last time. This is a much deeper field. 

8 – Skippylongstocking stole the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic in the slop last time. He failed to crack the top three in his prior two starts at the 1 1/4 miles distance. 

9 – Charge It is capable of big efforts like his victories in the  Dwyer (G3) and Suburban (G2), but he lost his other seven stakes starts and underperformed in almost all of those races. 

10 – Missed the Cut is overmatched. He won for the first time in four starts in the country in the Grade 3 Tokyo City at 1 1/2 miles on Oct. 1.