The thing about champions is that expectations often outstrip performance. The opposite is often not there as they’re scared of being crushed by the best, so it becomes an exercise of going through the motions.
Champions always still win, but it can be let down.
As the best dirt horse in the world, Forever Young, returned at Belmont it was clearly the first thought of trainer Yoshito Yahagi.
A couple of weeks earlier, World champion sprinter Ka Ying Rising turned a Hong Kong race into a time trial, clocking 1.06 and change for 1200m, which drew gasps from around the world.
Forever Young did was what was expected, also setting a track record mark for the new Belmont. However, his return after a six-month break was more workman than Broadway.
Belmont is the home of perhaps racing’s best performance, Secretariat’s win in the 1973 Belmont Stakes, and New York’s Big Sandy has been rebuilt and was opened by a modern-day hero.
“We are really glad to win the opening day Jockey Club Gold Cup on a special day. This achievement is great for us,” trainer Yoshito Yahagi said through a translator.
“I think I will never see a horse like this again in my career or my life.”
Secretariat is remembered with a statue in the massive paddock, which still has Belmont’s famed Oak Tree. It has been more than a half-billion-dollar project to reimagine Belmont, and opening day had a Japanese star.
Unfortunately, the competition, as with Ka Ying Rising earlier in the month, was modest compared with the star act.
But Forever Young did his job, taking the front at the top of the stretch to win the Jockey Club Gold Cup with the ease expected.
“On the race side, I’m not satisfied with how he ran,” Yahagi said, admitting his star was only 80 per cent it for Friday’s race.
“He had the big spell and we will target the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Of course, I am 100% satisfied with winning the race, but performance-wise, I am only 50 per cent satisfied.
“We will try to improve for the next race.”
FOREVER YOUNG wins at @BelmontPark1905!
The two-time G1 Saudi Cup champion marks his return to the U.S. with victory in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup under @_RYUSEI_0531 for @susumu_fujita and @yahagistable.#サウジカップ | #フォーエバーヤング pic.twitter.com/54iAwmQ2mh
— The Saudi Cup 🏆 (@TheSaudiCup) September 18, 2026
It was an honest appraisal of where Forever Young was for the Jockey Club Gold Cup and where he is going.
Ka Ying Rising used the Chief Executive’s Cup in Hong Kong in a different model. Trainer David Hayes wanted a strong hitout to take the edge off his star, so he was not as fresh as last year when he arrives in Australia for The Everest next month.
“We had him far too fresh arriving in Sydney [last year],” Hayes said.
”I don’t like to change much when they win like that, so we’ll just continue with a bit more base work and that should hold him in better stead for when he arrives [in Sydney], mentally.
“I have no fears because he thrives at Canterbury and he did well here [in quarantine].”
Horsemen know their horses and know where they fit.
Hours after Forever Young did his business in New York, the world’s best jockey James McDonald mentioned Autumn Glow in the same breath as Romantic Warrior after her Seven Stakes victory at Randwick.
Instead of three rivals in New York, she had four in Sydney. She did enough to win, and win clearly.
McDonald will err on the side of caution when talking about horses, but he said that he was never concerned as the star mare made it 13 wins in 14 starts.
“[It was] three-quarter pace around then dash home. They came to me, let her balance up and she went away with it,” McDonald said. “She did what we needed her to do today. She had fun doing it.
“Ears pricked the whole way.
“At the top of the straight [I thought] do I let her go let [and when] I gave her a touch up away she went.”
McDonald believes Autumn Glow, whose coat is let to drop, will explode third-up in the King Charles III Stakes, and you get the feeling champion trainer Chris Waller has the same thought process.
He mentioned Winx in the post-race interview, another hint to where Autumn Glow is heading in the next year.
“I’m pretty happy where she is at. There is some improvement to come, we haven’t screwed her down yet,” Waller said. “We will just look after her, and she will do the rest.”
