Authentic Takes Home Champion 3-Year-Old Male Honors
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Photo: Skip Dickstein
Authentic wins the Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland
The 2020 championship for 3-year-old male proved a tale of two halves in a revamped racing schedule with Authentic nailing down the Eclipse Award with his front-running score in the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Keeneland.
Divisional finalist Tiz the Law rolled to three straight top-level victories from late March through early August: the Curlin Florida Derby (G1), the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1), and the Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1). But Authentic would win three grade 1 races of his own and defeated Tiz the Law in the latter two: the TVG.com Haskell Stakes (G1), the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), and the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1).
In a season that saw unprecedented calendar changes, Authentic won a Derby contested in September, then finished a close second—after a memorable stretch battle with filly Swiss Skydiver—in a Preakness Stakes (G1) contested in October, and then locked things up with his Breeders' Cup Classic score.
Authentic also is a finalist for 2020 Horse of the Year, along with Monomoy Girl and Improbable .
Authentic is the first Kentucky Derby winner to claim the Breeders' Cup Classic since Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in 2015. Both American Pharoah and Authentic were trained by Bob Baffert. Authentic's regular rider was John Velazquez and he was campaigned for most of the year by the partnership of B. Wayne Hughes' Spendthrift Farm, MyRacehorse Stable, Sol Kumin's Madaket Stables, and Jack Wolf's Starlight Racing.
Bred in Kentucky by Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds out of the Mr. Greeley mare Flawless, Authentic is the first classic winner for Into Mischief , who finished as leading sire for a second straight year.
The other 2020 3-year-old male finalist was Nadal, who won a division of the Arkansas Derby (G1).