By Jarrod Horak
The Grade 1, $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic was the marquee event on Saturday, November 2, 2024, and Sierra Leone stormed home from off to pace to beat post time favorite Fierceness by a length and a half. Japanese invader Forever Young finished third and made it a clean sweep for sophomores.
Sierra Leone, ridden by Flavien Prat and trained by Chad Brown, has been one of my favorite equine athletes this year. The $2.3 million Gun Runner colt won the Risen Star (G2), Blue Grass (G1), and BC Classic (G1), finished second in the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Jim Dandy (G2), and landed the show in the Belmont Stakes (G1) and Travers (G1). His nose defeat in the Kentucky Derby was an especially tough pill to swallow. He was making a wide, winning move turning for home but lugged in and cost himself the race by a nose.
Chad Brown made a rider switch from Tyler Gaffalione to Flavien Prat after the Derby, and he changed his bit and tinkered with his equipment in an attempt to get him to run a straighter course.
