The weekend racing fans wait for all year long is almost here as the top horses in the country and many from around the world will travel to Del Mar for the 2024 Breeders’ Cup. The action kicks off on Future Stars Friday, Nov. 1, with five races for 2-year-olds: the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, the John Deere Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, as well as the two most prominent 2-year-old races that will be run all year, the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.

USA Network and FanDuel TV will both televise the first day of this year’s Breeders’ Cup. USA Network coverage will take place from 4-8 p.m. ET / 1-5 p.m. PT and will include two undercard races and the first four Breeders’ Cup races. FanDuel TV coverage of the entire Friday program will begin at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT with the first undercard race. Continuous coverage of all Breeders’ Cup races on Friday plus the two preceding undercard races will stream live on Peacock.

Let’s take a look at some key things to know about the Future Stars Friday Breeders’ Cup races.

$1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint

Distance: Five furlongs on turf

Post time: 5:45 p.m. ET

Wagering Menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, daily double, pick 3, pick 5, all-turf $3 pick 3

Governor Sam (Coady Media)

Background: This newest Breeders’ Cup race is no Johnny come lately anymore. It will be run for the seventh time in 2024. Trainer Michael Appleby won this race last year with multiple stakes-winning Irish invader Big Evs, who was this race’s second European winner in a row after trainer Charlie Appleby won in 2022 with Mischief Magic. Trainer Wesley Ward has won three of the prior six runnings of this race but is without a contender in 2024.

Favorites: Michael Appleby is seeking his second win in a row with Big Mojo, who exits a second in the same Irish prep race won by Big Evs last year. The horse that beat Big Mojo in that race, Aesterius, is also a major contender. Turf sprint ace trainer George Weaver saddles perhaps the top U.S.-based challenger, three-time stakes winner Governor Sam.

Interesting storylines: European invaders have swept the exacta in this race in both of the last two years. In the only prior running of this race at Del Mar in 2021, Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. guided the filly Twilight Gleaming to victory ($12.40 to win) atop a 12-horse field.

$2 million NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies

Distance: 1 1/16 miles on dirt

Post Time: 6:25 p.m. ET

Wagering menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, daily double, pick 3, pick 4, special Juvenile Fillies (Friday) – Distaff (Saturday) daily double

Immersive (Eclipse Sportswire)

Background: One of Friday’s “original seven” Breeders’ Cup races along with the Juvenile, the Juvenile Fillies has been a staple of the Breeders’ Cup since the event’s inception in 1984. The winner of this race is almost always voted the Eclipse Award champion 2-year-old filly, including all of the last 10 winners up through Just F Y I in 2023.

Favorites: The 2024 Juvenile Fillies favorite likely will be one of the three winners of the key final prep races for the Juvenile Fillies. This trio includes Scottish Lassie who won the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes at Belmont at the Big A, Immersive who won Keeneland’s Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades Stakes, and Non Compliant, who won the Oak Leaf Stakes Presented by Oak Tree at Santa Anita Park.

Interesting storylines: This race is typically not friendly to chalk with only three favorites winning the past 13 years including Echo Zulu in 2021, Songbird in 2015, and My Miss Aurelia in 2011. Last year’s favorite, Tamara, finished seventh in a 12-horse field, and 2022 favorite Chop Chop finished last.

$1 million John Deere Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf

Distance: One mile on turf

Post Time: 7:05 p.m. ET

Wagering menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, daily double, pick 3

Lake Victoria (Eclipse Sportswire)

Background: Somewhat surprisingly, the Juvenile Fillies Turf has been dominated by U.S.-based fillies in its 16-year history since first being run in 2008. Meditate, who won this race for trainer Aidan O’Brien and jockey Ryan Moore in 2022, is one of only three European invaders to win along with Flotilla in 2012 and Chriselliam in 2013.

Favorites: One of the reasons the Europeans often strikeout in this race is because they sometimes don’t send their top-caliber 2-year-old fillies to the Breeders’ Cup. That’s not expected to be the case this year thanks to O’Brien’s Lake Victoria, who has begun her career in sensational fashion with four wins in four starts including two Group 1 victories. Lake Victoria tops of a trio of O’Brien toughies that also includes Heavens Gate and Bubbling. If the North American runners hold serve again this year, it could be thanks to Thought Process, who exits a win in Santa Anita Park’s Surfer Girl Stakes.

Interesting storylines: Trainer Chad Brown has been the dominating force in this race’s history with six wins in the 16 prior runnings of the race including last year’s winner Hard to Justify, who joined Brown’s past win parade that included Newspaperofrecord (2018), Rushing Fall (2017), New Money Honey (2016), Lady Eli (2014), and Maram (2008). This year, Brown’s hopes will rest on the runner-up from the Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes, Virgin Colada.

$2 million FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance

Distance: 1 1/16 miles on dirt

Post Time: 7:45 p.m. ET

Wagering menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, daily double, special Juvenile (Friday) – Classic (Saturday) double

Chancer McPatrick (Eclipse Sportswire)

Background: Arguably the featured race on Future Stars Friday, the Juvenile has been one of the Breeders’ Cup’s marquee events since the first edition in 1984. Featuring the best and most precocious 2-year-old colts and geldings, the Juvenile is the place where the search unofficially begins for next year’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve winner. Most Juvenile winners, including Fierceness in 2023, Forte in 2022, Corniche in 2021, and Essential Quality in 2020, have gone on to win the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old.

Favorites: Top challengers will include Keeneland’s Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity winner East Avenue and Chancer McPatrick, the back-to-back Grade 1 winner of both the Hopeful Stakes and Champagne Stakes. Trainer Bob Baffert also will send out two top contenders with his American Pharoah Stakes Presented by DK Horse winner Citizen Bull and his Del Mar Futurity winner Gaming likely to be among the favorites.

Interesting storylines: The Juvenile has not been a good predictor of Kentucky Derby winners. Only two winners in the history of this race won the Derby the following year, Street Sense in 2006 and Nyquist in 2015. Will the 2024 Juvenile produce some of the principal contenders for the 2024 Triple Crown? Let’s see. Optimistic fans can point to the 2022 Juvenile where the third- and fourth-place finishers, National Treasure and Blazing Sevens, missed the Derby but did come back to run 1-2 in the 2023 Preakness Stakes. 2020 was another good year for the Juvenile which produced several future stars including the winner Essential Quality, plus Hot Rod Charlie, Jackie’s Warrior, and Rombauer. On the flip side, the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile failed to yield one single starter in the 2022 Kentucky Derby. Fierceness, the winner of the 2023 Juvenile, was the only horse in the race to make it to this year’s Kentucky Derby, where he finished 15^th. Thankfully for his fans he later made up for it when he won the Grade 1 DraftKings Travers Stakes this summer at Saratoga, and he’s now a leading contender for the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 2.

$1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf

Distance: One mile on the turf

Post Time: 8:25 p.m. ET

Wagering menu: Win/place/show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super hi-5, special Juvenile Turf (Friday) – Turf (Saturday) daily double

New Century bests Al Qudra. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Background: The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf was first held in 2007 – one year before the start of the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Unlike in its filly counterpart on the Breeders’ Cup card, Europeans have historically done very well in this race with wins in 12 of the first 17 editions. Euro dominance was on full display in 2023 when Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore connections ran 1-2 with Unquestionable and Mountain Bear. In the 2022 Juvenile Turf it was more of the same when Victoria Road, representing Coolmore, beat Silver Knott, representing Godolphin, by a nose in a thriller. The last American win in the Juvenile Turf was in 2020 when Fire at Will pulled off the upset for Mike Maker, but even then, Europeans still managed to finish second, fourth, and fifth.

Favorites: This year’s Juvenile Turf favorites could end up being the 1-2 finishers coming out of the Grade 1 bet365 Summer Stakes at Woodbine – winner New Century and runner-up Al Qudra. Both are European imports who already have the benefit of that prior North American outing under their belts.

Interesting storylines: Counting Unquestionable last year, O’Brien and jockey Ryan Moore have teamed up to win six times in 17 prior runnings of the Juvenile Turf, so whichever horse they show up with will be considered by many to be the horse to beat in 2024. Mentee, winner of the Grade 3 Futurity Stakes at Belmont at the Big A for trainer Todd Pletcher in his last start, is the full brother to 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile champion Fierceness. Mentee will look to follow in his big brother’s success – sort of. While Fierceness, also trained by Pletcher, earned his Breeders’ Cup glory on the dirt, Mentee will try to make a name for himself on the grass.