Founder & Editor · Last reviewed 2026-10-21
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Trainers based in Britain, Ireland and France won 37 of the 68 turf races run at the last ten Breeders' Cups, from 2016 to 2025. That is our own count: we took the winner of every turf race at those meetings from two separate results lists, checked that they agreed on each horse and trainer, and sorted the winners by where the trainer is based.
The record is far from even across the card. A European stable won the Turf nine times in those ten runnings but the Turf Sprint only twice. Dirt is harder again. The Classic has had two European-trained winners since it was first run in 1984: Arcangues for André Fabre in 1993 and Raven's Pass for John GosdenAdd J & T Gosden to the Horse Tracker in 2008.
None of this picks a winner for 2026. The dates, all 14 races day by day and the UK viewing times are in our Breeders' Cup 2026 guide; this page sticks to the record.
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Europe's record race by race, 2016 to 2025
A winner counts as European here when its trainer was based in Britain, Ireland or France; where the horse was bred makes no difference. Every row was checked against two independent winners lists. The Juvenile Turf Sprint was first run in 2018, so it has eight runnings in the period.
| Race | European-trained winners | Who won them |
|---|---|---|
| Turf | 9 of 10 | Highland Reel 2016 and Auguste Rodin 2023 (Aidan O'Brien), Talismanic 2017 (André Fabre), Enable 2018 (John Gosden), Tarnawa 2020 (Dermot Weld), Yibir 2021, Rebel's Romance 2022 and 2024 (Charlie Appleby), Ethical Diamond 2025 (Willie Mullins) |
| Juvenile Turf | 7 of 10 | Mendelssohn 2017, Victoria Road 2022, Unquestionable 2023, Henri Matisse 2024, Gstaad 2025 (Aidan O'Brien); Line Of Duty 2018, Modern Games 2021 (Charlie Appleby) |
| Filly & Mare Turf | 7 of 10 | Queen's Trust 2016 (Sir Michael Stoute), Wuheida 2017 (Charlie Appleby), Iridessa 2019 (Joseph O'Brien), Audarya 2020 (James Fanshawe), Tuesday 2022 (Aidan O'Brien), Inspiral 2023 (John & Thady Gosden), Gezora 2025 (Francis-Henri Graffard) |
| Mile | 6 of 10 | Expert Eye 2018 (Sir Michael Stoute), Order Of Australia 2020 (Aidan O'Brien), Space Blues 2021, Modern Games 2022, Master Of The Seas 2023, Notable Speech 2025 (Charlie Appleby) |
| Juvenile Fillies Turf | 3 of 10 | Meditate 2022, Lake Victoria 2024 (Aidan O'Brien), Balantina 2025 (Donnacha O'Brien) |
| Juvenile Turf Sprint | 3 of 8 | Mischief Magic 2022 (Charlie Appleby), Big Evs 2023 (Michael Appleby), Magnum Force 2024 (Ger Lyons) |
| Turf Sprint | 2 of 10 | Glass Slippers 2020 (Kevin Ryan), Starlust 2024 (Ralph Beckett) |
| All seven turf races | 37 of 68 | |
| Classic (dirt) | 0 of 10 | Two ever: Arcangues 1993 (André Fabre), Raven's Pass 2008 (John Gosden) |
Europe does best in the longer turf races
The Turf, over 1m 4f, is where European form has travelled best. Bricks And Mortar, Chad Brown's winner in 2019, is the only American-trained winner since 2015, so Europe has taken ten of the last eleven runnings. Every European winner of the Juvenile Turf in the table came from Aidan O'BrienAdd A P O'Brien to the Horse Tracker or Charlie ApplebyAdd C Appleby to the Horse Tracker. The two turf sprints go the other way: American trainers won eight of the last ten Turf Sprints, and Wesley Ward won three Juvenile Turf Sprints in a row from 2019.
The last six meetings have been Europe's strongest
European stables won nine turf races across the four meetings from 2016 to 2019, only one of them in 2019. At the six meetings since, the totals run 4, 3, 6, 5, 5 and 5, which makes 28, with O'Brien and Appleby training nine each. The six in 2022 came at Keeneland, which staged it again in 2026, where the Turf Sprint was the only turf race the visitors lost.
The trainers behind the record
By the end of 2025, Aidan O'BrienAdd A P O'Brien to the Horse Tracker had trained 21 Breeders' Cup winners. Gstaad'sAdd Gstaad to the Horse Tracker 2025 Juvenile Turf was his 21st, level with Bob Baffert at the top of Wikipedia's list and one ahead of D. Wayne Lukas. Seven of O'Brien's wins came in the Turf, a record for the race, and eight in the Juvenile Turf, including the last four runnings.
Charlie ApplebyAdd C Appleby to the Horse Tracker had 12 by the end of 2025. His first came with Outstrip in the 2013 Juvenile Turf, he had 11 before the 2025 meeting, and Notable Speech'sAdd Notable Speech to the Horse Tracker Mile made it 12. The Mile is his race: he won it in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025. He has won the Turf three times too, with Yibir and twice with Rebel's RomanceAdd Rebel's Romance to the Horse Tracker.
John Gosden, now training with his son Thady as John and Thady GosdenAdd J & T Gosden to the Horse Tracker, is the only one of the three to have won the Classic, with Raven's Pass in 2008. He also won the 2018 Turf with Enable, and the joint licence took the 2023 Filly & Mare Turf with Inspiral.
Away from the top two, the wins are spread thin. Of the 28 European winners since 2020, ten came from ten different stables, from Kevin Ryan'sAdd K A Ryan to the Horse Tracker Glass Slippers in the 2020 Turf Sprint to Willie Mullins'sAdd W P Mullins to the Horse Tracker Ethical DiamondAdd Ethical Diamond to the Horse Tracker in the 2025 Turf.
Keeneland in 2026, and the rules European runners face
Keeneland, in Lexington, Kentucky, stages the Breeders' Cup for the fourth time in 2026, after 2015, 2020 and 2022. It has been a good track for the visitors: Found won the Turf and Hit It A Bomb the Juvenile Turf there in 2015, both for Aidan O'BrienAdd A P O'Brien to the Horse Tracker, and European stables won 10 of the 14 turf races at the 2020 and 2022 meetings.
The turf course
The grass course is a seven-and-a-half-furlong oval, and some trips are set to fit it: the Filly & Mare Turf is run over 1 3/16 miles here and both turf sprints over five and a half furlongs.
No race-day Lasix
All 14 Breeders' Cup races were run without race-day medication for the first time in 2021, and the current rules keep it that way. The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), whose rules every runner must follow, bars furosemide, sold as Lasix, in the 48 hours before any stakes race, and HISA's board kept that ban when it reviewed the rule in 2026. European horses race without it at home, so on medication the two sides meet on level terms. O'Brien welcomed the change when it came in, the Associated Press reported.
Quarantine
Horses from abroad spend 42 hours in the USDA quarantine barn at Keeneland for import testing, and in 2026 they must be at the track by 10pm Eastern time on Sunday 25 October, which is 2am on Monday in Britain.
The 2026 European team at pre-entry, 21 October
The Breeders' Cup published a record 255 pre-entries on Wednesday 21 October 2026, and Europe's 70 are all on turf. Our Breeders' Cup tips take that team race by race, with each horse's 2026 record in Britain and Ireland.
Reading the record as a punter
A race's history tells you which kind of horse has won it, not whether this year's price is fair, and bookmakers know Europe's record in the Turf as well as anyone. Use it to decide where to look, then judge each horse on its own form.
Our AI Lab model rates British and Irish racing only, so it has no Breeders' Cup prices; its record on home racing is on the track record page. The star beside a name on this page adds that horse or trainer to your Horse Tracker, with no account needed. Each-way terms on American races vary by bookmaker and by race, and our each-way guide explains the places and fraction.
Bet responsibly
The Breeders' Cup runs across two evenings in Britain and the Classic goes off late on the Saturday, which makes it easy to keep betting past the point you planned. Decide your total for the weekend before Friday's first race and stop when it has gone. Bookmakers build a margin into every price, so over time the odds are against you. If gambling stops being fun, BeGambleAware offers free, confidential help on 0808 8020 133. 18+.
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