Like a Broadway musical missing its lead actor, the 2025 Breeders' Cup Classic will have to go on without its headline star. Sovereignty, the strapping 3-year-old colt who won the Kentucky Derby, Belmont and Travers Stakes this year, will not compete in North America's richest race after developing a fever this week. He had been installed as the 6-5 morning-line favorite.

Despite Sovereignty's absence, the $7 million Classic at Del Mar still has a star-studded field. The talented Fierceness, who is coming off a win at Del Mar in the Pacific Classic, has inherited the role as the morning-line favorite at 5-2. The late-running Sierra Leone (7-2) is back to defend his Classic title, while Japanese Invader Forever Young (7-2), who has earned more than $15.7 million in his career, will look to

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