Sierra Leone

Japanese horse racing has been on the precipice of breaking through on the U.S. scene. It seemed like it was almost there in 2021 when it won three Breeders’ Cup races. But after that it leveled off.

Through 10 races at this year’s Breeders’ Cup, horses from Japan underperformed. But in the 11th, the most important race in the two-day event, the breakthrough became official when Forever Young held off Sierra Leone, last year’s winner, to win the $7-million Breeders’ Cup Classic by a half-length.

The last time we saw Forever Young in this country was a year ago when the 4-year-old colt finished third in the Classic. Before that, he was third in the Kentucky Derby by a whisker while being on the receiving end of some bumping down the stretch by Sierra Leone. Without that he might have been victorious in a race that was won by Mystik Dan.

The commonality between the 2021 and 2025 Breeders’ Cup days was that both were run at Del Mar.

Forever Young was almost the victim of some legal chicanery on Saturday as trainer Chad Brown entered a horse — called a rabbit — with little chance to win so that he could set a fast pace. Sierra Leone, also trained by Brown, needs a fast pace to weaken the other horses, which would benefit Sierra Leone’s late running style.

But this time, Forever Young overcame all the obstacles thrown at him. He ran a very tactical race being placed close to the lead and never farther back than third.

Forever Young paid $9.00 to win. He was followed in order by Sierra Leone, Fierceness, Journalism, Mindframe, Baeza, Nevada Beach, Antiquarian and Contrary Thinking, who was the rabbit in the 1 1/4- mile race.

It was the third Breeders’ Cup win for trainer Yoshito Yahagi. When asked if this was his most satisfying win, Yahagi said, through a translator: “I will never, ever get satisfied until I get retired as a trainer.”

Forever Young was the third foreign horse to win the Classic, joining Argentine-bred Invasor in 2006 and Irish-bred Black Tie Affair in 1991.

“So last time here, the horse was 75% conditioned,” Yahagi said. “And this time we create 100% condition. Forever Young is an amazing horse.”

The winning jockey was Ryusei Sakai.

“We got the No. 1 in America,” Yahagi said to NBC.

The Classic lost a lot of luster when the favorite, Sovereignty, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, was scratched earlier in the week when he spiked a fever. Sovereignty was the top-rated horse in the country and a possible horse-of-the-year winner. Many were hoping for a rematch with Journalism, who finished second in both those races and won the Preakness, which Sovereignty did not run in.

Trainer Bill Mott only brought two horses to the Breeders’ Cup, Sovereignty and Scylla. While Sovereignty didn’t make the starting gate on Saturday, Scylla ($17.20 to win) sure did, winning the biggest race of the year for female horses, the $2-million Distaff.

“It’s certainly difficult to see what happened to Sovereignty,” Mott said. “I think everybody that’s connected [with this sport] has been through it and we knew when it happened, he wouldn’t be able to compete and not at the level that he would need to. And it seems as though he’s recovering well but he’s really not the story here.

“I mean this one is about Scylla and about Junior [Alvarado, his jockey] and the Juddmonte connections.”

Alvarado took her to the front and never looked back, winning the 1 1/8-mile race by 5 1/2 lengths. Nitrogen was second and Regaled finished third. Favorite Seismic Beauty contended early but then faded to 12th in the 13-horse field.

The second richest race on the card, the $5-million Turf, was supposed be a matchup of two-time winner Rebel’s Romance and Minnie Hauk, who had five wins and two seconds in seven starts. They ran together for most of the 1 1/2-mile race but long shot Ethical Diamond started rolling in the top of the stretch and cruised to a 1 1/4-length win. Rebel’s Romance was second.

The Irish-bred Ethical Diamond, trained by William Mullins and ridden by Dylan Browne McMonagle, paid $57.40 to win.

The first Breeders’ Cup race of the day, the $1-million Filly & Mare Sprint, became less interesting when two of the favorites, Sweet Azteca (2-1 morning line) and Tamara (7-2), were scratched by the veterinarian. There was a third scratch that took the field down to seven.

Bob Baffert had three of the horses in the race, including Splendora, who won in dominating fashion by 4 3/4 lengths and paid $7.80. He was midpack until the far turn of the seven-furlong race before jockey Flavien Prat let him loose in the stretch.

It was Baffert’s 20th Breeders’ Cup win, tying him for second with the late Wayne Lukas. Aidan O’Brien won his 21st Breeders’ Cup race on Friday.

“[Lukas] changed every industry for the better,” Baffert said. “He brought elegance to the game. … To be part of it and then to tie him, it’s an honor for me. … I still miss him. I loved having conversations with him. It’s an honor to tie him.”

Shisospicy ($12.60) broke on top and held the lead to the finish to win the $1-million Turf Sprint, which was ran at five furlongs. The 3-year-old filly is trained by Jose Francisco D’Angelo and was ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr., who picked up his 22nd Cup victory.

She’s Quality was eased shortly out of the gate in the Turf Sprint by jockey Colin Keane and walked onto the equine ambulance. She was transported to an equine hospital and is back in her barn being monitored.

Ortiz picked up his 23rd win in the next race when he won the $2-million Sprint aboard Bentornato. It was also the second straight victory for D’Angelo. Bentornato broke on top and was never headed in the six-furlong race. It was only his second race of the year for the 4-year-old ridgling. Bentornato finished second in last year’s Sprint, losing to Straight No Chaser, who finished seventh on Saturday.

There were three additional Breeders’ Cup races after the Classic, the turf Mile, Dirt Mile and Filly & Mare Turf.

Banana Islands, Sierra Leone – As the sun dips below the horizon, Emmanuel Pratt tugs a worn cord and the outboard engine sputters to life. His wooden canoe, painted in white and faded blue, cuts through the darkening waters. Fruit bats screech overhead.

Pratt, 35, is a seasoned sea cucumber diver from the Banana Islands – an archipelago home to about 500 people in Sierra Leone. For 15 years, he has made a living scouring the ocean floor for these creatures that resemble warty, oversized sea slugs. They hide in the silt by day and emerge at night to inch across the ocean floor, gobbling up decomposing matter.

Also on the canoe, 25-year-old Omolade Jones – sweating in a half-zipped-up wetsuit – perches on the edge of the boat and gazes out at the dark water.

After 10 minutes, the younger diver gestures at Pratt to cut the engine and readies himself to dive. Jones blows on his mask, grabs an underwater torch and wraps a breathing hose around his waist.

The seabed surrounding the small, jungle-coated archipelago used to teem with sea cucumbers. Nowadays, they are scarce and scattered.  Freediving is no longer an option. Pratt and Jones have to dive deeper, for longer, to find their catch.

They have turned to “hookah diving” – a makeshift system where air is pumped from a diesel-powered generator on the boat down through a plastic hose. It is a risky and fragile lifeline. The engines are often old and the air is easily contaminated by diesel fumes. And experts say it is much more dangerous than scuba or free diving.

As the diesel engine that powers his air supply rattles in the boat, Jones quietly slips over the edge into the black water. The yellow hose trails behind him as he swims away from the canoe. Minutes later, his torch lights up a column of water above the seabed.

Pratt sits in the canoe, a cigarette dangling from his lips, his eyes fixed on the spot where Jones’s light is. “The cucumbers are running out,” he says glumly.

While they used to haul in dozens of buckets of sea cucumbers a night, now they struggle to find a handful. Pratt says the divers rarely make more than $40 on a dive – barely enough to cover the costs of fuel or to hire some of the diving equipment.

Not long after Jones exits the boat, he flashes his torch to signal that he is ready to swim back in. When he reaches the canoe, he hoists himself up on the side with his forearms. In one hand, he holds the torch, in the other, a small, brown sea cucumber.

Pratt takes his turn and disappears into the dark water. He surfaces a while later with a sea cucumber. But the divers are unimpressed. After a couple of hours at sea, they head back to the mooring with a meagre catch of just three specimens.

Overhead, the almost-full moon casts a white sheen over the water and dimly illuminates the way home.

WASHINGTON — President Trump is resurrecting the travel ban policy from his first term, signing a proclamation Wednesday night preventing people from a dozen countries from entering the United States.

The countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

In addition to the ban, which takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday Eastern time, there will be heightened restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

“I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people,” Trump said in his proclamation.

The list results from a Jan. 20 executive order Trump issued requiring the departments of State and Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to compile a report on “hostile attitudes” toward the U.S. and whether entry from certain countries represented a national security risk.

During his first term, Trump issued an executive order in January 2017 banning travel to the U.S. by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

It was one of the most chaotic and confusing moments of his young presidency. Travelers from those nations were either barred from getting on their flights to the U.S. or detained at U.S. airports after they landed. They included students and faculty as well as businesspeople, tourists and people visiting friends and family.

The order, often referred to as the “Muslim ban” or the “travel ban,” was retooled amid legal challenges, until a version was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.

The ban affected various categories of travelers and immigrants from Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Libya, plus North Koreans and some Venezuelan government officials and their families.

Trump and others have defended the initial ban on national security grounds, arguing it was aimed at protecting the country and not founded on anti-Muslim bias. However, the president had called for an explicit ban on Muslims during his first campaign for the White House.

Megerian and Amiri write for the Associated Press.