Breeders' cup world thoroughbred championships
Every year, the sport of Horse racing comes to a fitting finale with the Breeders Cup World Thoroughbred Championships. This traveling year-end championship features eight all-star horse races collectively worth $14 million in purses, showcasing the world's best in thoroughbred horses racing.
Unrivaled in its millions in prize money and its international cast of talent, the prestigious Breeders' Cup races offer nonstop action in horse racing betting and handicapping..
Breeders' Cup Limited was founded in 1982 to stage an annual series of championship Thoroughbred races with a multi-million-dollar total purse. The first series of seven races was held Nov. 10, 1984 at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, California, before 64,254 horse racing fans..
In 1986, a separate $250,000 Breeders' Cup Steeplechase was added to the program, it was run two weeks earlier than the series at a different track. But the race was discontinued after 1993. A turf race for fillies and mares was added in 1999..
But the most important race in the series is the Breeders' Cup Classic. It has a total purse of $4 million with a winner's share of more than $2 million. Purses for the eight races now total $13 million..
Breeders' Cup Races
The Breeders' Cup Classic
Distance: 1 ¼ Miles
Age: (G1) 3 Year Olds & Up
Sex: Male & Female
Purse: $4 Million
The Breeders' Cup Classic is considered the most important race in the series of Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships events. This race has produced nine Horses of the Year in its first 20 runnings.
Run at 1 and ¼ miles on dirt, the Breeders' Classic kicked off in 1984 at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, California. Of the $14 million total purse for the eight Breeders' Cup races, the Classic accounts for $4 million, with a winner's share of more than $2 million.
The Breeders' Cup Distaff
Distance: 1 1/8 Miles
Age: (G1) Fillies & Mares 3 Year Olds & Up
Sex: Female
Purse: $2 Million
The Breeders' Cup Distaff has produced three of the seven highest-priced winners in the Breeders' Cup event's history to date. This $2 million race for fillies and mares has actually been among the most consistent and predictable of the original seven Breeders' Cup races (not counting the Filly & Mare Turf, which begun in 1999).
That record of consistency can be traced back as early as to the inaugural Breeders' Cup Distaff in 1984 at Hollywood Park. Princess Rooney, winner of the Vanity Handicap (G1) and Spinster Stakes (G1) in prior starts, went off as the 7-to-10 favorite and rolled to a seven-length victory.
The Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf
Distance: 1 3/8 Miles
Age: (G1) Fillies & Mares 3 Year Olds & Up
Sex: Female
Purse: $1 Million
The Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf was not a part of the original seven Breeders' Cup races group that was begun in 1984. It was in 1998 that the Breeders' Cup board of directors voted on the decision to fill an obvious gap in the lineup by creating a $1 million race for fillies and mares. The first Filly & Mare Turf was held in 1999 at Gulfstream Park.
Until that time, the female turf division had no definitive championship race, and distaffers were forced to race in open company. The audacious misses had to settle for competing against their male counterparts in the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1) and the Breeders' Cup Turf (G1).
The Breeders' Cup Juvenile
Distance: 1 1/16 Miles
Age: (G1) Colts & Geldings 2 Year Olds
Sex: Male
Purse: $1.5 Million
This $1.5 million race is regarded more as a measure of 2-year old-form, as it is basically intended to be among the Breeders' Cup races, and less as a reliable yardstick of classic potential.
For 19 years now, the Juvenile has not been able to field a Kentucky Derby winner, and has only produced one classic winner - Preakness Stakes 1995 victor Timber Country. With regularity, however, the Derby winner and other classic winners have been in the beaten Juvenile field, suggesting that classic winners were either not sufficiently precocious to win the Juvenile or found its distance to be too short for their best efforts.
The Breeder's Cup Juvenile has been run at 1 1/16 miles since 2003. It was originally a 1-mile race in 1984, 1985, and 1987, and was run at 1 1/8 miles in 2002.
The Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies
Distance: 1 1/16 Miles
Age: (G1) Fillies 2 Year Olds
Sex: Female
Purse: $1 Million
The Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies has produced the most champions in year-end Eclipse Award balloting among the Breeders' Cup races. The race is widely regarded as one of the most all-American of the Breeders' Cup races, this $1 million series produced 17 out of 20 winners that were subsequently voted year-end champions.
The first Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies was the second race on the Breeders' Cup inaugural card in 1984 at Hollywood Park.
The Breeders' Cup Mile
Distance: 1 Mile (Turf)
Age: (G1) 3 Year Olds & Up
Sex: Male & Female
Purse: $1.5 Million
The Breeders' Cup Mile has created an interesting pattern of sorts in that, for this $1.5 million series on turf good things have come in two's. Four Mile events of the Breeders' Cup races have had repeat winners. Also, the Mile has had three horses who have posted two victories each.
Miesque, bred by owner Stavros Niarchos' Flaxman Holdings Ltd., sparkled in the Breeders' Cup Mile in 1987 at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, and conquered a significantly slower surface at Churchill Downs in Louisville the following year. Trained by Francois Boutin, the remarkable filly won by 3 ½ lengths in California and by 4 lengths in Kentucky - the largest winning margins in the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships race's history.
The Breeders' Cup Sprint
Distance: 6 Furlongs
Age: 3 Year Olds & Up
Sex: Male & Female
Purse: $1 Million
The Breeders' Cup Sprint gathers the world's fastest horses yearly to create some 70 seconds' worth of high-speed action that have provided some wild results at the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships. This $1 million race has certainly been a competitive one, primarily among North American runners, proving to be a nightmare for handicappers among the Breeders' Cup races.
As a championship event, the Breeders' Cup Sprint has been especially decisive in years when no horse clearly dominated the division. In 12 of the Sprint's 20 runnings, the Eclipse Award for champion sprinter has gone to the winner.
The Breeders' Cup Turf
Distance: 1 ½ Miles (Turf)
Age: (G1) 3 Year Olds & Up
Sex: Male & Female
Purse: $2 Million
Of the Breeders' Cup races, the Breeders' Cup Turf follows racing conditions akin to the classic standard of European thoroughbred racing: 1 ½ miles on grass at weight for age. As a result, overseas runners have won a majority of these $2 million races of the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships.
However, the European contingents have not exactly been dominant. One reason is the racing schedule, set in late October or early November. This is beyond the European calendar, which traditionally culminates for top horses in early October with the running of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Fr-G1). Plus European race horses do not adapt well to warm weather at the Florida or Southern California sites. In fact, American owners and trainers have fielded some outstanding grass runners and defeated top-level European competitors over the years. More of Breeders' Cup >>
