The Breeders’ Cup is administered by the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, Thoroughbred racing’s year-end Championships. The same administration is also in charge of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge qualifying series that gives automatic starting positions to the Championship races. The fourteen races have a total of $30 million to give away.
Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint
The Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint is a relatively new race, run for the first time in 2007. In the ten years since it was started there has been a couple of interesting trends. The first is that no filly aged three-year-old has ever been successful in the race. The second interesting fact is that eight out of the ten winners at this race were prepped by training on a turf or synthetic track.
Looking at the early declared runners it is difficult to see past Unique Bella. The three-year-old is trained by Jerry Hollendorfer and has been awesome since breaking her maiden by ten lengths at Del Mar Racetrack in California. Since that win, she has won five in a row and in that time beat highly fancied Abel Tasman and It Tiz Well.
Breeders’ Cup Sprint
This year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint promises to be the most competitive and most exciting ever. Defending champion Drefong will face a tough field, with Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes (gr. I) winner Roy H likely to push hard. Drefong’s biggest challenger could come in the form of fast graded stakes winner Imperial Hint. Others to watch out for are Takaful, El Deal and Mind Your Biscuits.
Future Stars Friday
In this year’s event, there will be a Future Stars Friday. All five Juvenile (two-year-old) races will compete on the same day. The day’s climax is the $2 million Sentient Jet Juvenile that will decide who heads back to Churchill Downs in the next year’s edition of the Kentucky Derby.
Uncle Mo, Street Sense, Unbridled’s Song, and Nyquist will be the big names to watch that have made visits to the Breeders’ Cup Winners Circle as two-years-olds. Songbird, who rose to fame and locked down her 2-year-old filly Eclipse Award when she won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies is also one to watch.
The Friday action is a great way to check out the potential winners for the following day. A new race for this year is the Juvenile Turf Sprint. Featuring a 5½ furlong dash on to a grass surface. 3 of the 5 juvenile races will be run on turf.
All the action from this year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships can be watched on the At The Races channel available to satellite and cable subscribers. This will be the last year that At The Races will be broadcasting, with Sky introducing a new HD Channel dedicated to Horse racing to supersede At The Races for the 2019 and 2020 editions. The new channel will have UK and Ireland exclusive rights to all the races from the two-day Championships.
2018 Breeders’ Cup Race Card
Friday 2nd November
Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, 1 1/16 miles, prize money $2,000,000.
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, 1 mile turf, prize money $1,000,000.
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, 1 1/6 miles, prize money $2,000,000.
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, 1 mile turf, prize money $1,000,000.
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, 1 1/6 miles, prize money $2,000,000.
Saturday 3rd November
Breeders’ Cup Classic, 1 1/4 miles, prize money $6,000,000.
Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf, 1 1/2 miles turf, prize money $4,000,000.
Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff, 1 1/8 miles. Prize money $2,000,000.
Breeders’ Cup Mile. 1 mile turf, prize money $2,000,000.
TwinSpires Breeders’ Cup Sprint, 6 furlongs, prize money $2,000,000.
Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, 1 3/8 miles turf, prize money, $2,000,000.
Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, 1 mile, prize money, prize money $1,000,000.
Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, 5.5 furlongs, prize money $1,000,000.
Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, 7 Furlongs, prize money $1,000,000.
