He primary goal of Breeders’ Cup Limited is to build positive public awareness of Thoroughbred racing and to expand opportunities for enhancement of the Thoroughbred business. These objectives are first accomplished through the Breeders’ Cup Championship, a year-end global showcase of the game’s greatest stars.
\nAdditionally, the Breeders’ Cup supports those goals through the funding of a yearlong collection of stakes races, customer marketing programs and nationwide televised races.
\nIt’s the All Star Game of Thoroughbred racing – only better. Eight times greater. It is the Breeders’ Cup Championship, a multi-million dollar extravaganza that brings together the world’s best horses to compete in eight sensational races.The Breeders’ Cup Championship culminates the racing season and crowns the fleetest sprinters, the most promising two-year-olds, the best turf horses. The right to be known as the best of the best belongs, many would argue, to the winner of this day’s final and richest race: the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.
\nThe Breeders’ Cup Championship is nonstop action from the moment the horses step onto the track for its first race, the Distaff, before the garland is draped across the shoulders of the Classic winner . Heart-stopping finishes, stunning upsets, international glamour, old-fashioned fun – Breeders’ Cup Championship has it all.
\nRacing’s richest event is truly a movable feast. Every fall, a different North American track plays host to the Breeders’ Cup Championship in a unique and distinctive way. 1 year finds it in Churchill Downs with its rich trove of history, another at stately Belmont Park, the next at scenic Santa Anita at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. Major tracks compete aggressively for the right to stage the tournament program and each year’s selection is eagerly awaited. At precisely the exact same time, the revolving nature of the Breeders’ Cup Championship ensures it goes back to all of racing.
\nThat is what its founders envisioned while the notion of the Breeders’ Cup took origin in 1982. Racing’s leaders needed a car to market the sport, a showcase for the finest components, and a grand finale to the racing season. The Championship races became the basis of a yearlong program which has allocated over $380 million to owners and breeders since the inaugural 1984 event. The first Breeders’ Cup Championship, in glitzy Hollywood Park, was an instant hit.
\nSince then, the Breeders’ Cup Championship has redefined the racing calendar – getting the season-ending target for the best horses – and given the game a championship event similar to the World Series or the Super Bowl. Most divisional champions crowned since 1984 have engaged in a Breeders’ Cup race. In addition to the Classic, the other races are the Juvenile and the Juvenile Fillies, the Distaff and the Filly & Mare Turf for females ages three and up; the Sprint, the Mile, and the Turf. The latter three are open to horses of both sexes, as is the Classic.
\nThe Breeders’ Cup Championship has provided racing with a number of its finest moments. Images like these are indelibly etched in its rich chronicles: the great Cigar ending his perfect 1995 season with a thrilling victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic; Personal Ensign courageously inching past Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors to retire in 1988; Arazi swooping in from France and magnificent those who watched him in the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
\n“Championship day is definitely racing’s finest hour,” says John R. Gaines, founding father of the Breeders’ Cup and former proprietor of Gainesway Farm near Lexington, Kentucky. “It defines our reason for being and elevates the soul of an whole industry.
\n“Each season is special. Each year is much better. Among the event’s most fascinating elements is the intense competition between North American and European contenders. In virtually every race, national pride is on the line. Owners and trainers from England, Ireland, France, Japan, and Germany now circle the Breeders’ Cup Championship on their calendars and plan their horses’ schedules so.
\nDozens of European horses board cargo airplanes each autumn and cross the Atlantic in search of the Breeders’ Cup’s rich spoils. Their success in many of these races has assured that horses continue coming back. Who will forget the gallant French filly Miesque winning back-to-back editions of the Breeders’ Cup Mile? Or a obscure French-based runner called Arcangues pulling the biggest upset in Breeders’ Cup history, winning the 1993 Classic and paying 269.20 to triumph?
\nHorses have journeyed from as far away as Japan to compete in the Breeders’ Cup Championship. It has been the foremost international racing event. “The program was considered as a revolutionary step when it began, but it is considered a part of the fabric of American racing,” states Breeders’ Cup president D. G. Van Clief, Jr..
\nThe Breeders’ Cup Championship continues to increase in popularity due to its prestige and keen level of competition. Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, holds the records for both attendance and total wagering. The renowned racecourse brought 80,452 spectators in 1998 and if Breeders’ Cup came back to Louisville in 2000, over $108 million has been wagered.
\nBut the Breeders’ Cup Championship is famous beyond the boundaries of the specific host track. NBC has televised the event since its beginning, providing a level of air time unprecedented in Thoroughbred racing. The community’s policy has won Eclipse Awards for National Television Achievement and the Outstanding Live Sports Special of 1992 in the 14th Emmy Awards for Sports annual service.
\nThe buildup to the Breeders’ Cup starts well beforehand of the Championship day. NTRA’s”Racing to the Breeders’ Cup” on ESPN understands the momentum began in early summer and continues through mid-October. The nationally televised series is made up of dozens of stakes races at major tracks across the nation and serves as racing’s version of the playoffs.
\nAlong with television, simulcasting – that the transmission by satellite of real races – has helped further the recognition of the Breeders’ Cup. At precisely the same time, the quality of the races Championship afternoon has made simulcast outlets keen to take the program. The number of sockets demonstrating the telecast is growing by leaps and bounds. In 1984, the seven races were beamed to 19 North American sockets, where patrons wagered $8 million. Today, over 1000 outlets handle in excess of $108 million. Expanding its recognition, the true race sign is sent by satellite to simulcast outlets in over 25 nations, throughout the Western Hemisphere, Europe and Australia. The continued growth of the Breeders’ Cup simulcast across the world is a primary goal of the Breeders’ Cup.
\nMajor corporate sponsors also have helped enhance recognition of the Breeders’ Cup Championship. Sponsors have included Buick, Alberto-Culver, Budweiser, Delta Air Lines, Emirates Airline, Mobil, National Car Rental, Visa and Sears.
\nWhile patrons have brought added name recognition into the Breeders’ Cup, Thoroughbred breeders and owners have been its backbone since the start. They don’t just supply the horses which compete in Breeders’ Cup events, they pay the nominations where the company derives its important source of financing.
\nStallion owners annually pay a nomination fee that is the equivalent of a stallion’s advertised stud fee, or a minimum of 1,000. Breeders pay a nomination fee of $500 for each foal. Nominated horses are eligible to compete for millions in both the National Stakes program and the Breeders’ Cup Championship occasions.
\nAs an international application, the Breeders’ Cup has instituted a nomination procedure to individuals around the globe. Annual nominations from all over the world have made the Breeders’ Cup a worldwide institution.
\nIn a limited time, the Breeders’ Cup has been firmly established as Thoroughbred racing’s most prestigious event. Nothing can equal its millions in prize money or its international cast of talent. No other day of racing could accommodate the Breeders’ Cup Championship for non-stop excitement.
\nThe Breeders’ Cup has accomplished what its founders set out to do – and even much more. It remains the definitive test of winners and has become racing’s most recognizable and successful showpiece. It only promises to increase in the years to come.<\/p>\n