Breeders' Cup

An American Classic

On the 23 April of 1982 John R. Gaines, in the festival previous to the Kentucky Derby, announced a plan which consisted in carrying out an event of several races in one same meeting, all of them millionaires, which appointed him as Director of the Breeders' Cup Ltd.

To get a repercussion from the meeting, not only at national level, but also worldwide, an exclusive contract was signed with the NBC Sports for the open retransmission of this special day.

The BC would be seven races, all of them Grade I, in the same racecourse and in the same day, the first of them with an amount in prizes of 10 million dollars, celebrated in Hollywood Park, California on the 10 of November of 1984. Due to have received eight proposal from different Racing Associations, The Selection Committee of the Breeders chose this racecourse for the beginning of this unique event.

On the 8 of May of 1984 were announced the official names of the seven races to be disputed each year.

In the first great appointment of 1984 there were 77 horses to participate in the seven races which were to be disputed, being the first winner of the BC the horse Chief´s Crown who was proclaimed winner of the BC Juvenile ridden by D. MacBeth and being the winner of the most important race, BC Classic, the jockey Pat Day with the horse Wild Again with more than 64,000 fans seeing his victory in the tribunes of Hollywood Park.

On 5th November of 1984, five days before the dispute of the first BC, Aqueduct Park, in New York, was appointed the place of the BC for the following year, in 1985, in which the number of horses was increased up to 110 horses.

The following two BC were disputed in California, in 1986 in Santa Anita, and the following year again in Hollywood Park, establishing in this last one a record of assistance with more than 69,000 spectators, though the day of the more numerous assistance took place in Churchill Down, Kentucky, on 6th November of 1988, in the 15 edition of the BC with 80,452 fans.

On 31 August of 1987, the definitive names were announced for the seven races, establishing the following names:

1.- BC Sprint
2.- BC Turf
3.- BC Distaff
4.- BC Classic
5.- BC Juvenile
6.- BC Juvenile Fillies
7.- BC Mile

It remained so until the year 1999 where it was decided an additional race, the BC Filly & Mare Turf, whose first winner was Soaring Softly, ridden by Jerry Bailey, over the distance of 1 3/8 mile on the 6th November of the same year, celebrated in Gulfstream Park, Miami.

Three additional Breeders’ Cup races were included for 2007 in a new Friday program that preceded the traditional eight-race card on Saturday, October 27 at Monmouth Park. The new BC races were the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, with a prize of Usd 1 million dollars each one

The amount in prizes of the edition 2003 of the BC disputed in Santa Anita, California, reached the amount of 14 million dollars, distributing 4 million dollars for the BC Classic, 2 million dollars for the BC Distaff and BC Turf, 1 million and a half for the BC Juvenile and BC Mile, and 1 million for the rest of the races.

The edition 2006 disputed in Churchill Downs reached the amount of 20,000,000 dollars, 5,000,000 dollars for the BC Classic, 3,000,000 for the BC Turf and 2,000,000 dollars for the rest of races. After include three more races for 2007, the total worth for the two days meeting reached 23,0000,000 dollars.

Three additional Breeders' Cup races were included again for 2008, BC Turf Sprint, BC Marathon and BC Juvenile Fillies Turf with a total prizes for this edition of 24,500,000 dollars.

The jockey with more victories is Jerry Bailey with 15 and after, Mike Smith with 13 and Pat Day and Garret Gomez with 12 victories each one.

An important achieve were the 4 victories of the american jockey Garrett Gomez in the edition 2008, winning the BC Juvenile, BC Sprint, BC Filly&Mare Sprint and BC Dirt Mile, and the 3 victories of Julien Leparoux in 2009 winning the BC Juvenile Fillies, BC Filly&Mare Sprint and BC Dirt Mile.

As anecdotes to point out that the most veteran jockey in winning a race of the BC was Bill Shoemaker with Ferdinand in 1987 winning the BC Classic, when he was 56 years old, and the youngest jockey was Walter Guerra who with only 22 years, won in 1984 the BC Juvenile Fillies with Outstandingly, after the winning horse Fran´s Valentine was distanced to the tenth place.

Then, a native of Panama at age 18, Fernando Jara guided to Invasor (Arg) to victory in the BC Classic 2006 at Churchill Downs on September 5.

The first European jockey of the statistics is Lanfranco Dettori with the following numbers:

With respect to the trainers who has earned more money and, of course, races is D. Wayne Lukas who has won in 18 occasions in the following editions:

But Mandella became the first trainer to win four Breeders' Cup races in an afternoon. He won the Juvenile Fillies (Gr.1) with Halfbridled, the Bessemer Trust Juvenile (Gr.1) with Action This Day, the Classic (Gr.1) with Pleasantly Perfect, and took the John Deere Turf (Gr.1) when his Johar dead-heated with High Chaparral.

Mandella won four races the last time the Breeders' Cup was held at Santa Anita in 1993, but that included two stakes on the undercard.

"I never thought lightning would strike twice, but it struck harder," Mandella said.

"I don't know how to describe it," he said. "It's like I said at the press conference when we had the preentries, the day I won four here last time, if I would have known I was going to do it, I could have really enjoyed it and had a great day with it. But I was in shock all day and by the time I came out of the shock and figured out what I did, everybody had gone home. And I'm still in shock here. So I don't know. I didn't believe this could happen again. But it happened bigger and better."

In connection with the European trainers who have participated in the Breeders' Cup, Sir Michael Stoute is the leader with 5 victories (Pilsudski in the BC Turf 1996, Kalanisi in the edition 2000 of the same race, Islington in the BC Filly & Mare Turf 2003, and with Conduit in the BC Turf 2008 and 2009).

Aidan O'Brien has 4 victories, winning with Johannesburg the BC Juvenile 2000, and twice with High Chaparral the 2002 and 2003 BC Turf (in the last edition of 2003 and for the first time in Breeders' cup History, a race ended in a dead-heat between High Chaparral and Johar). His last triumph was with Man of Iron in the BC Marathon 2009.

John Gosden has won 4 BC races too, capturing the BC Classic 2008 with Raven's Pass and in the same edition the BC Juvenile Turf with Donativum. Previously, he won the BC Mile 1984 with Royal Heroine, and obtained the BC Juvenile Turf 2009 with Pounced.

Andre Fabre won with Arcangues the BC Classic 1993, with In The Wings the BC Turf 1990, with Banks Hills the BC Filly & Mare Turf 2001 and the BC Turf 2005 with the german horse Shirocco.

Three european trainers has won three times, F. Boutin won two of them with Miesque in 1987 and 1988 in the BC Mile, and one with Arazi in 1991 in the BC Juvenile, Pascal Bary obtained 3 victories with Miss Alleged in the 1991 BC Turf, Domedriver in the 2002 BC Mile and with Six Perfections in the same race of 2003, and Frederic Head who won with Goldikova in the editions 2008, 2009 and 2010 of the Breeders' Cup Mile.

Concerning the horses, the only one that has won in three ocasions has been Goldikova (Breeders' Cup Mile 2008, 2009 and 2010)

There are 11 of them who have won in two occasions, Miesque (BC Mile 1987 and 1988), Bayakoa (BC Distaff 1989 and 1990), Lure (BC Mile 1992 and 1993), Da Hoss (BC Mile 1996 and 1998), Tiznow (BC Classic 2000 and 2001), High Chaparral (BC Turf 2002 and 2003), Ouija Board (BC Filly & Mare Turf 2004 and 2006 and arriving second in the edition 2005), Midnight Lute (BC Sprint 2007 and 2008), Goldikova (BC Mile 2008 and 2009), Conduit (BC Turf 2008 and 2009) and the champion Zenyatta (BC Classic 2009 and BC Ladies Classic 2008).