Breeders' Cup Grows To 11 Races, Two Days

In an effort to raise the profile of horse racing and strengthen its position as a world championship event, the Breeders' Cup will be expanded to an 11-race, two-day format beginning this year.

Adding to the eight traditional Breeders' Cup races that have been in place since the championships began in 1984, the event's board of directors announced yesterday three new $1 million races: the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile for 3-year-olds and up, the Filly & Mare Sprint and the Juvenile Turf for colts and fillies. The board also created three other new races carrying purses of $250,000 each.

The six new Breeders' Cup races will be run on a Friday card modeled after the hugely successful Kentucky Oaks card the day before the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. With $4 million in purses, the first day of the new Breeders' Cup becomes the second-richest day in American racing.

The Breeders' Cup will be run Oct. 26-27 this year at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J.

"There are two main objectives behind expanding the day," said Greg Avioli, president of Breeders' Cup Ltd. "We think to be a true international championship, the expanded format allows the participation of more of the best horses in the world. The second area . . . we realized there were some horses being bred locally and internationally that didn't have a race on the card. The ones that jumped out most were the dirt mile and the fillies and mares going seven furlongs."

Because of its scope and overwhelming purse money, the advent of the Breeders' Cup quickly changed the character of the national fall racing calendar, transforming stakes races long considered traditional championship events into glorified prep races and wiping out others.

The expanded Breeders' Cup could have a similar impact on existing stakes events, racing executives said yesterday.

Bill Nader, senior vice president of the New York Racing Association, and Lou Raffetto, president of the Maryland Jockey Club, said they received no notification of the upcoming changes in the Breeders' Cup program.

"The reason we put out our complete schedule for the entire year in December is as a courtesy to all the other racetracks in North America to let them know what the big dog is doing," Nader said. "We have 35 to 40 percent of the Grade I races [in the country]. If I even had a hint this was coming, I would have [spoken up] before I released our stakes schedule."

Aqueduct in New York hosts the Grade II $150,000 First Flight Handicap for fillies and mares running seven furlongs on Oct. 27.

The race will now face imposing competition from the new Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint the day before. Two years ago, the $125,000 Laurel Futurity attracted eventual Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro in 2005. He likely never would have run at Laurel with the existence of the new Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.

"It's a possibility; there's no two ways about it," Raffetto said. "Believe me, my last year as a racing secretary was in 1984 at Laurel; that was the first year of the Breeders' Cup and I said, 'That's the end of the [Washington D.C.] International, the Laurel Futurity and the Selima.' I cringed. I was no fan of the Breeders' Cup."

As racetrack executives, however, Raffetto and Nader appreciate the Breeders' Cup because it is one of the top betting days.

"Any time we create big race days, I'm for that, but I'm really for sharing this information and being more collaborative and communicative," Nader said.