Breeder's Cup Turf

The GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic and the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Turf will both receive individual $1-million purse increases, Breeders' Cup Limited announced Tuesday. Beginning with this year's 41st World Championships at Del Mar, the purse of the 1 1/4-mile Longines Breeders' Cup Classic will increase from $6 million to $7 million, while the purse of the 1 1/2-mile Longines Breeders' Cup Turf will increase from $4 million to $5 million. This raises total purses and awards for the Breeders' Cup World Championships, Thoroughbred racing's most prestigious two-day event,...

Announced as a season-ending target long before such announcements are typically made, the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Turf proved fertile ground for the Coolmore partners' Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), who enjoyed what turned out to be a dream trip beneath Ryan Moore, got through when the real running commenced at the head of the lane and charged to the wire to defeat top U.S. hope Up to the Mark (Not This Time). It was a sixth victory in the mile-and-a-half second-richest race on the card for trainer Aidan...

ARCADIA, CA - Forty looks good on you, Breeders' Cup. With defending winners Caravel (Mizzen Mast) (Turf Sprint), Cody's Wish (Curlin) (Dirt Mile), Elite Power (Curlin) (Sprint) and Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) (F/M Sprint) all back to defend their titles, the two-day Championships--consisting of 14 races with purses and awards totaling more than $31 million--gets underway for a record 11th time at Santa Anita Friday. Sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s--welcome back to Southern California!--will be on the menu as the weekend kicks off with a 10-race, 'Future Stars Friday'...

ARCADIA, USA -- We may be biased over here in the European edition, but for the turfistes out there, the race of this weekend is the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Turf. Primarily there's the scintillating prospect of a rematch between the first two home in the Derby, Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and King Of Steel (Wootton Bassett {GB}), who between them have picked off the Irish Derby, Irish Champion S., King Edward VII S., and Champion S. since Epsom.  To that duo we can add the top-rated horse...

ARCADIA, USA--Whisper it, and a few people have been doing so since the huddle started growing at Clockers' Corner over the last few mornings, but Onesto (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) should not be overlooked in a potentially red-hot running of the GI Breeders' Cup Turf on Saturday.  On Monday morning his trainer Fabrice Chappet was one of the few to be found trackside just before sun up at Santa Anita. Though he is fielding his first runner at the Breeders' Cup, he is no stranger to American racing, having worked for...

Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup John Henry famously didn't make it to the Breeders' Cup. Da Hoss famously did, after a two-year layoff with a mere allowance prep. In this industry, where geldings at the elite levels are the exception and not the norm, those geldings tend to become beloved fan favorites. Perhaps it's because they often have longer race careers than their compatriots whose breeding careers must be considered. Right up there in the lexicon of the special 31 geldings to have won a Breeders' Cup are...

Her sire won the 2007 GI Breeders' Cup Turf in similarly soft underfoot conditions not far away at Monmouth Park, and George Krikorian's War Like Goddess (English Channel) found the ease in the ground very much to her liking, motoring down the center of the waterlogged course to successfully defend her title in Saturday's GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Aqueduct. With Junior Alvarado at the controls for the first time, the $30,000 OBS June bargain lingered towards the back of the pack through the early exchanges, racing in the...

American jockey Steve Cauthen and the outstanding turf mare Pebbles (GB) (Sharpen Up {GB}) will be inducted into the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame, the official Hall of Fame for Flat racing in Britain. The newest inductees will be recognized on QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot on Oct. 21, with Cauthen making a rare trip over from the US. Cauthen becomes just the fifth rider to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, while Pebbles becomes the first of her gender to be inducted alongside the likes...

Despite having run out the convincing winner of the G2 Prix Niel, one of Sunday's key Arc trials at Longchamp, the Deutsches Derby winner Fantastic Moon (Ger) (Sea The Moon {Ger}) will not run in this year's G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Instead he has potential trips to America and Japan on his agenda, according to Lars-Wilhelm Baumgarten, who manages the colt's ownership syndicate Liberty Racing.  "We have decided not to sell him. We've had big offers from all over the world but we have decided to run him....

When they throw $1.7 million at a race that entitles the winner to a guaranteed, fees-paid berth in the field for the GI Breeders' Cup Turf, sometimes you cast all logic aside and roll the dice against all odds. As the saying goes, 'you miss 100% of the shots you don't take,' and it was with that mindset that Get Smokin (Get Stormy)--a Grade II and Grade III winner, but unproven over the 12-furlong trip of the GII FanDuel Kentucky Cup Turf--was even entered in the first place. But given...

Gold Phoenix (Ire) (Belardo {Ire}) will get a second chance at the GI Breeders' Cup Turf. With a win in Del Mar's GII Del Mar H., the 5-year-old gelding earned a 'Win And You're In' spot in the gate for the November event. 10th behind Rebel's Romance (Dubawi {Ire}) in last year's rendition of the race, Gold Phoenix rebounded in 2023 with a pair of graded-stakes wins including a narrow victory in the GI Frank E. Kilroe Mile S. to start his year March 23. Though he faltered in both...

The return of Group 1 racing in Japan is officially about six weeks away, but Sunday's 2000-metre Sapporo Kinen--a Group 2 in name only--sees the return to action of some familiar names who are potentially looking to prep for big spots further afield over the coming months. Shahryar (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), the 2021 G1 Tokyo Yushun hero, makes his first start since finishing fifth to world's top-rated racehorse Equinox (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}) in defence of his title in the G1 Longines Dubai Sheema Classic Mar. 25, with a...