Breeders' Cup makes it official: Santa Anita to host in 2012

The Breeders' Cup will return to Santa Anita Park in Southern California in 2012, three years after the track hosted consecutive editions of the event, Breeders' Cup announced on Wednesday.

The two-day event will be held on Nov. 2-3, Breeders' Cup said. Santa Anita, which hosted the Breeders' Cup in 2008 and 2009, was selected as the host site over two other tracks, New York's Belmont Park, which last hosted the Breeders' Cup in 2005, and Kentucky's Churchill Downs, which was the host for the 2010 event and will be the site for the event later this year.

Breeders' Cup announced the selection at a press conference in Los Angeles that was attended by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the chairman of the company that owns Santa Anita Park, Frank Stronach. The chief executive of Santa Anita Park's parent company is Greg Avioli, who resigned as Breeders' Cup's president earlier this year to take the position.

Santa Anita has been the Breeders' Cup host site a total of five times, and many of the current member of the Breeders' Cup board favor the site because of the mild weather in California in the fall and a belief that the track is best able to offer hospitality packages to sponsors and other corporate groups.