Breeders' Cup

June 13, 2013
Churchill Downs: Successful Dan seeks elusive Grade 1 win in Stephen Foster
There’s nothing official about it, but the symbolism is hard to miss. The second half of the 2013 racing season in North America gets under way Saturday night with the Stephen Foster Handicap, a Grade 1 race that relegates the Triple Crown to the ...
February 22, 2013
Steven Crist: Lasix ban and Breeders' Cup cutback: Cause and effect?
By Steven Crist
When the Breeders’ Cup board of directors met Friday, its two most significant agenda items were whether to proceed with a planned ban on Lasix in all 15 of its races this year – and whether it would in fact present all 15 races this year. Were these ...
November 09, 2012
Crist: A Horse of the Year paradox? Not really
By Steven Crist
Since the Eclipse Awards began in 1972, all 40 Horse of the Year honorees also have been named the champion of their divisions. This at first seems entirely logical: How can you be the best of the best if you’re not the best of your own division? This ...
November 07, 2012
Hovdey: Fort Larned puts Whithams back in racing's spotlight
By Jay Hovdey
News travels fast in the western Kansas town of Leoti (pop. 1,563), so when Janis Whitham heard that Thursday, Nov. 8, was going to be hailed as Fort Larned Day in honor of her Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, she stopped by City Hall to check it out.
November 04, 2012
Beyer: No contest in race for Horse of the Year
By Andrew Beyer
After a year full of disappointments, the 2012 racing season came to a climax in the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita on Saturday, with Game On Dude and Wise Dan trying to prove - in separate races - that they deserved the Eclipse Award as Horse of the Year.
November 02, 2012
Beyer: Day one of Lasix ban - distraction but no conclusion
By Andrew Beyer
On a day when Royal Delta delivered a brilliant performance to defeat an all-star field in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic, one of the prime topics of conversation at Santa Anita was not about horses. It was about the drug Lasix.
Hovdey: Can Point of Entry bring elusive Horse of the Year title to McGaughey?
By Jay Hovdey
There is no known roster of “best trainers without a Horse of the Year,” but there’s little doubt Claude R McGaughey III, the man they call Shug, would be high on anyone’s list.
Beyer: Distance is Game On Dude’s biggest challenge
By Andrew Beyer
When Game On Dude runs in the Breeders’ Cup Classic Saturday, he can probably lock up the Horse of the Year title with a victory. Yet the nation’s richest and most significant race won’t necessarily be the dramatic high point in two days of racing at ...
Hovdey: Cup wins don’t come easily – except for Mandella
By Jay Hovdey
Allen Jerkens stood at the mile chute gap on the Churchill Downs backstretch and stared at the merciless autumn sky. He wore the expression of a man who’d just run over his own dog.
October 26, 2012
Crist: A closer look at the Breeders' Cup Lasix ban
By Steven Crist
Whether you are an advocate or an opponent of permitting the raceday use of furosemide (Salix) on racehorses, there is no denying that racing has a problem when the first year of a Salix ban at the Breeders' Cup produces a 50 percent decline in entries ...