Breeders' Cup to allot $5M in purse supplements

Breeders' Cup will allocate $5 million to its supplemental stakes program for distribution in 100 races at 40 tracks in 2009, the Breeders' Cup said in a release on Tuesday.

The $5 million amount is identical to the amount that Breeders' Cup distributed in 2008. In late December, the board of the Breeders' Cup voted to suspend the program for at least one year because of budgetary concerns, but the board restored the program after many breeders who nominate their foals to the organization raised complaints.

Breeders' Cup is funded by foal nominations and annual payments based on stud fees. The foal crop is contracting, and stud fees are being cut by nearly all major stallion owners because of the economic downturn. As a measure of the impact, the state of Kentucky has already forecast that its tax receipts from stallion services in 2009 will be down at least 25 percent.

Breeders' Cup has not yet determined which stakes will receive supplements from the program, according to officials, though $75,000 from the program will be allocated to the San Fernando Stakes that was run Saturday at Santa Anita.

Separately, Don M. Robinson, the owner of Winter Quarter Farm near Lexington, Ky., was voted on to the board, replacing B. Wayne Hughes, who resigned several weeks ago. Robinson will serve out the remainder of Hughes's term, which expires on June 30.