Breeders' Cup gets 160 international stallion nominations in first week

The owners of 160 stallions based outside the U.S. and Canada have paid fees that make all of the stallions’ progeny eligible to run in the 14 Breeders’ Cup races, the Breeders’ Cup announced on Monday, seven days after nominations opened under a new structure for international stallions.

The stallions are based at 35 farms in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, the Breeders’ Cup said. Based on the number of mares that the stallions covered in 2010, approximately 6,500 foals are expected to become eligible for the Breeders’ Cup races as a result of the nomination, according to Jim Gluckson, a spokesman for the organization.

The approximation of eligible foals would be a significant increase over the number of foals that were made eligible to the Breeders’ Cup in 2009, prior to the restructuring. During that year, the owners of 1,200 foals paid a $500 fee to the Breeders’ Cup for each nominated foal, the organization said when announcing the change to the overseas nomination program last year.

In the restructuring, the organization eliminated the $500 foal nomination fee in favor of a requirement that stallion owners outside the U.S. and Canada pay an annual fee to make all of the stud’s progeny in the annual crop eligible. The fee is 50 percent of the stud fee for a Northern Hemisphere stallion, and 25 percent of the stud fee for a Southern Hemisphere stallion.

Breeders’ Cup officials have said they hoped the restructured program would result in the eligibility of as many as 20,000 horses in the next three to five years. The organization has been attempting to increase participation of overseas horses in its races, in part to drive up international handle on the event.