Breeders’ Cup gives horsemen more time to finalize decisions

With some horsemen wanting more time to ponder their options with cross-entered horses for Breeders’ Cup races, officials have decided to give them until entry time at 10 a.m. Eastern on Monday to finalize which race they are going to choose, said Josh Christian, director of racing for the Breeders’ Cup.

Breeders’ Cup officials had intended to have the connections of these horses decide by midday Friday, a change in procedure from past years.

“It was a well-intentioned thing,” Christian said of the intended Friday declaration. “So if you had an alternate and needed to, say, ship the horse from California or Ireland, it would give more time to make those plans.”

But a Friday deadline gave some horsemen the feeling of being rushed into making a decision. By delaying the declaration date until Monday, final works from some of the cross-entered horses over the weekend can be observed by trainers before decision time .

Christian said he doesn’t expect the change in dates to affect the composition of the fields. In conversations he and his staff have had with connections of cross-entered horses, they have a good feel for which races those horses are likely to run in.

Beholder, for instance – entered in the Classic as first preference with the Distaff a second preference – is fully expected to run in the Classic. And Breeders’ Cup officials can to convey to the Distaff first alternate, in this case Calamity Kate, that she is likely to gain a starting position, although it won’t become official until entries are taken on Monday.

– additional reporting by David Grening