Breeders’ Cup, Maker’s Mark partner to raise money for charity

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Breeders’ Cup and Maker’s Mark will team up to sell a limited-edition run of the bourbon maker’s bottles to raise $1 million for charity, the two companies announced Wednesday at Keeneland, the site of this year’s Breeders’ Cup event.

Maker’s Mark will produce five bottles commemorating past Breeders’ Cup winners in runs of 500 each, with each bottle selling for a minimum of $400, officials for the companies said. The five winners to be featured on the bottles are A.P. Indy, Lure, Personal Ensign, Zenyatta, and Cigar, with the first three runs offered this year exclusively at an auction Oct. 29 at the Maker’s Mark pavilion at Keeneland, one day before the Friday card of the Breeders’ Cup event.

“We’re expecting high demand for this,” said Robert Elliston, the chief operating officer of the Breeders’ Cup.

To purchase a bottle, a buyer must first donate $400 to receive a chance to bid on a single bottle. The buyer must also attend the Oct. 29 auction at a cost of $55 and then must make a winning bid on one of the 1,500 bottles that will be offered this year, the officials said. The somewhat convoluted process was necessary to comply with local and federal laws on the buying and distributing of alcohol products, Elliston said.

Two other auctions will be held in succeeding years, both in California. The 500-bottle run of Zenyatta bottles will be offered in 2016 in conjunction with the Breeders’ Cup event at Santa Anita, and the Cigar run will be offered in 2017 in conjunction with the event at Del Mar, officials said.

Rob Samuels, the chief executive of Maker’s Mark, said the 500-bottle runs were the smallest the company has produced in its long history of commemorative lines, aside from single-bottle productions for charity events.

The entities that will receive 100 percent of the proceeds from the auctions are the Grayson-Jockey Club Foundation, the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation, the Lexington Cancer Foundation, the Race for Education, the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, and the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center Foundation.

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the host sites for the 2016 and 2017 Breeders' Cups. The 2016 Breeders' Cup will be held at Santa Anita, while the 2017 event will be at Del Mar.