Breeders' Cup raises entry fees for all 13 races

Breeders’ Cup has raised the entry fees for the 13 races it holds over its two-day event, with most of the fees increasing by 50 percent.

Entry fees for 11 of the 13 races will rise from 2 percent of the purse to 3 percent, according to Dora Delgado, the Breeders’ Cup’s senior vice president of racing and nominations. The entry fees for the Classic and the Turf will go from 2 percent of the purse to 2.5 percent, Delgado said.

Earlier this week, Breeders’ Cup announced that the purse of the Classic would be raised from $5 million to $6 million and the purse for the Turf would be raised from $3 million to $4 million. The announcement also stated that a share of the purse of all 13 races would be paid down to eighth place.

All of the changes were approved by the Breeders’ Cup board during a meeting in February, Delgado said.

The entry fees for all of the Breeders’ Cup races were 3 percent of the purse until 2013, when the entry fees were dropped to 2 percent, Delgado said. She noted that the board did not want to raise the fees for the Classic and Turf to 3 percent because the purse increases for those races “made the fees considerable.”

Over the past decade, Breeders’ Cup has expanded the roster of stakes races leading up to the event that qualify the winning horse for a no-fee berth in one of the 13 Breeders’ Cup races. Delgado said that over the last several years, approximately 50 horses a year do not pay entry fees because of wins in the so-called Challenge Series.

In addition, Breeders’ Cup has begun providing $10,000 travel stipends to all of its entrants that are based outside of the host state, with $40,000 in stipends for horses based outside of North America.