Breeders' Cup Win and You're In series gets restructuring by region

Breeders’ Cup has restructured the series of U.S. races that comprise its “Win and You’re In” schedule by apportioning the races into three geographic regions, the company announced on Tuesday, in an effort to promote “regional rivalries.”

Under the restructuring, each of the three U.S. regions – East, Midwest, and West – will include one qualifying race for 11 of the 14 Breeders’ Cup races held over the two days of the event. For the remaining three races, the Classic will have six qualifying races in the U.S., while the Juvenile Turf and the Juvenile Fillies Turf will have two qualifying races each, for a total of 43 qualifying races held at U.S. tracks in the lead-up to the event.

This year’s Breeders’ Cup is scheduled for Nov. 4-5 at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Ky., the second time in the past three years that the event will be held at the track.

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The international component of the series will include a total of 39 races held in 10 countries, including England, France, Ireland, Japan, and Canada.

Breeders’ Cup said in its announcement that the restructured series would “balance divisional competition across the country” and that it planned to promote rivalries within regions as part of its marketing plan for the year. The Win and You’re In program was launched in 2007, and though the series is annually tweaked, this is the first major restructuring (not counting 2020, when the series was disrupted by the upheaval caused by the first year of the pandemic).

Last year, the Classic had nine qualifying races total, but this year, it will have eight, with six held at U.S. tracks. The six qualifying races for the Classic in the U.S. will be the July 2 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs (Midwest); the July 23 Haskell Stakes at Monmouth in New Jersey (Eastern); the Aug. 6 Whitney at Saratoga (Eastern); the Sept. 3 Pacific Classic at Del Mar (Western), the Sept. 3 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga (Eastern); and the Oct. 1 Awesome Again at Santa Anita (Western).

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Any winner of a race in the series is guaranteed a spot in the starting gate for the designated Breeders’ Cup qualifying race, with entry fees waived. Breeders’ Cup also provides travel stipends to all horses that enter the races.

For the second year in a row, Breeders’ Cup will not allow the raceday administration of the anti-bleeding medication Lasix to any horses in its races. Kentucky already bans the administration of Lasix to all horses entered in graded stakes races.

The full 2022 schedule can be found here.