The Breeders’ Cup remains committed to running its two-day event at Santa Anita this year despite the deaths of 22 horses at the track since its meet opened on Dec. 26 and the outcry surrounding the deaths, a spokesman for the organization said on Friday.
“We have not changed our commitment to holding our event at Santa Anita later this year,” said spokesman Jim Gluckson.
Two stakes at Tokyo Racecourse in Japan on Sunday – the Grade 1 February Stakes for older horses and the Hyacinth Stakes for 3-year-olds – could produce runners for two of the biggest races in the United States later this year.
The winner of the $1.76 million February Stakes at a mile will receive a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, if nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program.
Bryan Pettigrew, the senior vice president of marketing and sponsorship for the Breeders’ Cup since early 2015, has stepped down from the position “to pursue other interests,” according to the organization, which is based in Lexington, Ky.
Il Mercato won the most prestigious race of his career in Saturday’s Group 1 Gran Premio International Carlos Pellegrini at San Ysidro Racecourse in Argentina to earn a fees-paid berth to the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita.
Il Mercato, ridden by Juan Noreiga, was 16-1 and finished a head in front of Sixties Song, the 2-1 favorite in the $319,394 race at 1 1/2 miles on turf. For the Top, the winner of the Group 1 Argentine Derby at 1 1/2 miles on dirt in November, finished third at 5-1 in the field of 18.
The 2019 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita is more than 10 months away, but a berth to the $4 million race is available to the winner of Saturday’s Group 1 Gran Premio International Carlos Pellegrini at San Isidro Racecourse in Argentina.
The $319,394 Carlos Pellegrini is the most prominent race in South America, bringing together several of the country’s top runners in a race at 1 1/2 miles, the same distance as the BC Turf.
If future-book wagering on the Kentucky Derby in Las Vegas weren’t virtually extinct, you could be certain that the current favorite for the 2019 Derby would be Game Winner.
As well he should be. And yes, that would be the case even after the sensational debut Saturday at Del Mar by Bob Baffert barnmate Coliseum, who delivered a performance that sparked enormous buzz in the American racing community.
The final hour of last Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup broadcast on NBC had total viewership of 1.6 million, according to the network, down 20 percent from last year.
The viewership figure was well down from the 2016 and 2015 Classic broadcasts, when viewership was 2.2 million and 3.9 million. The 2015 Classic broadcast featured Triple Crown winner American Pharoah making the final start of his career. The last time viewership was as low as 1.6 million was in 2011, when the event was broadcast by ESPN.
Professional horseplayer Chuck Grubbs won $394,020 last weekend at the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge by finishing best of 391 entries that put up $10,000 to compete in the biggest live-bankroll contest in the country.
A Georgetown, Ky., resident who has an office at the Red Mile in Lexington, Grubbs finished with a total score of 94,020, besting Ed Abel of West Des Moines, Iowa, who had 86,330 points and, combined with his second-place prize of $200,000, had total winnings of $286,330.
So what was the single best performance of the Breeders’ Cup? Well, there was the 2-year-old filly Newspaperofrecord ending the Juvenile Fillies Turf a few steps out of the gate, winning like she could win any grass race anywhere in the world some day. There was the great 4-year-old filly Enable and the 3-year-old filly Magical running away from the field in the stretch of the Turf, Enable edging away late to win her sixth consecutive Group or Grade 1 race while becoming the first horse to get the Arc-Turf double in the same year.
