The Breeders’ Cup will open voting for 20 member seats on June 6 in a biannual election that determines the voters who select the directors of the organization, the organization announced on Thursday.

Votes for the organization’s 39 members are tallied from the roster of stallion and foal nominators to the organization, along proportional lines based on the level of nominations to the Breeders’ Cup. A total of 40 candidates are on the ballot this year to elect 20 members, including 17 incumbents who are standing for re-election.

The Breeders’ Cup has launched a contest that will award two VIP tickets to its two-day event at Churchill Downs this fall to the winner of a random drawing among those who select the winner of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Breeders’ Cup has designated four stakes races scheduled for the 2018 Royal Ascot meeting in England as races that will earn the winner an automatic berth in one of the event’s 14 races, the organization announced Monday.

The Breeders’ Cup board at a meeting on Thursday in Lexington, Ky., passed over a proposal to split its event into cards held in November and December, the organization said in a statement.

According to the statement, the board “decided not to proceed” with the concept, which would have shifted the Classic, Juvenile, Juvenile Fillies, and Sprint to a card on the second Saturday in December.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Breeders’ Cup board of directors is once again set to discuss the possibility of splitting its event between dates in November and December, according to racing officials with knowledge of the organization’s plans.

Nonkono Yume earned a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in November, and Sumahama earned a place in the Kentucky Derby on May 5 with their stakes wins at Tokyo Racecourse in Japan on Sunday.

Nonkono Yume (9-1) won the Group 1 February Stakes at a mile for his fifth stakes win. The $2,031,984 February Stakes is the first race in the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth for the BC Classic to the winner.

The Kentucky House of Representatives has approved a bill that will grant tax breaks to Breeders’ Cup Ltd. any time it holds its two-day event at a track in the state.

The House approved the bill on Monday, and it is expected to gain approval in the Kentucky Senate. The bill was introduced and sponsored by Rep. Dave Osborne, a Louisville-area Republican who is a horse owner and breeder.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The board of the Breeders’ Cup is scheduled to meet Friday to discuss a number of proposals that could have significant impacts on its two-day event, including several radical changes that could upend the racing calendar, according to officials involved with the organization.

Craig Fravel, president and chief executive of Breeders’ Cup, said late last week that he would not comment specifically on any proposals that are expected to come before the board, and he rejected suggestions that any of the ideas are on a fast track to implementation.

To afford a full four-week gap between the Breeders’ Cup and the stakes that mark New York’s last truly big racing weekend until the spring, the New York Racing Association chose this year to move Aqueduct’s Cigar Mile, Remsen, and Demoiselle out of their traditional spots on Thanksgiving weekend and run them instead on the first Saturday in December.

Although established stars Medaglia d’Oro and More Than Ready both sired two of this year’s Breeders’ Cup winners, no stallion benefited more from the event than Quality Road.

Quality Road’s daughter Caledonia Road probably earned a champion 2-year-old filly Eclipse statuette with her victory in the Juvenile Fillies, and another daughter Abel Tasman almost certainly clinched a 3-year-old filly championship with her closing second to the older Forever Unbridled in the Distaff.