Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., has been selected to host the 2018 Breeders’ Cup, officials for both companies announced Monday, a decision that will return the two-day event to the site that has generated the Breeders’ Cup’s highest attendance and handle figures.

Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, has hosted the Breeders’ Cup eight times in the past, as many times as Santa Anita Park in Southern California. The 2018 event has been scheduled for Nov. 2-3. The last time Churchill hosted the Breeders’ Cup was in 2011, the second of back-to-back events there.

Ken Kirchner, a racing consultant, will not be retained for his simulcasting and wagering services by the Breeders’ Cup this year, ending a 20-year relationship, Kirchner confirmed on Wednesday.

NBC and its sister networks will produce nine broadcasts in the summer and fall next year featuring live coverage of 16 prep races for the Breeders’ Cup under a three-year renewal of a broadcasting contract between the two parties, the groups announced on Monday.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A Fayette County Circuit Court judge on Friday granted a motion by Keeneland and the Breeders’ Cup to be dismissed from a lawsuit that sought to prevent the organizations from distributing the purse of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint because of a dispute between the owner and trainer of the winning horse, Runhappy, according to the attorney representing the trainer.

Before we get to this Saturday’s stakes, let’s review a few of the Breeders’ Cup Beyer Speed Figure highlights beyond the 120 that American Pharoah got in the Classic.

The most bizarre thing about last weekend’s Breeders’ Cup was that nothing bizarre happened.

Thirteen races with big fields over two days usually produce some wacky results – a couple of winners who still make no sense after the race is over, some 40-1 shots clunking up to complete gigantic trifectas and superfectas, mystifying no-shows by big names. There was a stretch a few years ago when you could have turned a profit by betting every single entrant in every Cup race because the winners’ payoffs added up to more than $300.

An attorney for Maria Borell, the listed trainer for the horse Runhappy when he won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Saturday, has sent letters to the horse’s connections seeking compensation for her role in handling the colt, according to the attorney she has hired.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – While American Pharoah already had wrapped up 2015 Eclipse Awards as both Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male before the gate opened for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday, his emphatic victory provided just the right exclamation point to his year.

But what of the other divisions? That’s what the Breeders’ Cup was designed to clarify, and for the most part it did its job Friday and Saturday at Keeneland, leaving only a handful of divisions still to be debated before ballots go out to Eclipse Award voters next month.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Joshua Griffin reached up and touched American Pharoah on Sunday morning at Keeneland, and the pure joy on his face, the squeals of delight, brought his parents to tears. American Pharoah may have been favored in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, but the thought of meeting American Pharoah, well, they thought that was a longshot.

Joshua is 15. He lives in Texas, and he has cerebral palsy.

Triple Crown winner American Pharoah took the short van ride to his second career on Monday morning, arriving at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., where he will begin stallion duty next spring.

Coolmore acquired the breeding rights to American Pharoah earlier this year before his Triple Crown run. The 3-year-old son of Pioneerof the Nile concluded his career with a 6 1/2-length victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Keeneland, his eighth Grade 1 score at as many different tracks for owner and breeder Zayat Stables.