ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine’s Canadian International and E.P. Taylor Stakes, which have been part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series since its inception in 2007, will not have Win and You’re In status this year.
The Breeders’ Cup announced its 67-race list of Win and You’re In races on Monday, and while Woodbine will host five of the events, the Canadian International and E.P. Taylor were noticeable by their absence.
A total of 67 stakes races, 48 Grade 1 or Group 1, to be run in 10 countries make up this year’s Win and You’re In qualifying races for the Breeders’ Cup, the Breeders’ Cup announced Monday afternoon.
This year’s Breeders’ Cup, the 30th, will be held Nov. 1 and 2 at Santa Anita, which played host to the event last year and is among the contenders to host it again next year, too.
When the board of the Breeders’ Cup met recently to vote on whether to suspend a policy that would ban the raceday administration of the legal anti-bleeding medication furosemide at its 2013 event, its members had to weigh the changes that had occurred in the racing industry since the policy was first approved in 2011.
As it turned out, the racing industry hadn’t changed much at all.
Breeders’ Cup will provide travel allowances to all horses based outside of California for this year’s event and reduce the entry fee for its 14 races from 3 percent of the total purse to 2 percent, the organization announced Friday.
The board of the Breeders’ Cup on Friday discussed making modifications to its current roster of races and to a policy that would ban the race-day use of furosemide, but it suspended any action on the items until it reconvenes later this year, according to sources.
When the Breeders’ Cup board of directors met Friday, its two most significant agenda items were whether to proceed with a planned ban on Lasix in all 15 of its races this year – and whether it would in fact present all 15 races this year. Were these separate or related issues?
Since the Eclipse Awards began in 1972, all 40 Horse of the Year honorees also have been named the champion of their divisions, from Secretariat (2-year-old champ of 1972) to Havre de Grace (champion older female in 2011). This at first seems entirely logical: How can you be the best of the best if you’re not the best of your own division? The second-ranked beagle can’t be Best in Show at Westminster.
News travels fast in the western Kansas town of Leoti (pop. 1,563), so when Janis Whitham heard that Thursday, Nov. 8, was going to be hailed as Fort Larned Day in honor of her Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, she stopped by City Hall to check it out with the mayor, Lori Elder-Christensen.
“I was at the post office earlier,” Whitham noted, “and somebody said, ‘Congratulations on that race! I saw the sign in your yard, and I was up at the bank, where there’s pictures and everything.’ ”
That would be Western State Bank, run by Stewart Whitham, Jan’s son.
Patrick McGoey, the defending champion, won the live-money Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge again last weekend, betting his entire bankroll in the final race to surpass the eventual second-place finisher, Christian Hellmers – who finished second in the 2011 tournament as well.
The highly improbable repeat performance netted McGoey, a resident of New Orleans, $255,341 in winnings, including the $170,000 first-place prize. Hellmers took home $154,525, including his bankroll at the end of the contest.
Absent any superstar horses or compelling stories, the 2012 Breeders’ Cup was just about the racing. And it was terrific, if a bit hard to evaluate because of the speed-favoring nature of the main track.
When you have a Classic that gets a 117 Beyer Speed Figure and two major grass races that yield course records, you know it’s serious.
Some of the results made perfect sense. How good were Wise Dan and Groupie Doll?
