America has always prided itself on being the land of opportunity, the country where by sheer merit and hard work one can achieve wealth or power - or both. The results of this year’s Breeders’ Cup meeting, though, reflect a different kind of opportunity.

Cross Traffic already recorded a major accomplishment for a freshman sire, with a Grade 1 winner in his first crop in Frizette Stakes heroine Jaywalk. The Spendthrift Farm resident now goes for an even higher bar, as Jaywalk contests the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Quality Road had a career year in 2017 as the sire of two Eclipse Award champions – Abel Tasman, who won the Kentucky Oaks and finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, and Caledonia Road, who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. His momentum has continued this year, and he could have an even more stellar showing at this Breeders’ Cup.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Thoroughbred industry professionals from Kentucky, California, Delaware, and Pennsylvania were honored as the Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards were presented Wednesday afternoon at Churchill Downs.

Grade 1 winner Collected will stand at Airdrie Stud in Midway, Ky., in 2019, the farm announced Monday evening.

Collected, by the late City Zip, has been entered for Saturday's Breeders' Cup Classic, but is currently the first also-eligible for the race, in which he finished second last year. A stud fee for the 5-year-old will be announced at the time of his retirement.

The wonderful Australian racemare Winx will never break the all-time record for consecutive wins by a Thoroughbred. According to the Thoroughbred Times Racing Almanac, that number stands at 56, set by the Puerto Rican-bred Camarero (by Thirteen-Flint Maid, by Flint Shot) racing against other Puerto Rican-breds in the 1950s.

Multiple stakes winner Rainbow Heir will be among the most consistent runners in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. His season leading up to this race has been most unorthodox. Rainbow Heir has returned to racing this fall after an active season at stud in Florida and is expected to resume his stud duties next February.

Knicks Go sprang a $142 upset when winning the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland to earn his way into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Not only was the colt a massive longshot on the odds board – the odds of his breeders producing a Grade 1 winner may have been just as long.

Knicks Go was bred in the name of Sabrina Moore, 26. Her mother, Angie Moore, introduced her to equestrian sports, and the two rode barrel racers and dabbled in Thoroughbred ownership via partnership.

On one of the sport’s biggest international stages, there will be a chance for Korean racing interests to take a turn in the spotlight, as the colors of KRA Stud Farm will be carried by Knicks Go in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Mr. Crow in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

With racing in Korea conducted exclusively on dirt due to frequent wet weather, owners and breeders have placed a premium on American stock to build their industry, importing stallions such as classic-placed Menifee, now a perennial leading sire in Korea, juvenile champion Hansen, and Grade 1 winner Take Charge Indy.

The hard-knocking multiple Grade 1 winner Hoppertunity has been retired and will begin his stud career at Northview Stallion Station in Peach Bottom, Pa.  

Hoppertunity, by former Pennsylvania stallion Any Given Saturday, retires with a record of 9-8-5 from 34 starts over five seasons of racing, and was a graded stakes winner each of those seasons. The 7-year-old earned more than $4.7 million and, according to Northview, is the richest stallion prospect ever to begin his career in the Mid-Atlantic region.