Breeders Cup Thoroughbred Championship Expansion
Posted by Jennifer Karlen on Sunday, February 8th, 2009 at 8:21pm.
It was recently announced that the Breeders Cup Thoroughbred
Championship will be seeing some expansion with 3 more new races
bringing the total number of races to 14, with a total prize purse of
approximately $25.5 million for the 2008 season.
Next year’s Breeders Cup will be held October 24-25, 2008 at the Santa Anita horse racetrack in California.
The Breeders Cup CEO, Greg Avioli, stated that the reason for the expansion was simply to give more horses the opportunity to participate in the event.
The 3 new races for the Breeders Cup are as follows:
Breeders Cup Turf Sprint - 3 year olds and older with the track running at 6.5 furlongs, and a $1 million purse
Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf - 2 year old fillies with the track running at 1 mile, and a $1 million purse
Breeders Cup Dirt Marathon - 3 year olds and older with the track running at 1.5 miles, and a $500,000 purse.
These races will be run on the Friday scheduling of events, and brings the total purses for the day to $5 million. (And the Saturday scheduling of events total is $20.5 million, bringing the total purse to $25.5 million.)
The other races remain as follows:
FRIDAY
Turf Sprint - 3 year olds and older with the track running at 6.5 furlongs
Juvenile Fillies Turf - 2 year old fillies with the track running at 1 mile
Dirt Marathon - 3 year olds and older with the track running at 1.5 miles
Filly & Mare Sprint - fillies and mares 3 years old and older with the track running at 6 furlongs
Juvenile Turf - 2 year olds with the track running at 1 mile
Dirt Mile - 3 year olds and up with the rtack running, obviously, at 1 mile
SATURDAY
Juvenile Fillies - 2 year old fillies with the track running at 1 1/16 mile.
Juvenile - colts and geldings with the track running at 1 1/16 mile.
Filly & Mare Turf - fillies and mares that are 3 year olds and older with the track running at 1 3/8 mile.
Sprint - 3 year olds and older with the track running at 6 furlongs
Mile - 3 year olds and older on a turf track, with the the track running, obviously, at 1 mile.
Distaff - fillies and mares, with 3 year olds and older with the track running at 1 1/8 mile.
Turf - 3 year olds and older with the track running at 1.5 mile.
Classic - 3 year olds and older with the track running at 1.25 mile.