200 Horses Pre-Entered for 32nd Breeders’ Cup
Blood-Horse
Led by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and two-time Breeders’ Cup champion mare Beholder a total of 200 horses, including 32 from overseas, have been pre-entered for the 2015 Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
The 32nd Breeders’ Cup, consisting of 13 grade one races with purses and awards totaling $26 million, will be held for the first time at Keeneland in Lexington on Friday, Oct. 30 and Saturday, Oct.31. There will be four Breeders’ Cup races on Championship Friday and nine Breeders’ Cup races on Championship Saturday.
Among the overseas entries is Anthony Oppenheimer’s 3-year-old Golden Horn . The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Fr-I) winner has been the top horse in Europe this year, and is the clear standout in the $3 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf (gr. IT) at 1 1/2 miles, which will directly precede the Classic on Championship Saturday
The Breeders’ Cup will be televised live by NBCSN and NBC. The $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic will be broadcast live at 5:35 p.m. ET on NBC (4-6 p.m. ET) Oct. 31.
Among the statistical highlights in this year’s pre-entries are that a total of 10 races are oversubscribed with more than 14 (or 12 in the Filly & Mare Turf and Dirt Mile). There are a record 44 horses who have qualified for automatic starting positions through the Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series that are pre-entered. Chad Brown has pre-entered 14 horses, the most among trainers, and the Coolmore partnerships lead all owners with 10 horses pre-entered.
A maximum of 14 starters are allowed in each of the 13 Breeders’ Cup World Championships races with the exception of the Dirt Mile and the Filly & Mare Turf, which are limited to 12 starters. Breeders’ Cup has adopted a field selection system to select runners in the event fields are oversubscribed. This system ranks horses in order of preference based on (i) Breeders’ Cup Challenge race winners, (ii) a point system, and (iii) the judgment of a panel of racing experts. The field selection system was implemented following the taking of pre-entries on Monday, Oct. 19, to officially rank the oversubscribed fields. The Racing Secretaries and Directors Panel ranked all horses pre-entered in the oversubscribed races. After pre-entry, any vacancies in the fields will be filled by horses in order of panel preference. Entry for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships races will be Monday, Oct. 26 by 10 a.m. (ET). At the time of entry, a maximum of 14 horses (or 12) will be accepted for each race based on the order of preference established at pre-entry.
There will be up to two also-eligible horses for each Championship race. The also-eligible horses will be designated in accordance with the Breeders’ Cup Racing Directors/Secretaries Panel’s order of preference for each championship race that is oversubscribed at the time of pre-entry. Scratch time for all Championships races to be contested on both Friday and Saturday will be 8 a.m. ET, Friday, Oct. 30.
