{"id":216306,"date":"2025-10-21T21:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T21:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/216306\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T21:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T21:03:09","slug":"ten-interesting-facts-about-the-2023-breeders-cup-world-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/216306\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Interesting Facts About the 2023 Breeders\u2019 Cup World Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 42nd annual Breeders\u2019 Cup World Championships<\/a> is set for Oct. 31-Nov. 1\u00a0at Del Mar<\/a> in Southern California. The event \u2013 plus the festivities preceding it \u2013 promises to be one of the most exciting experiences for fans around the world, whether they attend in person<\/a> or watch the races across NBC<\/a>, Peacock<\/a>, USA Network<\/a>, and FanDuel TV<\/a> on Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

Here are 10 interesting facts about the two-day extravaganza, which originated way back in the early 1980s when a former Hollywood movie star was President of the United States, most people got only four or five channels on their television, and gas prices averaged just over a dollar per gallon.<\/p>\n

1. John Gaines<\/a> is considered the \u201cfather of the Breeders\u2019 Cup.\u201d Gaines (1928-2005), who owned Gainesway Farm in Lexington, is credited with developing the idea of a world championship series for Thoroughbreds. Gaines saw this as a way to both promote the sport of Thoroughbred racing with a marquee fall event to accompany the Triple Crown in spring\/summer, and to strengthen the bond between the day-to-day racing industry and the breeders that produce horses to compete in those races. Gaines announced his idea at a luncheon just prior to the 1982 Kentucky Derby, and less than three years later (and after a lot of persuading industry leaders), the first Breeders\u2019 Cup was held Nov. 10, 1984, at Hollywood Park in California in front of 64,254 fans and a national audience viewing on NBC.<\/p>\n

2. Moving to a two-day event has helped boost both the betting handle at the Breeders\u2019 Cup and its appeal to fans. In 2007, Breeders\u2019 Cup officials expanded to a Friday-Saturday event, held for the first (and so far only) time at Monmouth Park<\/a> in New Jersey. The race schedule over the two-day period has been tweaked several times since then, and currently the World Championships are divided into a Future Stars Friday featuring five races for 2-year-olds and a Championship Saturday with the remaining nine Breeders\u2019 Cup races geared for horses age 3 and older. Last year\u2019s Breeders\u2019 Cup at Del Mar\u00a0generated a global wagering pool of $179.12 million. Two years before that, when the event was also held at\u00a0at Del Mar, global handle was $176.28 million. In\u00a02022,\u00a0a record $189.06 million in global handle was wagered on the event\u00a0at Keeneland<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

3. California leads the list of states that have hosted the Breeders\u2019 Cup with 17\u00a0total events (soon to be 18). Hollywood Park in Inglewood, which was closed in 2013 and is now the site of SoFi Stadium, hosted the Breeders\u2019 Cup three times. Santa Anita Park<\/a> in Arcadia is the all-time leading host venue with a record 11\u00a0events, most recently in 2023. And\u00a0Del Mar, two hours south on I-40 from greater Los Angeles and roughly 30 minutes north of San Diego, will host the World Championships for the fourth time this fall giving it back-to-back honors. The picturesque seaside track hosted its first\u00a0Breeders\u2019 Cup in 2017, its second in 2021, and its third last year. Kentucky ranks second on this list, having hosted the Breeders\u2019 Cup 12 times (Churchill Downs<\/a> nine, Keeneland three). The 2026 Breeders\u2019 Cup is scheduled to be held at Keeneland.<\/p>\n

4. At least one horse based outside North America has won a Breeders\u2019 Cup race in 37\u00a0of the 41\u00a0prior events. The marketing intent is clear in this event\u2019s title: it\u2019s a world championship series of races. So it follows that foreign horses have been standouts from the very beginning of the Breeders\u2019 Cup back in 1984. Four years saw no trans-oceanic shipper reach the winner\u2019s circle: the 1989 and 1992 Breeders\u2019 Cups at Gulfstream Park<\/a>; the 1998 tilt at Churchill Downs; and the first time the Breeders\u2019 Cup was held over two days, 2007 at Monmouth Park. By and large, the foreign horses excelling have come from European countries and have been on turf races, although the 2021 championships at Del Mar also was highlighted by two Japan-based winners \u2013 one on turf (Loves Only You), and one in a major upset on dirt <\/a>(Marche Lorraine). The record for most foreign-based winners during a single Breeders\u2019 Cup event is six, which has happened three times:\u00a02009 at Santa Anita Park, 2022 at Keeneland, and 2024 at Del Mar.\u00a0Last year\u2019s six-win mark comes with an asterisk, however, as the Breeders\u2019 Cup began to count Canada-based horses among its foreign winners in 2024. Moira, an Ontario-bred mare based at Woodbine<\/a> who also ran occasionally in the U.S., won the 2024 Maker\u2019s Mark Filly & Mare Turf, while the other five foreign winners came from overseas.<\/p>\n

5. Two Hall of Fame racemares hold the record for most total Breeders\u2019 Cup wins at three. Twenty-seven\u00a0horses have won two Breeders\u2019 Cup races in their careers \u2013 including Cody\u2019s Wish and Elite Power two years ago \u2013 but only two have captured three. Irish-bred and European-based turf star Goldikova<\/a> shipped to the Breeders\u2019 Cup four years in a row from 2008-\u201911, and the first three of those years she won the Breeders\u2019 Cup Mile with powerful stretch rallies. She came up short in a bid for a Mile four-peat when third in 2011 in one of the most exciting races in the event\u2019s history<\/a>. Beholder<\/a>, based in California with super trainer Richard Mandella<\/a>, excelled despite significant interruptions: she won the Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile Fillies at age 2; won the Distaff at age 3; and then, after missing the next two events due to injury, came back at age 6 and won the Distaff again. That final victory in 2016 over Songbird<\/a> is also undisputedly one of the all-time best races in Breeders\u2019 Cup history<\/a>. Goldikova was voted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2017, and Beholder was welcomed in 2022.\u00a0This year, globe-trotting Rebel\u2019s Romance<\/a> is scheduled to try for a third win in the Longines Breeders\u2019 Cup Turf<\/a>; he won the race in 2022 and last year.<\/p>\n

6. Ireland has produced the most Breeders\u2019 Cup winners aside from the U.S. The land of leprechauns, shamrocks, and Liam Neeson has bred 468 horses that have competed in the Breeders\u2019 Cup through the years, and 51 of them have won, including a remarkable six winners\u00a0in 2022. Four Irish-breds won Breeders\u2019 Cup races last year to add to the total: Magnum Force<\/a> in the Juvenile Turf Sprint; Lake Victoria<\/a> in the John Deere Juvenile Fillies Turf; Henri Matisse<\/a> in the Juvenile Turf; and the abovementioned Rebel\u2019s Romance in the Longines Turf. Great Britain is next, having served as the birthplace for 26 winners, followed by France with nine. Horses bred in the U.S. have won 313 Breeders\u2019 Cup races through 2024.<\/p>\n

7. Twenty-six horses that won a Breeders\u2019 Cup race have gone on to sire a Breeders\u2019 Cup winner. If one of John Gaines\u2019 goals for the World Championships was to highlight the contributions of breeders to the horse racing industry, then these 26\u00a0sires have aided that cause. Two sires are tied for having sired the\u00a0most individual Breeders\u2019 Cup winners with six: the\u00a0late Unbridled\u2019s Song, winner of the 1995 Juvenile, and two-time Horse of the Year\u00a0Curlin<\/a>, winner of the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Classic.\u00a0Awesome Again, who won the 1998 Classic<\/a>, is next with four progeny who won Breeders\u2019 Cup races, his best being 2004 Classic winner Ghostzapper<\/a>. Ghostzapper in turn sired 2014 Filly and Mare Sprint winner Judy the Beauty.\u00a0In addition to the stallions\u2019 accomplishments, four\u00a0mares that won Breeders\u2019 Cup races have produced Breeders\u2019 Cup winners \u2013 including one, the legendary Personal Ensign<\/a>, whose Breeders\u2019 Cup-winning daughter My Flag produced her own Breeders\u2019 Cup winner, Storm Flag Flying<\/a>.<\/p>\n

8. Richard Mandella<\/a> and Brad Cox<\/a> hold the record for most wins by a trainer at a single Breeders\u2019 Cup with four. There\u2019s a major difference, though. Cox, a rising star in the sport who was honored as outstanding trainer in both 2020 and 2021 by Eclipse Award voters, won his four during the two-day World Championships at Keeneland in 2020, with two horses winning on Friday and two more the following Saturday. Hall of Famer Mandella won four races at the 2003 Breeders\u2019 Cup at Santa Anita when it was a single-day event consisting of eight total races. One of those four winners, Johar, shared first in the Turf with High Chaparral \u2013 the only dead-heat finish for first in Breeders\u2019 Cup history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

9. Six Kentucky Derby winners have trained on to win the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic, four of them winning both races in the same year. Ferdinand<\/a> and Alysheba<\/a> wore the garland of roses at Churchill Downs as Derby winners in 1986 and 1987, respectively, and each of them won the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic the year after \u2013 Ferdinand, in fact, defeated Alysheba by a nose<\/a> in 1987. In 1989 and 1990, two more legends, Sunday Silence<\/a> and Unbridled<\/a>, backed up their Derby wins earlier in the year with victories in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic. Sunday Silence\u2019s neck win over Easy Goer<\/a> was the fourth race in a classic confrontation<\/a> that ended 3-to-1 in Sunday Silence\u2019s favor. There was a long gap after 1990, but the wait was worth it as American Pharoah<\/a> became the first 3-year-old to sweep the Triple Crown and then win the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic later in the year when he romped by 6 \u00bd lengths at Keeneland in 2015. His achievement was called the \u201cGrand Slam\u201d by some racing scribes, fans, and marketing people \u2013 a phrase borrowed from baseball just as baseball appropriated \u201cTriple Crown\u201d from horse racing. Five\u00a0years ago, Authentic won a pandemic-postponed Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve in September and then took the 2020 Longines Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic at Keeneland two months later. On Nov. 1, Sovereignty<\/a> has an opportunity to become the seventh Kentucky Derby winner to add a Classic win to his portfolio and the fifth same-year winner, and he will be one of the favorites\u00a0among a stellar field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

10. There have been eight Breeders\u2019 Cup winners that paid more than $100 on a $2 win bet. The first came in the inaugural World Championships, when Lakshari upset the Turf to the tune of a $108.80 payout. The most recent came in 2021, when the above-mentioned Marche Lorraine rewarded longshot players and her Japanese connections by holding on in the Longines Distaff and paying $101.80. The biggest price \u2013 one that may never be surpassed \u2013 came in the Breeders\u2019 Cup\u2019s grand event, the Classic, back in 1993 when little-known Arcangues<\/a> shipped in from France, moved from turf to dirt, and shocked all but a few fans and bettors with a two-length win<\/a> that paid $269.20 for a $2 investment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 42nd annual Breeders\u2019 Cup World Championships is set for Oct. 31-Nov. 1\u00a0at Del Mar in Southern California.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-216306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}