BREEDERS' CUP 2011: Challenge Schedule

The Breeders' Cup is trying something a little different with the Win and You're In program this year in an effort to entice winners of a challenge race to actually run at the Breeders' Cup in the fall.  In previous years, a win in a Breeders' Cup Challenge race secured a spot for that horse in the starting gate at the Breeders' Cup but it didn't pay any of the entry fees associated with that position, making the situation more of a "Win and You're Kind Of In" scenario.  As a result, several of the Challenge races had little to no impact on the final fields at the Breeders' Cup and in fact some Challenge races have never had a winner actually go on to the Breeders' Cup.In order to change the importance of the Challenge series the Breeders' Cup made a few changes. 

From the Breeders' Cup:

In 2011, any nominated horse that wins a Challenge race will receive:

• An automatic starting position in the corresponding Championship race.
• Pre-entry and entry fees paid.
• A travel allowance of $10,000 for North American runners and $20,000 for International runners when they start in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
• A nominator award of $10,000 to the person nominating the foal or racehorse.

You'll notice that the horse must still be Breeders' Cup eligible (which occurs through the nomination process and can be quite expensive, if done during the later supplemental period*), but if they are eligible, much of the incidental costs are paid by the Breeders' Cup.  

*The nomination process is a bit complicated with a variety of different situations where a stallion and a foal can become Breeders' Cup eligible.  An overview of the nomination process can be found at the Breeders' Cup Limited website.

Pre-entry and entry fees are typically 1% and 2% of the purse, respectively.  To run a Breeders' Cup eligible horse in the Classic (a $5 million race) would cost $50,000 for the pre-entry and $100,000 for the entry.

The $20,000 in travel allowance also sounds nice but I have no idea what it costs to ship a horses from Europe or Australia to the United States.

At a minimum, these changes by the Breeders' Cup close one of the big gaps in the Challenge program. Whether that will entice more horses from Australia, Europe, Asia and North America to the Breeders' Cup remains to be seen.  But it certainly can't hurt.

Below is a list of this year's Breeders' Cup Challenge races (along with the winners, if any):