By Tiffany Kuo
Staff Writer
On Nov. 4 and 5, the Breeders’ Cup World Championship took place at the Santa Anita Racetrack, with a pre-entrance of 185 horses and a horse named Arrogate ending up on top.
The post positions for the horses in the first eleven racing events were announced on Oct. 31. Juvenile Files, the very first event to kick off the Breeders’ Cup had Champagne Room earning the win.
This $28 million tournament spanned the course of two days and was divided into 13 races. The tickets ranged from as low as $10 for general admissions to upwards of over $800 hundred for seating near the finish line. Monetary prizes for the various events fluctuated, the highest cash prize being given to the winner of the last race of the competition, the Classic, was worth $6 million.
The horseracing events that take place in the Breeders’ Cup were Juvenile Turf, Dirt Mile, Juvenile Fillies Turf, Filly and Mare Sprint, Turf Spring, Sprint, Mile, Distaff, Juvenile Fillies, Filly and Mare Turf, Juvenile, Turf, and the Classic.
The Breeders’ Cup is a competition that garners attention from bidders who place money on the horses competing. According to Breeder’s Cup, $144.3 million were wagered at the Breeders’ Cup Championship of 2012.
The proposal for the Breeders’ Cup was pitched in 1982 by John R. Gaines, a Thoroughbred owner, who looked to reinvent the face of horseracing. Two years later, the first Breeders’ Cup competition took place as a single day event, but, the growing popularity the following two decades called for Breeders’ Cup Limited to change its schedule to span two days in 2007.
A total of 118,484 people attended this year over the course of two days, the highest in Breeders’ Cup history
In 2010, the Breeders’ Cup experienced its second largest amount of attendees as it took place at Churchill Downs. A champion race horse by the name of Zenyatta competed, most famous for her historic successes at the 2009 and 2010 Breeder’s Cup as runner up for the best Female Athlete, both years.
“I think it’s very exciting [and] anyone who has an interest with racing can’t help but be passionate about the Breeders’ Cup, especially this year,” stated Hall of Fame trainer, Neil Drysdale.
