Breeders' Cup

Breeders' Cup Challenge Series And Dirt Dozen Sets Record With $6.5 Million In Free Entry Fees

The Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In returns for its 20th year in 2026 and the free entry fees total a record $6.5-million for the top contenders who will earn automatic berths into the Breeders' Cup World Championships, the organization said in a release on Wednesday. The North American portion of the series will again deliver a robust schedule of races throughout the United States and Canada leading into the 43rd Breeders' Cup World Championships Oct. 30-31 at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky. Winners of 95 qualifying...

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Schrupp Joins NYRA Broadcast Team

Todd Schrupp, who recently ended his long-time tenure with TVG/FanDuel TV, will join the New York Racing Association's telecast team Thursday. Schrupp announced his initial two-week stint with NYRA via his twitter page Monday. "It's time to move from the past and start looking to the future," Schrupp said in the post. "And when you look at horse racing, the future looks really bright at the New York Racing Association. You look at the remodel of Belmont, and they will have the Breeders' Cup back there next year. So much...

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Cherie DeVaux Joins The TDN Writers' Room Podcast Presented By Keeneland

There was some good news and some bad news this week for rising star trainer Cherie DeVaux. On Saturday, she will send out Reagan's Honor (Honor A.P). in the GI Toyota Blue Grass Stakes. The horse is coming off a sizzling performance at the allowance level in New Orleans and is expected to run a big race at Keeneland--one that could make him eligible for a start in the GI Kentucky Derby. DeVaux also has 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard', Golden Tempo (Curlin) in her barn and he has...

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Keeneland Updates: Percy's Bar Set for '26 Bow in Ashland, Work Tab Lights Up Ahead of Opening Weekend

Multiple Grade I-placed Percy's Bar (Upstart), unraced since running third in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies behind juvenile champion Super Corredora (Gun Runner) and one of the likely favorites in the Kentucky Oaks in Explora (Blame), will make her return to the races Friday in the GI Central Bank Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. The Ben Colebrook trainee has been something of an enigma on the work tab, with an initial breeze Jan. 6 marked as her first since her troubled Breeders' Cup start, but nothing publicly listed after that...

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Willie Mullins: 'More And More Owners Are Asking Us To Buy These Nice Flat Horses'

Fresh from another dominant display at the Cheltenham Festival, champion jumps trainer Willie Mullins provides the lowdown on leading Dubai Sheema Classic hope Ethical Diamond and more Not content with tightening his grip on the National Hunt sphere following another dominant display at the Cheltenham Festival, Willie Mullins will be taking aim at the world's best racehorse Calandagan in Saturday's Dubai Sheema Classic with his Breeders' Cup hero Ethical Diamond - and the bad news for his contemporaries on the Flat is that the champion jumps trainer has revealed that...

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Road to the Cup Follows Breeders' Cup Challenge Series

"Road to the Cup" is a new series launched by Breeders' Cup to allow fans to follow horses around the globe preparing for the 2026 Breeders' Cup championship weekend at Keeneland in late October. The series previews and recaps the races that make up the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In. Its first installment previews the Mar. 28 Dubai World Cup Carnival. The G1 Dubai World Cup, G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen, and G1 Dubai Sheema Classic to be run this Saturday at Meydan all offer automatic berths to...

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Julien Leparoux Wins 2026 George Woolf Memorial Award

After a nation-wide vote among his peers, Julien Leparoux is the winner of the 2026 George Woolf Award, Santa Anita Park announced via press release. The George Woolf Award honors riders whose careers and personal character earn esteem for the individual and for the sport. It has been presented annually by Santa Anita since 1950. As each year's winner is selected by a vote of fellow jockeys, it is one of the most cherished honors given to a rider. Entering Friday, Leparoux has won 3,066 races and tallied purse earnings...

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Keeneland Breeders Spotlight: Gibbons Set Nearly's Derby Goal

Well, just take a look at the video--and then show us a horse more eligible for stardom, the year the soccer World Cup comes to America. As a yearling, he would roll a beach ball around his paddock 45 minutes at a time. Using his feet, his nose, arching his body. As a rule, other youngsters on the farm do no more than pick it up with their teeth, shake it. "And that kind of gives you the essence of this colt," Kris Gibbons suggests. "We just want to stop...

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Santa Anita Updates: Brief Fever Knocks Super Corredora Out of Oaks, Heat Protocols in Place for Friday

Last year's Eclipse champion juvenile filly, Super Corredora (Gun Runner), will miss the GII Santa Anita Oaks Apr. 4 after getting sick earlier this week, trainer John Sadler reported Friday. The GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies heroine has had a rough start to her 2026 campaign with two non-factor efforts in the Feb. 8 Las Virgenes Stakes and last out Mar. 8 in the GIII Santa Ysabel Stakes, where she missed the break and trailed far off her customary position. Super Corredora reportedly ran a fever earlier this week that...

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Top-Level Talent To Be Found In Fasig-Tipton March Digital Sale

Buyers looking for both domestic and international-quality talent need look no further than the Fasig-Tipton March Digital Sale which opened for bidding Thursday. Maximum Bourbon (Maximum Security) (hip 5) will look to become the next Grade I winner to exit the platform. A 4-year-old gelded son of MGISW Maximum Security under the tutelage of trainer Joe Sharp, he broke his maiden by 7 1/2 lengths as the only first-time starter in a $50,000 maiden claimer at Churchill Downs in late November of last year. In his four starts since, he's...

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Justify's Star Actress, Full to Just F Y I, Gets It Done at Second Asking

STAR ACTRESS (f, 3, Justify--Star Act {SP, $147,605}, by Street Cry {Ire}) was unveiled Feb. 8 at this venue trying a seven-furlong maiden race on the main track, and despite a wide trip, closed ferociously late to claim second by a half-length. Back here as the 3-5 favorite with added real estate to work with, Star Actress went one better while stalking the pace from much closer. Improving her position down the backstretch  to come even with the pacesetter and another challenger by the half-mile marker, she was vying for...

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Breeders' Cup Breakthrough: George Weaver Driven by Quiet Confidence

There is a no-frills air to George Weaver, evident in everything from his worn-in boots to the strictly utilitarian office in his Palm Beach Downs barn. Weaver has little interest in shouting his success from the rooftops. He'd rather let the horses do the talking. "I feel like your horses should do the advertising for you," Weaver said. "When they win, I think it tells everybody what you're about. We let the horses kind of tell us when they're ready to go. That always leads to the best success on...

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