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Breeders’ Cup Releases 2024 Challenge Series Schedule

The 2024 Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In will consist of 82 races in 12 countries and host track Del Mar will run six on a schedule with several new additions, the organization announced via release Monday.

In its 18th year, the Win and You're In (WAYI) program gives each winner an automatic qualifying position with fees paid into the corresponding race at the 2024 World Championships. In addition to the domestic schedule, forty-one international races will be held at premier tracks in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, England, France, Ireland, Japan, Peru, South Africa, and South Korea.

Newly included races this season are the G3 Korea Cup (WAYI for the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile) and G3 Korea Sprint (WAYI for the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint), both run Sept. 8 at Seoul Racecourse. England picked up three additional races as well–the G3 Acomb S., G3 William Hill Prestige S., and the QIPCO British Champions Fillies and Mares S. They will offer berths into the GI Juvenile Turf, GI Juvenile Fillies Turf, and GI Filly & Mare Turf, respectively.

Domestically, the GIII City of Hope Mile at Santa Anita Park will offer an automatic berth into the GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile for the first time. The 2024 series in the U.S. will again feature a regional qualifying program to balance divisional competition. In 10 of the 14 race divisions, there will be one Challenge Series race per region, identified as East, Midwest, and West. The Breeders' Cup also announced that it would promote these regional rivalries on the road to the World Championships. All North American races must be graded to be included.

Of the eight berths awarded for the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic, one has already been claimed by G1 February S. victor G1SW-Jpn Peptide Nile (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}) in Japan Feb. 19.

Purse increases for the 2024 Championships raised the Classic to a $7-million purse while the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Turf will reward $5-million.

As part of the benefits, $5,485,000 has been allocated for free entry fees as well as a $10,000 travel allowance for all starters within North America that are stabled outside of California. A $40,000 travel allowance to the connections of all Championship will be awarded to starters based outside of North America. If not already, the Challenge winner must be nominated to the Breeders' Cup program by the pre-entry deadline of Oct. 21 to receive the rewards. The Breeders' Cup will pay the entry fees and guarantee a starting position in a corresponding Championships race for all Challenge Series race winners.

A full schedule of the Win and You're In Races, as well as a list of the race winners, may be found here.

“We take great pride in seeing horsemen from around the world capitalize on the advantages provided by the Challenge Series, the premier route to securing a starting position in the World Championships,” said Dora Delgado, Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Officer of Breeders' Cup Limited.

“Our heartfelt appreciation goes out to the racing jurisdictions across five continents for their invaluable support and administration of this year's series. We encourage all horsemen to target the Challenge Series en route to the Breeders' Cup World Championships at Del Mar.”

The Challenge Series will also make a return to the television screen as NBC, FOX, and CNBC will feature five live programs in the U.S. this summer and autumn. Coverage on NBC and CNBC will be simulcast on Peacock, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app. Coverage of the 2024 Challenge Series features two NBC broadcasts, two FOX broadcasts, and one CNBC program.

A complete television schedule can be viewed here.

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Lure of Global Riches Alters Face of Jockeys’ Championship

The rider who streaked home in the £4.7m Sheema Classic in Dubai at the weekend is also odds-on to win something rather more quaint.

The title of champion Flat race jockey was once contested with fierce pride by men who thrashed car engines dashing up and down the land to ride a winner at Redcar or Salisbury. Lester Piggott, Willie Carson and Pat Eddery didn't care where it was, provided it landed a blow on their rivals.

Sometimes small private planes would lift them over the motorway traffic. But the mission never changed. Champion jockey was a crown worth fighting for. One year Carson expended so much energy to win it that he needed a week in bed to recover.

William Buick, who won the Sheema Classic on Rebel's Romance, has been No 1 for the last two seasons and is 8/13 to complete his hat-trick. Oisin Murphy finished in front in the previous three campaigns (2019 to 2021) but now says he will not forego a big international ride for the sake of being champion once again.

The truncation of the jockeys' league in 2015 so that it now operates from May 4 to October 19 owed more to politics than stage management. Nobody could pretend the 'narrative' of identifying the top jockey has been strengthened by starting it at the Guineas meeting and calling a halt on Champions' Day. The public isn't exactly on tenterhooks to see whether Buick can hold off Murphy, Rossa Ryan, Silvestre de Sousa and Tom Marquand, who complete the top five in the betting.

But behind the UK Flat Jockeys' Championship's struggle for relevance sits a reality we sometimes take for granted: the extraordinary globalisation of the Flat race pilot's trade.

In prioritising big races abroad above little ones at Bath or Beverley, Murphy was merely adopting a position now assumed by the world's best cricketers. Test matches no longer anchor their career planning. As England's Kevin Pietersen is fond of saying, cricketers are becoming international freelancers, attached to this or that T20 league, with the Indian Premier League the mothership of salaries. Playing for England or Australia may cease to be the defining honour for players who see themselves as hired guns.

Behind the UK Flat Jockeys' Championship's struggle for
relevance sits a reality we sometimes take for granted: the
extraordinary globalisation of the Flat race pilot's trade

In racing, tie-ins with owners and trainers still have a large say in where jockeys go. Buick was riding for Godolphin at Meydan and Ryan Moore was there to accompany Aidan O'Brien's runners. And yet, taking in the sweep of colossally valuable fixtures in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Dubai this winter, it's easy to form a picture of the elite end of racing becoming a game without frontiers.

Moore holds the title of Longines World's Best Jockey (he won it too in 2014, 2016 and 2021). We think of him as Coolmore's 'finisher' in the UK and Ireland. But his cv maps out his global reach (not to mention the time spent on planes). Outside Europe he has won the Japan Cup, Melbourne Cup, Hong Kong Vase and races at the Breeders' Cup. He's unlikely to be tortured by the knowledge that he hasn't been the champ in his homeland since 2009.

The champion jockey title still resonates. It still offers a measure of greatness in the saddle. Nat Flatman claimed the first 13 titles from 1840 to 1852. Gordon Richards won it 26 times between 1925 and 1953. Names still pop out to induce nostalgia: Joe Mercer's lone win in 1979, or Steve Cauthen's three. Jim Crowley's victory at 38 years old in 2016, 10 years after he switched from jump racing, was a stellar accomplishment.

If Buick is anointed again this autumn the completion of his hat-trick will bring him joy. Nobody however could expect him to crave another winners-ridden victory ahead of a revival for Charlie Appleby's yard in this campaign (Rebel's Romance was a promising start).

Racing isn't alone in pivoting away from the old markers of excellence. The compulsion in world sport is to follow the money, which can be found in new places, new events. Ask the footballers signing for Saudi Arabian clubs.

This isn't just a British and Irish trend. Falling in love with Japanese racing yielded spectacular results for France's Christophe Lemaire. Three times Lemaire has been Japan's No 1 rider, by races won. Numbers though are less of a guarantee of immortality than his partnerships with Almond Eye and Equinox, a conveyance of extraordinary grandeur, and the worldwide horse of the year in 2023.

This free flow of human talent to where the best horses and biggest prizes are follows modern norms. If it means we see a less entertaining scrap for autumn wins at Catterick or Ripon then we'll just have to hope the champion buys us a drink from his or her vast international earnings.

Racing may sometimes be stuck in a loop of self-doubt, but the growing opulence of the global calendar is one field where decline is not conspicuous. Piggott, Eddery and Carson boarded aeroplanes too, often in Europe, but usually to get them from an afternoon meeting in Britain to an evening one.

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Soldier Rising To Skip Longines Hong Kong Vase

Soldier Rising (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who was set to become the first American-based participant since 2017 at the Longines Hong Kong International Races in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Vase a week from Sunday, will instead remain stateside and receive a break before returning to action in 2024.

“We worked him on Sunday [5f in 1:03.45 over the Belmont main track] and I was not satisfied with the work,” trainer Christophe Clement said of the 5-year-old gelding, campaigned by Madaket Stable, Michael Dubb, Morris Bailey, Wonder Stables and Michael J. Caruso. “He came back and I don't think he is as good as he could be–not bad, but when you go for such a long trip and such a prestigious race, you want to make sure everything is OK. I wasn't comfortable about it, so we'll give him a break and bring him back next year.”

The hard-knocking bay gelding, who has raced competitively with the likes of globetrotting multiple Grade I/Group 1 winners such as champion Yibir (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and State of Rest (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) since arriving on these shores in 2021, made six trips to the post this season. Though winless, he ran with credit, with four runner-up efforts in Grade I company, and most recently charged home to miss by a neck in the GII Red Smith S. at Aqueduct Nov. 11.

It has been 30 years since Clement ran his first horse in Hong Kong when Adam Smith (GB) (Sadler's Wells) finished eighth in the race then called the Hong Kong International Cup. Since then, he has started another half-dozen horses, the last coming with Winchester in the 2010 Vase. Pure Sensation was set to represent the stable in the 2016 Sprint and did make the trip over, but was withdrawn in the days leading up to the race.

With few options at home for Soldier Rising at this late juncture, Clement once again looked to Hong Kong.

“Soldier Rising ran a really nice race in the Red Smith and I thought he was doing well, so you just look at your choices,” he said. “The Vase has a big purse of $2 million and we are sure that he stays. So it was attractive at the time to think about it and think a little bit outside the box. But I am a New York trainer, the owners are New York-based and obviously he finished second five times in graded stakes this year, including four times in Grade Is. So that is the priority for next year. For now we'll play it safe and bring him back for the same sort of a program.”

While there are potential early-season targets in the Middle East for a horse like Soldier Rising, the timing isn't quite right, Clement said.

“He could have been one for Saudi or Dubai. I am certainly not against it, but the problem with that is that my idea was to try to go once more [in 2023] and then give him a break and have a fresh horse for next year,” he offered. “Now we are passing Hong Kong and still going to give him a break, which means we also need to pass Saudi and Dubai, as it comes too early.”

Still, it will come as no surprise if Clement circles Sha Tin on his calendar come next December.

“Maybe Big Invasion (Declaration of War) for the Sprint, too,” he said. “Good horses from America compete well in the Breeders' Cup and there's no reason they can't also do so overseas. International competition is good for all of us.”

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IFHA: International Trainers, Jockeys Reflect On Working During A Pandemic

The 54th International Conference of Horseracing Authorities, organized by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA), continued today with a discussion on participating and working in racing during the on-going pandemic.

The IFHA Conference is typically held in-person in Paris, France, the day after the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1), but in light of COVID-19, this year it is being conducted as a series of videos released during the first two weeks of October.

The third session was introduced by IFHA Vice-Chairman Brian Kavanagh, who is the chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland. Rishi Persad then moderated a panel featuring leading trainers and jockeys from around the globe. The pre-recorded Zoom discussion included trainers Charlie Appleby (Great Britain), Ger Lyons (Ireland), and Chris Waller (Australia) as well as jockeys Hollie Doyle (Great Britain) and Zac Purton (Hong Kong).

This international panel of trainers and jockeys discussed their experiences participating in racing during a pandemic, including the challenges surrounding staffing and how they are meeting the needs of owners. In addition, they offered commentary and feedback to racing administrators on concerns they have going forward as well as provided insight on the impact the pandemic and its restrictions have had on the mental health of both humans and horses.

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