The Breeders’ Cup Challenge, a series of automatic qualifying races for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, will be expanded from 24 to a minimum of 49 races at 12 of North America’s premier racing venues in 2008, Breeders’ Cup announced today.

The expanded Breeders’ Cup Challenge will now include 6 races at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto. Other new markets and tracks for the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Challenge include Emerald Downs in Auburn, Washington; Suffolk Downs in Boston; Delaware Park in Wilmington, Delaware; Calder Race Course near Miami; and Monmouth Park in Oceanport, New Jersey.

The 2008 Breeders’ Cup Challenge races will begin on July 5 with races from Monmouth Park, host of last year’s Breeders’ Cup.

The 2008 Breeders’ Cup Challenge will be highlighted by its “Win and You’re In” provision, with the winner of each of the 49 Breeders’ Cup Challenge races automatically qualifying for a spot in the corresponding divisional race in the 14-race, $25.5 million Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

The 2008 Breeders’ Cup marks the 25th running of the event, which will be held October 24-25 at The Oak Tree Racing Association meet at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California.

“Following last year’s successful launch of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge, there was a great deal of interest from tracks around the country and internationally to be a part of this years series, and that interest led to the expansion of the Challenge,” said Greg Avioli, president and chief executive officer of Breeders’ Cup. “The creation of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge has served as a powerful link between America’s greatest races to the Breeders’ Cup and has created an increased level of awareness for the horses competing in the World Championships.”

In its first year the Breeders’ Cup Challenge had 14 winners who competed in the 2007 Breeders’ Cup World Championships, and four of those horses went on to victory at the Breeders’ Cup: War Pass (Juvenile), Ginger Punch (Distaff), English Channel (Turf), and Curlin (Classic).

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Breeders' Cup, Calder Race Course, Horse Racing Industry, Monmouth Park, Race Tracks News, Santa Anita Track, Stakes Races, USA Horse Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.