The Breeders’ Cup Problem Sequence: Win and You are In continues Aug. 3 with the $1 million Whitney Stakes (G1) from Saratoga Race Course and the $400,000 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1) at Del Mar.
The winner of every race earns a paid, automated beginning place in designated races on the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Del Mar Nov. 2. The Whitney victor beneficial properties entrance to the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Basic (G1), and the Hirsch winner beneficial properties entrance for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Older males compete within the 1 1/8-mile Whitney and fillies and mares within the 1 1/16-mile Hirsch.
Historical past suggests these receiving these two Breeders’ Cup Problem Sequence berths will likely be main contenders within the World Championships. The pair of races have produced an extended listing of Breeders’ Cup winners, a lot of award-winning high quality.
Seven instances since 1998 the winner of the Whitney has repeated that very same yr within the Breeders’ Cup Basic, together with simply final yr when White Abarrio pulled off the Whitney-Basic double.
He was not the one Whitney runner to expertise Breeders’ Cup glory in 2023. Its third-place finisher, Cody’s Want , captured final fall’s Breeders’ Cup Dust Mile (G1) for his second straight victory within the race. He was later honored as Horse of the 12 months.
Apart from White Abarrio, different Whitney-Basic repeaters embody Superior Once more (1998), Invasor (2006), Blame (2010), Fort Larned (2012), Gun Runner (2017), and Knicks Go (2021). Invasor, Gun Runner, and Knicks Go had been voted Horse of the 12 months.
This yr’s Whitney is led by $5.3 million earner Nationwide Treasure , winner of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) and Metropolitan Handicap (G1) in 2024. The Whitney additionally contains graded-winning millionaires Disarm , First Mission , and Skippylongstocking .
“I used to be shocked there have been 12 horses that entered the race. I assumed there may be 5 – 6,” Nationwide Treasure co-owner Jack Wolf of Starlight Racing stated July 30. “Trying on the (previous performances) and the sheet numbers as we speak, there are some very nice horses in there. … A lot for not having sufficient older horses at the moment of yr.”
Nationwide Treasure, a 4-year-old son of High quality Highway , arrived at Saratoga July 31 after touring from Southern California, the place he accomplished his current exercises below the oversight of coach Bob Baffert. Final yr’s Preakness Stakes (G1) winner races for SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Bob Masterson, Stonestreet Stables, Jay Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital, and Catherine Donovan.
The Whitney will likely be nationally televised throughout a three-hour “Fox Saratoga Saturday” program. The scheduled submit time is 5:42 p.m. ET
Baffert additionally has the favourite at Del Mar within the Hirsch, beginning Michael Lund Petersen’s Adare Manor , who took the 2023 Hirsch by a size over H & E Ranch’s Desert Daybreak , who’s again for one more crack at her. Six different fillies, amongst them Juddmonte’s up-and-coming graded winner Scylla and Godolphin’s 2023 Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner and reigning champion 3-year-old filly Fairly Mischievous , are entered.
Publish time is 6:35 p.m. PT with tv protection on FanDuel Racing.
Adare Manor trains final fall at Santa Anita Park
Final yr, Adare Manor and Desert Daybreak once more ran 1-2 within the Zenyatta Stakes (G2) within the fall at Santa Anita Park earlier than they had been each off the board within the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita. Adare Manor was seventh within the Distaff, crushed three lengths, and Desert Daybreak checked in fifth, 1 1/4 lengths behind triumphant Idiomatic .
Like these victorious within the Whitney, many Hirsch winners go on to shine on the Breeders’ Cup. In the course of the very first yr of the Breeders’ Cup in 1984, Princess Rooney pulled off the Hirsch-Distaff double in the identical season, and others would observe within the a long time to return. They embody legends Bayakoa (1990), Azeri (2002), and Zenyatta (2008).
Bayakoa and others raced within the earlier century when the Clement L. Hirsch was run because the Chula Vista Handicap. It was renamed in 2000 to honor Hirsch, a California businessman, horse proprietor, and Oak Tree Racing Affiliation government.
The legendary Zenyatta would three-peat within the Hirsch by profitable it in 2009-10 and certain would have gained extra runnings of the Distaff, besides she had greater fish to fry, profitable the 2009 Basic and working a hard-charging second to Blame within the 2010 Basic.
Breeders’ Cup winners Paseana (1992 Distaff) and Beholder (2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, G1; 2013 and 2016 Distaff,) additionally gained the Hirsch in numerous years from their successes on the Breeders’ Cup. Beholder’s Hirsch glory got here in 2015 earlier than she whipped males within the Pacific Basic Stakes (G1) at Del Mar. She ran second within the 2016 Hirsch within the yr of her Distaff rating.
Princess Rooney, Bayakoa, Paseana, Azeri, Zenyatta, and Beholder are all Corridor of Famers.
