BC Announces New 'Win and You're In' Races
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The Breeders' Cup announced April 10 it has added eight "Win and You're In" races to its Challenge Series, bringing the total numbr of automatic qualifying races to 78.
Breeders' Cup will pay entry fees and provide travel allowances for the connections of the Challenge winners to compete in the World Championships Oct. 30-31 at Keeneland.
Complete 2015 Challenge Series schedule here
The Breeders' Cup Challenge Series, now in its ninth year, will consist of races being held in 13 countries: the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Peru, and South Africa.
As part of the enhanced benefits to horsemen in the Challenge Series, Breeders' Cup will pay the entry fees and guarantee a starting position in a corresponding Championships race for winners of all Challenge races.
Breeders' Cup will provide travel allowances to all starters outside of Kentucky for this year's Championships including Challenge race winners. Breeders' Cup will provide a $40,000 travel stipend to the connections of each Challenge winner from outside of North America and in North America, a $10,000 travel allowance for winners stabled outside of Kentucky. The Challenge winner must already be nominated to the Breeders' Cup program or it must be done by the Championships' pre-entry deadline of October 19 to receive the rewards.
Last year, 37 participants in the Breeders' Cup World Championships earned automatic starting positions through the Challenge Series, including winners Bayern, Main Sequence, Work All Week, and Goldencents .
"Horsemen around the world continue to take advantage of the Series' benefits of automatic starting positions, free entry and the travel allowances to gain a spot in a Breeders' Cup race. We also greatly appreciate the commitment and enthusiasm from our partner tracks in their conduct and promotion of the series," said Craig Fravel, president and CEO of Breeders' Cup Ltd., in a news release.
The eight new races and respective Breeders' Cup divisions, are: Gran Premio Criadores at Palermo in Argentina (Distaff); Fleur de Lis Handicap (gr. II, Distaff), Qatar Sussex Stakes (Eng-I, Mile); Sword Dancer Invitational (gr. IT, Turf), Spinaway (gr. I, Juvenile Fillies), Princess Rooney Handicap (gr. II, Filly & Mare Sprint), Smile Sprint Handicap (gr. II, Sprint), and the T. Von Zastrow Stutenpreis (Ger-II, Filly & Mare Turf).
For the sixth consecutive year, the Breeders' Cup will pay foal nominators of Challenge winners a $10,000 award.