40th anniversary

Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup with Living Legends Each race--particularly a Breeders' Cup win--is special to the connections of the winner, but some races stand out more than others in all who are lucky enough to witness them. Some get embedded in the mind and take up permanent residence there. Just about everyone in racing can recall in vivid detail Arazi's scintillating 1991 Juvenile or Personal Ensign's electrifying 1988 Distaff or Tiznow's gripping 2001 Classic. Each of those are among the transcendent performances in our sport that stir...

By all accounts, the undefeated GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner Flightline was truly a once-in-a-generation horse. Like the legendary A.P. Indy, his great-grandsire who also stood at Lane's End, Flightline was a seven-figure yearling fashioned into a Horse of the Year, but it was the way he made very good horses look like ordinary mortals that cemented his acclaim. Flightline completed his first season at stud this year; will he also follow in A.P. Indy's footsteps and become a breed-shaping sire? "Flightline had an excellent start at stud, covering 152...

When Life Is Good was good, he was really, really good. A sight to behold in full flight, the 2021 Dirt Mile winner inspired breeders to send him a first book containing 25 Grade I winners and/or producers, as well as 70 graded winners and/or producers. Life Is Good's first foals will arrive in 2024. "We are extremely excited for Life Is Good's foals coming next year," said Elliott Walden, WinStar Farm's president/CEO and racing manager. "We have never had a stallion that was so well received." Life Is Good...

Stormy Liberal is one of a select number of Breeders' Cup winners to repeat the feat. Always dead game, the former claimer's final half-dozen career victories had connections and fans regularly holding their collective breaths as his biggest margin was just a neck. The tough and classy veteran raced on three continents, earned an Eclipse as champion turf male in 2018, and retired to Old Friends after his 2019 season. "When owner David Bernsen retired Stormy to us, I was thrilled," said Michael Blowen, president of Old Friends. "The two-time...

Lady Eli had a sensational career that got rolling with a Breeders' Cup win at two and culminated with an Eclipse for champion turf female at five. In between, she fought a life-threatening battle with laminitis and captured the hearts of racing fans. She delivered her third foal, an Into Mischief colt, Mar. 6 at Coolmore America and was bred back to Justify. "The Breeders' Cup is the ultimate race test of champions to define and prove yourself against the ultimate competition," said Hill 'n' Dale's John Sikura, who now...

Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup with Living Legends Some moments last a lifetime. Breeders' Cup wins are like that. They affect everyone associated with the horse, from owners whose silks the horse sports in the race to breeders to consignors to grooms to farriers and so many others. They even touch those many years down the road, such as those who care for the winner more than a quarter century removed from that magical winner's circle and those signature purple and gold flowers. It is, without a doubt,...

In November, American racing will celebrate the 40th running of the Breeders' Cup, with $28 million in prize-money for 14 races across two days. Breeders' Cup Limited, the organising company for this global highlight of the Flat racing programme, was founded in 1982 from an original suggestion by John Gaines, who proposed that the prize-money for the Breeders' Cup races would come from contributions made by stallion owners. The contributions paid were decided on a sliding scale relative to each stallion's nomination fee and number of mares covered in a...

A commemoration event was held to celebrate 40 years of service to the Irish equine industry by the Irish Equine Centre (IEC) in Co Kildare in Johnstown on Sept. 13. The Irish Field's Leo Powell acted as mc, with guests given a guided tour of the facility. Among those present were Minister Martin Heydon, T.D. The IEC CEO Debbie Grey said, "The Irish Equine Centre (IEC) was delighted to acknowledge it donors, clients, partners, supporters and staff past and present as it commemorates its 40th anniversary. The organisation's mission of...