When, and where, was the inaugural Breeders’ Cup?

The 2024 Breeders’ Cup World Championships is due to be held at Del Mar Racetrack in Southern California in early November and, as is customary, will be a two-day, season-ending spectacle, featuring the crème de la crème of thoroughbred talent not just from North America but from around the world .

The Breeders’ Cup was, in fact, the brainchild of visionary thoroughbred pioneer John R. Gaines, who on April 23, 1982 announced plans for a year-end championship day of racing, at a major venue, in an effort to sell the sport to the general public. The inaugural Breeders’ Cup – a one-day, seven-race affair, but nonetheless worth $15 million in total prize money – was duly staged at the now-defunct Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, California on November 10, 1984.

The Breeders’ Cup has since been staged annually at various iconic venues across North America, all bar one of which have been in the United States, and in 2007 was extended to two days. The current programme features 14 Grade 1 races, in a variety of disciplines and age ranges, on dirt and turf, each worth $1 million and, collectively, worth $28 million. The so-called Breeders’ Cup Challenge series consists of qualifying “Win & You’re In” races across the United States and around the world, each offering automatic, free entry into the corresponding Championship race. In Britain, for example, both the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot offer automatic entry into the Breeders’ Cup Turf.