The 2018 Breeders' Cup Challenge series provided winners of the designated races an automatic "Win and You're In" Berth in the
2018 Breeders' Cup
The 2018 Breeders' Cup World Championships was the 35th edition of the premier event of the North American thoroughbred horse racing year. The 14 races, all but one of which were Graded stakes race, Grade I, took place on November 2 and 3 at Churc ...
, held on November 2 and 3. The Breeders' Cup also pays the entry fee and provides a travel allowance for the connections of the challenge race winners. Races were chosen by the
Breeders' Cup organization and included key races in the various Breeders' Cup divisions from around the world.
Summary
On April 18, 2018, the Breeders' Cup announced the 2018
Breeders' Cup Challenge series races. The main change was the addition of four "win and you're in" races from
Royal Ascot
Ascot Racecourse ("ascot" pronounced , often pronounced ) is a dual-purpose British racecourse, located in Ascot, Berkshire, England, which is used for thoroughbred horse racing. It hosts 13 of Britain's 36 annual Flat Group 1 horse races and ...
: the
Queen Anne Stakes provides a berth in the Mile division; the
Prince of Wales's Stakes (G1) in the Turf; the
Norfolk Stakes in the new Juvenile Turf Sprint; and the
Diamond Jubilee Stakes in the Turf Sprint. The
Jaipur Invitational was also added as a qualifier for the Turf Sprint. The following races were removed from the series: the TJ Smith (Turf Sprint), the Smile Sprint (Sprint), the T. Von Zastrow Stutenpreis (Filly & Mare Turf) and the Grosser Preis von Baden (Turf). On June 25, three more races were added to the challenge series as qualifiers for the
Juvenile Turf Sprint. These were the
Futurity at Belmont Park, the
Indian Summer Stakes at Keeneland and a new race at Santa Anita, subsequently named the Speakeasy Stakes.
A record 221 pre-entries were taken on October 24. Twelve races, including the Classic, were over-subscribed, meaning more than 14 horses (12 in the Juvenile Turf Sprint) wished to enter. Forty-eight of the pre-entries were automatic qualifiers through the Challenge series.
The following automatic qualifiers also won their division of the Breeders' Cup:
* Sistercharlie automatically qualified by winning the Beverley D and went on to win the Filly & Mare Turf
*
Accelerate, winner of the Classic, automatically qualified by winning both the Pacific Classic and Awesome Again
* Game Winner qualified by winning the FrontRunner, then won the Juvenile
* Roy H won the Santa Anita Sprint Championship before winning the Sprint
* Jaywalk won both the Frizette and Juvenile Fillies
Automatic Qualifiers
The winners of the 2018
Breeders' Cup Challenge races are shown below. The status column shows whether the horse was subsequently entered in the corresponding Breeders' Cup division and if so, if they won. The status column also shows a few horses that had been sidelined by injury or retired prior to the running of the Breeders' Cup.
See also
*
2018 British Champions Series
References
{{BreedersCup
Breeders' Cup Challenge
Breeders' Cup Challenge series
Breeders' Cup