Final automatic qualifying positions for the Breeders' Cup World Championships will be at stake this weekend in a pair of live NBC shows. Coverage begins Saturday at 5 p.m. ET on NBC from Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., with the $1 million Shadwell Turf Mile and the $500,000 Claiborne Breeders' Futurity. The $500,000 Juddmonte Spinster STAKES highlights Sunday's live 5 p.m. ET show on NBC.
This weekend's one-hour broadcasts are the eighth and ninth programs, respectively, in the "Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In - presented by Lane's End Farm and America's Best Racing," on
NBC and NBCSN, featuring 16 "Win And You're In" races plus other major
STAKES on the road to the Breeders' Cup, November 4-5 at Santa Anita Park, and televised by
NBC Sports Group. Both shows will be streamed live on NBCSports.com and the
NBC Sports app. Winners of these Challenge races, which combined offer more than $10 million in purses, automatically qualify for a spot in the Breeders' Cup.
Saturday's show will also include coverage defending Breeders' Cup Mile winner, Tepin, the sensational 5-year-old mare, in the one mile $400,000 Frist Lady
STAKES at Keeneland; and the 1 ¼ mile, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup and the 1 ¼ mile, $500,000 Flower Bowl
STAKES from Belmont Park in New York. The Jockey Club Gold Cup is the final "Win and You're In" qualifier for the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic, and the Flower Bowl
STAKES is a qualifier for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf.
Tom Hammond hosts NBC's coverage this weekend, and will be joined by analyst Nick Luck and reporters Donna Brothers and Kenny Rice. Daily Racing Form's Matt Bernier will serve as the Handicapper.
Saturday's Shadwell Turf Mile, a "Win and You're In" for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Mile, has an excellent 10-horse field led by Geoff and Sandra Turnbull's globe-trotting 6-year-old Mondialiste (IRE), who was second to Tepin in last year's Mile and will cut back in distance after earning an automatic starting berth into the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf in the "Win and You're In" Arlington Million on August 13 for trainer David O'Meara. WinStar Farm, Wachtel Stable and Gary Barber's 5-year-old Tourist, a son of two-time Breeders' Cup Classic winner Tiznow, won the one mile Fourstaredave Handicap at Saratoga on August 20, and was a close third in last year's Shadwell. Susan and Jim Hill's 7-year-old gelding Grand Arch, who is the defending Shadwell winner, will be making his first start since finishing third behind Tourist in the Fourstardave.
The $500,000 Claiborne Breeders' Futurity is a 1 1/16-mile test for an automatic berth into the $2 million Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile, and will offer a slew of lightly raced 2-year-olds their first chance at racing around two turns on the main track. John Oxley's Classic Empire, who won his first two starts for trainer Mark Casse, including Churchill Downs' Bashford Manor in July, is the 5-2 morning line favorite in the 12-horse field. However, in this last start in the Hopeful
STAKES at Saratoga on September 5, the son of Poineerof the Nile, wheeled at the start and threw his jockey. Peacock Racing Stable's Gunnevera closed from far back to win the Saratoga Special on August 14 for trainer Antonio Sano, and has a running style that should appreciate some added distance.
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