2016 Breeders Cup
| Championship Event Series race | |
Seabiscuit statue at Santa Anita, draped in a Breeders' Cup winner's blanket
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| Location | Santa Anita Racetrack |
|---|---|
| Race type | Thoroughbred |
| Website | www |
| Race information | |
| Distance | See individual races |
| Surface | Turf, Dirt |
| Track | Left-handed |
| Purse | Varies by race; Between $1,000,000 – $6 million |
The 2016 Breeders' Cup World Championships was the 33rd edition of the premier event of the North American thoroughbred horse racing year. A total of 185 pre-entries were announced on October 26 in what was considered a highly competitive year in most divisions. The races, all of which were Grade I, took place on November 4 and 5 at Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia, California and were telecast by NBC. The Breeders' Cup is generally regarded as the end of the North America racing season, although a few Grade I events take place in later November and December.
The most anticipated events were the Classic and Distaff. The Classic pitted the five-year-old California Chrome, undefeated in 2016, against Arrogate, a late developing three-year-old, with Arrogate prevailing by half a length. The Distaff featured a face-off between three Eclipse Award winners: Songbird (2015 champion two-year old filly, undefeated in her career before the Breeders' Cup), Stellar Wind (2015 champion three-year-old filly) and Beholder (2015 champion older female). Beholder prevailed over Songbird by a nose.
The Breeders' Cup Challenge is a series of races that provide the winners of designated races with automatic "Win and You're In" berths in a specified division of the Breeders' Cup. Forty-five entrants in the Breeders' Cup qualified via the Challenge series, which was particularly important as seven of the Breeders' Cup races were oversubscribed, in that there were more entries than available space. A maximum of 14 horses (12 in the Dirt Mile) are allowed to start in each race. Winners of the Challenge races are given automatic entries, while other pre-entries were ranked by a points system and the judgement of a panel of experts.
In 2016, Santa Anita hosted the Breeders' Cup for a record ninth time. In preparation for the event, Santa Anita installed a new turf course over the summer of 2016. Early reviews were positive: the jockeys felt the course was very fast but safe and fair. "It's like a carpet right now," said jockey Kent Desormeaux. "It's pristine. It's incredible. But we'll see how it holds up."
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