The 2022

Breeders' Cup The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Graded stakes race, Grade I Thoroughbred racing, Thoroughbred horse races, operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982. From its inception in 1984 through 2006, it was ...

World Championships was the 39th edition of the premier event of the North American

Thoroughbred horse racing Thoroughbred racing is a sport and Horse industry, industry involving the Horse racing, racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter know ...

year. The 14 races, all of which were

Grade I In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

, took place on November 4 and 5 at

Keeneland Keeneland Association, Inc. is an equine business based in Lexington, Kentucky. It includes two distinct divisions: the Keeneland Race Course, a Thoroughbred racing facility, and Keeneland Sales, a horse auction complex. It is also known for ...

racetrack in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...

. In the United States, the races were telecast on Friday and early Saturday by

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

and

FanDuel TV FanDuel TV (formerly TVG) is an American sports betting-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by FanDuel Group, the U.S. subsidiary of Irish bookmaker Flutter Entertainment. It primarily airs live coverage of U.S. and in ...

, with

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

covering the last three races on Saturday. In the United Kingdom, ITV broadcast all the races live, with day 1 on ITV3 and day 2 on ITV4. The Breeders' Cup is generally regarded as the end of the North American racing season, although a few Grade I events take place in later November and December. The event typically determines champions in many of the

Eclipse Award The Eclipse Award is an American Thoroughbred horse racing award named after the 18th-century British racehorse and sire, Eclipse. An Eclipse Award Trophy is presented to the winner in each division. The trophy is made by a few small selected A ...

divisions.

Qualifying

A maximum of 14 horses (12 in the Dirt Mile and Juvenile Turf Sprint) were allowed to start in each race. Horses could automatically qualify by winning one of the designated races in the

Breeders' Cup Challenge The Breeders' Cup Challenge is a series of Thoroughbred horse races in which the winner earns an automatic spot in a specified Breeders' Cup race. The challenge races change somewhat each year. The Challenge series began in 2007 with 24 "Win and Yo ...

series, which provide "Win and You're In" berths in a specified division of the Breeders' Cup. Other pre-entries were ranked by a points system and the judgement of a panel of experts. On October 26, 205 horses were pre-entered in the various races, 46 of which qualified via the Challenge series. The entries include 73 Grade/Group 1 winners and 45 horses from overseas. Most of the races had full fields. However, two of the most highly anticipated events (the Classic and Distaff) had smaller fields that included most of the top-ranked horses in the United States, including Flightline, Life Is Good and

Epicenter The epicenter (), epicentre, or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Determination The primary purpose of a ...

in the Classic, and

Nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold Egg (biology), eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of ...

and Malathaat in the Distaff.

Event preparation

hosted the Breeders' Cup for the third time. They first hosted the event in 2015 when American Pharoah finished his career by winning the Classic after having won the American Triple Crown. The 2020 event at Keeneland though was held without spectators due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services Secreta ...

. Fans who had purchased tickets for that event were given first preference for seating at the 2022 event. Keeneland installed temporary seating, including five "chalets" and loge boxes, to increase their normal capacity of about 20,000 to 45,000 people.

Races

The official sequence of the Breeders' Cup races was announced on October 26. The betting menu included an All-Turf Pick 3 on Friday, an All-Turf Pick 4 on Saturday and three special "daily doubles" where a bettor needed to pick the winner of one race on Friday and the corresponding race on Saturday for older horses: Juvenile Fillies/Distaff, Juvenile/Classic and Juvenile Turf/Turf.

Friday, November 4

Two horses,

Forte Forte or Forté may refer to: Music *Forte (music), a musical dynamic meaning "loudly" or "strong" * Forte number, an ordering given to every pitch class set * Forte (notation program), a suite of musical score notation programs * Forte (vocal ...

and the filly

Wonder Wheel The Wonder Wheel is a eccentric Ferris wheel at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park at Coney Island in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The wheel is located on a plot bounded by West 12th Street to the west, Bowery Street to the north ...

, likely wrapped up

Eclipse Awards The Eclipse Award is an American Thoroughbred horse racing award named after the 18th-century British racehorse and sire, Eclipse. An Eclipse Award Trophy is presented to the winner in each division. The trophy is made by a few small selected Am ...

by winning the Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies respectively. Forte, who had previously won the

Hopeful Stakes The Hopeful Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. Open to two-year-old horses, the Hopeful is the first Grade I stakes for two-year-olds each season and historically has ...

and

Breeders' Futurity The Breeders' Futurity Stakes is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race held annually in early October at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky. Currently offering a purse of $600,000, the race is open to two-year-old horses and is run ...

, beat the heavily favored Cave Rock with a come-from-behind stretch drive. Similarly, Wonder Wheel was well back in the early run but closed well to win by three lengths – the largest winning margin in the day's Breeders' Cup races. All three turf races were won by Irish-bred horses. Trainer

Aidan O'Brien Aidan Patrick O'Brien (born 16 October 1969 in County Wexford, Ireland) Aidan O'Brien bio NTRA. ...

won two races for Coolmore – the Juvenile Fillies Turf with

Meditate Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditat ...

and the Juvenile Turf with Victoria Road – and trainer Charlie Appleby won the Juvenile Turf Sprint with Mischief Magic for Godolphin. A record $49.27 million was bet on the five Breeders' Cup races, a 16.4% increase over the record set in 2021 for Friday betting. Only one favorite won on the day but there were no major upsets. Nonetheless, the Pick 5 returned $2,428.02 for a 50 cent bet. An asterisk after the odds means the winner was the post-time favorite Source: Equibase charts for Friday, November 4 ''Legend:''

Saturday, November 5

In winning the Classic by a record lengths, Flightline all but guaranteed he would earn

American Horse of the Year The American Award for Horse of the Year, or simply Horse of the Year, one of the Eclipse Awards, is the highest honor given in American thoroughbred horse racing. Because Thoroughbred horse racing in the United States has no governing body to san ...

honors, as well as the older male horse title. Malathaat also wrapped up the Eclipse Award for older fillies and mares by winning the Distaff in a three-way photo finish with Blue Stripe and Clairiere, while Goodnight Olive is likely to be named the female sprint Champion after her win in the Filly & Mare Sprint. However, the male sprint Champion title is undecided after heavy favorite Jackie's Warrior was beaten by Elite Power in the Sprint. Cody's Wish may also be considered for the title after his win in the Dirt Mile. In the Turf races, European-bred horses were once again dominant, though Pennsylvania-bred Caravel did manage to win the Turf Sprint in the day's biggest upset. Aidan O'Brien and Coolmore won the Filly & Mare Turf with

Tuesday Tuesday is the day of the week between Monday and Wednesday. According to international standard ISO 8601, Monday is the first day of the week; thus, Tuesday is the second day of the week. According to many traditional calendars, however, Sunda ...

, while Charlie Appleby and Godolphin won the Mile and Turf with

Modern Games Modern Games (foaled 17 April 2019) is a retired champion Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred in Ireland and trained in Great Britain, he was one of the best two-year-olds in the world in 2021 when he won four of his six races including the Somervill ...

and

Rebel's Romance Rebel's Romance (foaled 19 March 2018) is an Irish-bred, British-trained multiple Group-winning Thoroughbred racehorse. As a three-year-old in 2022 he won the UAE Derby on the dirt in Dubai. His other major wins include the Grosser Preis von B ...

respectively. O'Brien and Appleby tied as the leading trainers over the two-day card with three wins each. Ryan Moore won the Shoemaker Award, having ridden Coolmore's three winners over the weekend, plus three seconds (Stone Age in the Turf, Emaraaty Ana in the Turf Sprint and Dramatised in the Juvenile Turf Sprint). The all-sources handle was a record $189 million over the two days, up 3.4% over the previous record set in 2021. An asterisk after the odds means the winner was the post-time favorite Source: Equibase charts for Saturday, November 5 ''Legend:''

References

{{Thoroughbred Racing on NBC

Breeders' Cup Breeders' Cup 2022