LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 8, 2023) – The Breeders’ Cup, one of Thoroughbred horse racing’s most prestigious international events, today announced that Del Mar Thoroughbred Club will host the 2025 Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
In the early 20th century, the coalescence of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes into the American Triple Crown changed how we regard 3-year-olds year in and year out. In the 1980s, John Gaines proposed a new event for racing, a one-day, seven-race card that would serve as an end-of-the-year championship. The goal was to attract horses from not just the United States, but Canada, Europe, Japan, and beyond.
Stephen Hawking was 21 when he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — and was told he had about two years to live. Over the ensuing 55 years, working from a wheelchair as the ALS progressed, Hawking became the most famous man of science since Albert Einstein, wrote a perennial best-seller called “A Brief History of Time,” and was ranked 25th on a 2002 poll compiling the 100 Greatest Britons, ahead of Charles Dickens, David Bowie, and Sir Thomas More.
During this year’s NBC Breeders’ Cup World Championship coverage, reporter Kenny Rice reminisced about his favorite Breeders’ Cup Classic win in 2013. “Ten years ago, there was a moment that was right out of Hollywood. The trainer was little known. Her name Kathy Ritvo. She was a heart transplant recipient. The jockey was known. He was a Hall of Famer, but he had bad knees and he had been retired for seven years. But Gary Stevens came back and got in the saddle. And the horse? Mucho Macho Man!”
Cody Dorman, the 17-year-old Kentuckian at the heart of the most emotionally charged story during this year’s and last year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships, died Nov. 5 on his way home after watching his namesake Cody’s Wish win his second consecutive Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, according to the Dorman family.
