Secretariat, the Preakness, and a 39-Year Controversy
2020 Breeders’ Cup by the Numbers
Racing
The 37th annual Breeders’ Cup is just around the corner, and a talented group of horses is set to compete Nov. 6-7. This year the event will be held at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.
Get the scoop on the 2020 World Championships with the stats below.
1: Times before 2020 that the Breeders’ Cup has been held at Keeneland. Horse racing’s World Championships was first held at Keeneland in 2015, resulting in unforgettable moments like American Pharoah’s Classic win, Tepin’s Mile victory, and Found’s defeat of Golden Horn in the Turf.
1 ½ miles: the distance of the longest Breeders’ Cup race, the Longines Turf.
4: The post position that has yielded the most Breeders’ Cup winners. 40 Thoroughbreds starting from gate 4 have won World Championship races.
5: The highest number of Breeders’ Cup races a horse has competed in; the record is held by three Thoroughbreds: Better Talk Now, Kona Gold, and Obviously.
5 ½ furlongs: the distance of the shortest race in the Breeders’ Cup, the Turf Sprint; a furlong is equal to one-eighth of a mile.
9: The age of the oldest horse to win a Breeders’ Cup race, Calidoscopio, who captured the 2012 Marathon.
12: The number of racetracks that have hosted the Breeders’ Cup. Host sites include Hollywood Park, Aqueduct, Santa Anita, Churchill Downs, Gulfstream Park, Belmont Park, Woodbine, Arlington International, Lone Star Park, Monmouth Park, Keeneland, and Del Mar.
13 ½: The largest winning margin of a Breeders’ Cup race, achieved in the 1995 Distaff by Heavenly Prize.
14: The number of races comprising the Breeders’ Cup World Championships over Nov. 6-7. Five races, all for 2-year-olds, will be held on Friday while nine will be contested on Saturday.
20: The number of Breeders’ Cup winners trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas.
22: The amount of times a Breeders’ Cup race has been determined by a nose, the smallest possible margin of victory. The most recent occurrence occurred in 2017 when longshot Bar of Gold won the Filly and Mare Sprint.
$24.93: the average win payout for a $2 wager in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, the most of any race. The Juvenile Turf Sprint has the lowest average win payout, $7.08 for a $2 bet.
26: The number of Breeders’ Cup wins for jockey Mike Smith, the leading rider for horse racing’s World Championships. Those 25 victories have made up $36,634,605 in purse earnings.
107: How many times post-time favorites have won Breeders’ Cup races, a 31% rate.
175: the greatest number of horses ever to compete in a Breeders’ Cup event, which happened at the 2018 World Championships at Churchill Downs.
$269.20: The amount returned for a $2 win bet on Arcangues, who won the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Classic to become the biggest longshot winner in the history of the World Championships.
1984: The first year the Breeders’ Cup was run, two years after Lexingtonian John Gaines came up with the concept of a horse racing world championships.
2,371: the number of horses bred in Kentucky who have run in Breeders’ Cup races; of those, 221 have won.
$55,668.80: the payout for the 2019 Pick Six ticket; 70 horseplayers enjoyed a massive return on the $1 wager.
$4,680,000: The amount of money won by Zenyatta in the Breeders’ Cup, acquired over three starts including two victories in the World Championships. She remains the highest Breeders’ Cup money earner in the history of the series.
$6 million: the purse (AKA prize money) for the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic.
$8,650,300: the amount of money earned by American Pharoah over his career. The colt won the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland, cementing his place in the history books by becoming the first Triple Crown winner to also win the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
$31,000,000: the amount of purses and rewards up for grabs in this year’s World Championships.
$174,628,996: the amount of money wagered on the Breeders’ Cup in 2019.