The Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In continues Aug. 3 with the $1 million Whitney Stakes (G1) from Saratoga Race Course and the $400,000 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1) at Del Mar.
The winner of each race earns a paid, automatic starting position in designated races at the Breeders' Cup World Championships at Del Mar Nov. 2. The Whitney victor gains entrance to the $7 million Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), and the Hirsch winner gains entrance for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff.
Older males compete in the 1 1/8-mile Whitney and fillies and mares in the 1 1/16-mile Hirsch.
History suggests those receiving these two Breeders' Cup Challenge Series berths will be major contenders in the World Championships. The pair of races have produced a long list of Breeders' Cup winners, many of award-winning quality.
Seven times since 1998 the winner of the Whitney has repeated that same year in the Breeders' Cup Classic, including just last year when White Abarrio pulled off the Whitney-Classic double.
He was not the only Whitney runner to experience Breeders' Cup glory in 2023. Its third-place finisher, Cody's Wish , captured last fall's Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) for his second straight victory in the race. He was later honored as Horse of the Year.
Besides White Abarrio, other Whitney-Classic repeaters include Awesome Again (1998), Invasor (2006), Blame (2010), Fort Larned (2012), Gun Runner (2017), and Knicks Go (2021). Invasor, Gun Runner, and Knicks Go were voted Horse of the Year.
This year's Whitney is led by $5.3 million earner National Treasure , winner of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) and Metropolitan Handicap (G1) in 2024. The Whitney also includes graded-winning millionaires Disarm, First Mission, and Skippylongstocking.
"I was shocked there were 12 horses that entered the race. I thought there might be five or six," National Treasure co-owner Jack Wolf of Starlight Racing said July 30. "Looking at the (past performances) and the sheet numbers today, there are some really nice horses in there. ... So much for not having enough older horses at this time of year."
National Treasure, a 4-year-old son of Quality Road , arrived at Saratoga July 31 after traveling from Southern California, where he completed his recent workouts under the oversight of trainer Bob Baffert. Last year's Preakness Stakes (G1) winner races for SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Bob Masterson, Stonestreet Stables, Jay Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital, and Catherine Donovan.
The Whitney will be nationally televised during a three-hour "Fox Saratoga Saturday" program. The scheduled post time is 5:42 p.m. ET
Baffert also has the favorite at Del Mar in the Hirsch, starting Michael Lund Petersen's Adare Manor, who took the 2023 Hirsch by a length over H & E Ranch's Desert Dawn, who is back for another crack at her. Six other fillies, among them Juddmonte's up-and-coming graded winner Scylla and Godolphin's 2023 Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner and reigning champion 3-year-old filly Pretty Mischievous, are entered.
Post time is 6:35 p.m. PT with television coverage on FanDuel Racing.
Last year, Adare Manor and Desert Dawn again ran 1-2 in the Zenyatta Stakes (G2) in the fall at Santa Anita Park before they were both off the board in the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Santa Anita. Adare Manor was seventh in the Distaff, beaten three lengths, and Desert Dawn checked in fifth, 1 1/4 lengths behind triumphant Idiomatic.
Like those victorious in the Whitney, many Hirsch winners go on to shine at the Breeders' Cup. During the very first year of the Breeders' Cup in 1984, Princess Rooney pulled off the Hirsch-Distaff double in the same season, and others would follow in the decades to come. They include legends Bayakoa (1990), Azeri (2002), and Zenyatta (2008).
Bayakoa and others raced in the previous century when the Clement L. Hirsch was run as the Chula Vista Handicap. It was renamed in 2000 to honor Hirsch, a California businessman, horse owner, and Oak Tree Racing Association executive.
The legendary Zenyatta would three-peat in the Hirsch by winning it in 2009-10 and likely would have won more runnings of the Distaff, except she had bigger fish to fry, winning the 2009 Classic and running a hard-charging second to Blame in the 2010 Classic.
Breeders' Cup winners Paseana (1992 Distaff) and Beholder (2012 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, G1; 2013 and 2016 Distaff,) also won the Hirsch in different years from their successes at the Breeders' Cup. Beholder's Hirsch glory came in 2015 before she whipped males in the Pacific Classic Stakes (G1) at Del Mar. She ran second in the 2016 Hirsch in the year of her Distaff score.
Princess Rooney, Bayakoa, Paseana, Azeri, Zenyatta, and Beholder are all Hall of Famers.
