Breeders' Cup: how reports of its imminent demise proved greatly exaggerated

As the action flowed unrelentingly, as one tumultuous story after another tumbled out of our television sets, it was hard to believe that the Breeders’ Cup as a global concept was being administered its last rites as recently as ten years ago.

There was never an issue from a US perspective, where the event became firmly established as the end-of-season climax. But European participation, which brought a much-needed international slant, was very much under threat. A Breeders’ Cup contested solely by domestic runners would have irredeemably undermined its self-styled billing as the World Thoroughbred Championships.

There were several gripes from this side of the pond. One was the prohibitive cost of entry, a process complicated by a tiered registration mechanism that required some horses trained outside the US to pay supplementary entry fees running into six figures.