The 2016 "Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In presented by Lane's End Farm and America's Best Racing" continues today, June 25, live on NBCSN at 8:00 p.m. ET from Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif, with the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita. The Gold Cup is an automatic qualifier for the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic, which will be run at Santa Anita as part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships, Nov. 4-5.
In 2016, the "Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In, presented by Lane's End Farm and America's Best Racing," will consist of nine telecasts on NBC and NBCSN and feature 16 "Win And You're In" races plus other major STAKES races on the road to the Breeders' Cup World Championships. The series will also be streamed live on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app. Winners of these Challenge races, which combined offer more than $10 million in purses, automatically qualify for a spot in the Breeders' Cup. Saturday's Gold Cup, a 1 ¼ mile race for 3-year-olds and up, drew an eight horse field. Among the contenders is Tarabilla Farms' 5-year-old Melatonin, winner of the Santa Anita Handicap (G1) back in March. This front-running gelding, trained by David Hofmans and ridden by Joe Talamo, comes into Saturday's race off a second-place finish in the Oaklawn Handicap last month. The 5-year-old Hoppertunity, trained by Bob Baffert, has had two impressive races this year, first winning the 1 1/8 mile San Antonio STAKES in February and then a third-place finish to California Chrome in the Dubai World Cup in March.Videos