FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 25th, 2015

GOLD CUP AT SANTA ANITA HEADLINES SECOND BREEDERS’ CUP CLASSIC QUALIFIER OF THE YEAR THIS SATURDAY LIVE AT 8 PM ET ON NBCSN

NEW YORK (June 25, 2015) – The second automatic berth into the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic is on the line Saturday at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., in the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita (G1), which will be televised live on NBCSN, beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

The  1 1/4 mile Gold Cup is the third of 10 programs in the  “Breeders’ Cup Challenge: Win and You’re In Series,” featured on NBC and NBCSN from some of America’s most iconic racetracks, all leading to the 32nd Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., on Oct. 30-31 on NBC and NBCSN.

NBCSN’s coverage of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series on Saturday features host Laffit Pincay, III, analysts Randy Moss and Jerry Bailey, the Hall of Fame jockey and five-time Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, and reporter Nick Luck. Daily Racing Form’s Matt Bernier serves as handicapper.

The Gold Cup is the second of five televised Breeders’ Cup Classic qualifying races in the series for potential challengers to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, who will be paraded in front of the Santa Anita crowd Saturday afternoon. The first “Win and You’re In” qualifier of 2015 was Noble Bird, who won the Stephen Foster on NBCSN at Churchill Downs on June 15.

The Gold Cup field is led by Catch a Flight and Moreno, the first and second-place finishers in the 1 1/8 mile Californian Stakes on May 30 at Santa Anita. Trained by Richard Mandella and ridden by Gary Stevens, Catch a Flight is shooting for his third consecutive win, having also won the Precisionist at 1 1/16 miles on May 2. The Argentine bred son of Giant’s Causeway is 5 of 6 lifetime at the 1 ¼ mile distance.

The 5-year-old front-running Moreno finished just half a length behind Catch a Flight in the Californian. Trained by Eric Guillot and ridden by Cornelia Velasquez, Moreno is a career earner of nearly $3 million in 27 starts. This year, he won the Charles Town Classic (G2) by two lengths on April I8; was third by a half-length in the New Orleans Handicap at the Fair Grounds on March 28 and was second to Shared Belief in the Santa Anita Handicap earlier that month. Moreno also won the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga last summer.

Hoppertunity, trained by Bob Baffert,  had been idle four months prior to running third, beaten 5 ¾ lengths, in the Grade I, 1 1/8 miles Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs June 13 and could likely show major improvement on Saturday with a recent race under his belt.  Owned by Karl Watson, Mike Pegram and Paul Weitman, the 4-year-old colt by Any Given Saturday won the Grade I Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs four starts back and is a three-time graded stakes winner who will try a mile and quarter for the first time in the Gold Cup.

The complete field for the Gold Cup, to be run as the ninth on a 10-race card Saturday, with jockeys in post-position order:  Batti Man, Fernando Perez; Hard Aces, Victor Espinoza, Poshsky, Flavien Prat; Motown Men, Tyler Baze; Majestic City; Hoppertunity, Martin Garcia; Big Cazanova, Corey Nakatani; Moreno, Cornelio Velasquez; Catch a Flight, Gary Stevens; Lideris, Joe Talamo and Finnegans Wake, Mike Smith.

Fans can also get into the excitement of the Gold Cup by playing the Million Dollar Finish, which offers them the chance to correctly select the exact order of finish in the race and win a trip the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. The game is free to enter and play, and fans can register and submit their picks for each race online at: http://www.milliondollarfinish.com/. The fantasy player with the highest score for each designated race will win a once-in-a-lifetime VIP trip for two to the sold-out 2015 Breeders’ Cup. Along with the 10 chances to win during the Challenge Series, fans can enter for a shot at the ultimate prize of $1 million during the Breeders’ Cup World Championships by predicting the correct order for the top 10 finishers in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, which will air on Saturday, October 31 on NBC.

ABOUT NBC SPORTS GROUP

When the Comcast-NBCUniversal transaction was completed in January 2011, the sports assets of the two companies combined to form NBC Sports Group, which serves sports fans 24/7 with premier live events, insightful studio shows, and compelling original programming. The sports media company consists of a unique array of sports assets, including NBC Sports, NBC Olympics, NBCSN (NBC Sports Network), Golf Channel, 10 NBC Sports Regional Networks, NBC Sports Radio and NBC Sports Digital. NBC Sports Group possesses an unparalleled collection of television rights agreements, partnering with some of the most prestigious sports properties in the world: the International Olympic Committee and United States Olympic Committee, the NFL, NHL, NASCAR, PGA TOUR, PGA of America, Churchill Downs, New York Racing Association, Breeders’ Cup, Premier League, Tour de France, French Open, Formula One, IndyCar and many more.

About Breeders’ Cup

The Breeders’ Cup administers the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, Thoroughbred racing’s year-end Championships.  The Breeders’ Cup also administers the Breeders’ Cup Challenge qualifying series, which provides automatic starting positions into the Championships races. The 2015 Breeders’ Cup World Championships, consisting of 13 grade I races and purses totaling $26 million, will be held October 30-Oct. 31 at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., and will be televised live by the NBC Sports Group. Breeders’ Cup press releases appear on the Breeders’ Cup Web site, www.breederscup.com. You can also follow the Breeders’ Cup on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and YouTube 

No purchase necessary to enter or win. The Promotion registration period begins on or about April 28, 2015 at 12:01 a.m. ET and ends on October 31, 2015 at 5:40 p.m. ET. Promotion is open only to legal residents of the 50 United States & D.C., who are 18 years of age or older. See Official Rules at www.MillionDollarFinish.com/rules for exact registration times for each race, additional eligibility restrictions, prize descriptions/restrictions/ARVs and complete details. Void where prohibited. PROMOTION IS DEVISED AS A NON-GAMBLING PROMOTION and is intended solely for entertainment purposes. Promotion is sponsored by Breeders’ Cup Limited. Breeders’ Cup Limited is the sole sponsor of the Promotion. NBC Sports and NBCUniversal Media, LLC are not sponsors of the Promotion and are not associated with the administration of the Promotion in any way. Entrants are providing information to sponsors and not to NBC Sports and NBCUniversal Media, LLC.