TheBreeders' Cup Juvenile is aThoroughbred horse race for 2-year-oldcolts andgeldings raced on dirt. It is held annually in late October or early November at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of theBreeders' Cup World Championships. The current purse is US$2,000,000 making it the most valuable race for two-year-olds in North America. It is normally run at a distance of1+1⁄16 miles.
The Breeders' Cup Juvenile is typically the first time that the best colts from the various racing circuits across North America (in New York, Kentucky and California in particular) meet up with each other. The winner often earns the Eclipse Award for Champion Two-Year-Old Male Horse, and becomes one of the early favorites for the next year's Kentucky Derby.[1]
In 2006, theNational Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) wrote in Part 2 of their special series titledSpiraling To The Breeders' Cup that "Arazi turned in what many still consider to be the single-most spectacular performance in Breeders' Cup history."
Beginning in 2007, the Breeders' Cup developed theBreeders' Cup Challenge, a series of "Win and You're In" races that allot automatic qualifying bids to winners of defined races. Each of the fourteen divisions has multiple qualifying races, which change somewhat from year to year. Note that one horse may win multiple challenge races, while other challenge winners will not be entered in the Breeders' Cup for a variety of reasons such as injury or travel considerations.
In the Juvenile division, the number of runners is limited to 14. The 2022 "Win and You're In" races were:[2]
