The event may have started out with three of its first four runnings in the sunny climes of Southern California sandwiched around a trip to the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple, but Thoroughbred racing's season-ending championship has certainly found an unofficial home in Kentucky.

The Breeders' Cup championship day, eight races worth a total of $13-million, returns to historic Churchill Downs on November 4 for the second time in three years. This year's running also will mark the fifth time in 12 years that Churchill will be the host, making it the most frequented site by the Lexington-based Breeders' Cup Ltd.

Only Hollywood Park, which hosted two of the first four events, and last year's host, Gulfstream Park, have held the event three times.

Santa Anita Park, which was to be the 2000 host track, declined the honor after the Frank Stronach-controlled Magna International purchased the track and began extensive improvements to the Arcadia facility. Santa Anita is in line to host the 2002 championship (Belmont Park gets the championship for a third time in 2001), although no contract has been signed.

With Churchill Downs as host, the Breeders' Cup has enjoyed some of its best moments both on and off the racing surfaces, making it hardly a surprise the track will host the event for the third time in the last seven years.

Consistent success

"The event is a consistent financial success for us at Churchill Downs," said D. G. Van Clief Jr., president of Breeders' Cup Ltd. "And part of the reason we've been able to draw the largest crowds in the history of the event is that the track is located in Louisville."

One of the biggest reasons Breeders' Cup Ltd. frequently returns to Louisville-the smallest market to host the event-focuses squarely on the bottom line. Attendance and handle figures from the first four Breeders' Cups staged in Louisville rank among the best in the 16-year history of the event.

The overall popularity of racing in the Bluegrass State has translated into large crowds at Thoroughbred racing's championship event, and attendance figures are particularly strong despite chances of chilly weather (the thermometer only rose above 54 degrees one time in the first four events at Churchill). The three largest crowds, including the Breeders' Cup record 80,452 in 1998, all came at the Louisville track.

Churchill also can claim the second- and third-highest Breeders' Cup crowds with 71,671 in 1994 and 71,237 in '88. Churchill had 66,204 in 1991 when the temperature was a brisk 43 degrees, but Santa Anita Park broke up the attendance superfecta by hosting the fourth-largest crowd of 69,155 in '86.

"Being so close to Lexington, just 75 miles down the road in the heart of the breeding industry, is also a factor," Van Clief said. "And there's a high level of enthusiasm on the part of the community. That translates into high levels of publicity for the event and in turn large crowds. When you go to Louisville, you're in a town where racing is part of the heritage."

Indeed, crowds for the Kentucky Derby (G1) and now the Kentucky Oaks (G1) greatly exceed the Breeders' Cup throngs.

Wagering on the Breeders' Cup races went through a period of steady growth in the 1990s, and Churchill Downs was certainly a part of that expansion. In addition to its reputation as an excellent facility to host a big event, Churchill can boast of productive wagering totals for the last two runnings in Louisville.

Wagering on the seven races-the card was expanded to include the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1) in 1999-was $91,338,477 for the 1998 event, second only to last year's total at Gulfstream Park. Churchill also had total wagering of $78,224,530 in 1994, the fourth-highest total in the history of the event.

Top-notch fields

Long before the first Breeders' Cup was staged in 1984 at Hollywood Park, Churchill Downs was a crucial launching pad for future champions, largely because of the Derby and the Oaks. When the Breeders' Cup comes to America's best-known racetrack, Churchill plays host to fall races with championship implications.

The first trip to Churchill Downs for racing's championship day produced some of the most memorable finishes in the history of the event. D. Wayne Lukas, the all-time Breeders' Cup leading trainer with 15 victories, saddled Gulch for a victory in the 1988 Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) and then sent out the first three finishers-Open Mind, Darby Shuffle, and Lea Lucinda-in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1). He later upset champion Easy Goer with Is It True in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1).

Lukas was poised for his fourth winner of the afternoon when Winning Colors spun off the final turn in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) with an imposing 1 1/2-length lead. Ogden Phipps's Personal Ensign, the odds-on favorite for trainer Claude R. "Shug" McGaughey III, closed stoutly down the center of the track to get up in the final stride for her 13th victory in as many starts. The day ended in the dark as Alysheba emerged from the shadows to claim the then $3-million Classic (G1) by a half-length over Seeking the Gold.

European triumphs

Three years later, the Breeders' Cup was back in its comfortable Louisville setting. Europeans, who had not fared too well when the Breeders' Cup championship days were held in Southern California and South Florida, enjoyed an especially good day in 1991.

Sheikh Albadou (GB) got things started with a 26.30-to-1 upset over Housebuster in the Sprint. The second European victory came courtesy of Arazi, who used an incredible move on the far turn to blow past the best American two-year-olds in the Juvenile. Ridden by Pat Valenzuela, Arazi cruised through the stretch under no encouragement to win by five lengths in a race still mentioned as one of the best in Breeders' Cup history.

Miss Alleged gave the Europeans their third victory of the afternoon when she collared Itsallgreektome, Quest for Fame (GB), and Sky Classic in the stretch to win the Breeders' Cup Turf (G1) at odds of 42.10-to-1.

Overall, the Europeans have fared much better at Churchill in the Breeders' Cup than at any other venue, with six victories in 28 races (21.4%). By contrast, only 17 of the 113 Breeders' Cup races overall (15%) have been won by the Europeans. The Europeans' numbers would have been even better if they had not been blanked in 1998 at Churchill.

That year's Breeders' Cup featured victories by Awesome Again in the Classic, Escena in the Distaff, Reraise in the Sprint, and Silverbulletday in the Juvenile Fillies. Connections of the winners represented nearly every corner of the American racing scene, from Southern California to New York.

Louisville's middle-America location gives the Breeders' Cup championship days held there something of a neutral-court feeling, and overall the fields have contained relatively equal numbers of East and West Coast runners along with Canadians, Europeans, and others.

"Churchill is viewed by horsemen as neutral ground," Van Clief said. "And the Breeders' Cup has really benefited from that opinion. Not that the fields haven't been great at other places, but the fields at Churchill have been superb, some of the best.

"Churchill is known as a big-event track and the surface is known as an unbiased one. That encourages high-class racing," Van Clief said. "The weather is moderate, and that cuts both ways. The horsemen like it, especially those from the Northeast and Europe."