Flatter: A Classic solution to what ails the Breeders’ Cup

To steal as I do from “Pardon the Interruption,” is this a big deal, little deal or no deal at all?

The Breeders’ Cup will run the $7 million Classic as the ninth of 12 races Nov. 1 at Del Mar. The Mile, the Dirt Mile and the Filly & Mare Turf will be run afterward.

The hue and cry to this on social media came off like a big deal, but come on. Is this the most important thing we have to whine about? I don’t like it, either, but this really is a little deal bordering on no deal, especially since it is happening for the third year in a row.

Breeders’ Cup 2025 schedule, post times, TV.

I believe I hear one or more screams that three wrongs do not make a right. Right? Wrong. Because this is not a wrong. Nor is it a wrong that the Kentucky Derby is the 12th race of 14. Nor that the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is the fifth followed by two more Group 1 races and then two handicaps after that. And at Royal Ascot, the daily feature is nowhere near the sunset singalong.

In the case of our biggest day of racing this side of the last solstice, welcome to the reality of buying air time on NBC. That is the network that will have far more eyeballs focused on the Big Ten football game that follows the Classic. Yes, even if it is as awful as Rutgers at Illinois, it will draw more viewers than Triple Crown winner Sovereignty in the Classic. Oh, sorry. That Triple Crown was pre-empted back in May. And not by NBC. Never mind.

Come to think of it, about the only way this bellyaching might have been more justified, pun intended, was if a horse like American Pharoah were about to race for the grand slam. Even then, if he had done so at Keeneland in the middle of the afternoon back in 2015, it would not have taken any shine off the achievement. Hell, if NBC had brought in Musco portable lights and pre-empted “Saturday Night Live,” the kerfuffle about the 11:35 p.m. post time would have been stamped out by the victory lap.

The right idea would not be to complain about the early Classic. It would be to ask why they do not simply run the Grade 3 Goldikova and the two allowance races afterward. If the beef then would be how that would squelch the all-Breeders’ Cup late Pick 6, then how about putting the Filly & Mare Sprint, the Turf Sprint and maybe a transplanted running of the Juvenile Turf Sprint after the Classic?

There really are bigger fish to fry, or in the case of the Del Mar neighborhood, poach at a nearby boîte.

How about the fact that there are so many Breeders’ Cup races bigfooting the autumn racing calendar? The world does not need 14 new winners of world championships. Oh, yes. Lower case on those. Until Australia sends its turf sprinters on a regular basis, these are not that much more worldly than Major League Baseball’s final series. What is that thing called again?

Speaking of which, had the Classic still been the finale on this year’s card, it would go head to head with baseball’s biggest show. That is unless the Dodgers don’t beat the Blue Jays or Mariners before game 7. Oh, game 6 would go head to head with the Juvenile Turf.

I remember speaking to a once-trusted operative at the Breeders’ Cup about the World Series. There. I wrote it.

“Aren’t you worried about going up against baseball?” I asked.

“We have gone against the World Series before, and we have done just fine,” was the answer.

Not anymore. There have been fewer than 1 million viewers for Breeders’ Cup Saturday in recent years. There were 4.6 million who saw Pharoah win the Classic 10 years ago. Baseball drew an average of 16 million in 2024, and it is trending upward. Maybe racing needs a pitch clock.

This makes Mike Repole’s suggestion in his summer podcast conversation with Ray Paulick that the Breeders’ Cup should be run the second Saturday in December. That is the same weekend as Army and Navy would be about the only meaningful football on TV. Not even the NFL has ventured there. Yet.

Oh, yes. Speaking of Repole and the Breeders’ Cup, there was another matter he brought up in that interview nearly two months ago. He said the Breeders’ Cup lost $7 million last year.

A check of open federal records for non-profits shows the Breeders’ Cup actually lost $6.6 million in 2024. What’s $400,000 among rich racing folks?

“Throughout its short history, Breeders’ Cup has remained appropriately profitable while allocating more than $1 billion in purses and awards to the sport, growing into an annual two-day global racing event worth more than $34 million annually and establishing itself as a leading international sporting event,” the Breeders’ Cup said in response.

About the $6.6 million in losses, it said, “These investments support breeders, nominators and owners through increased purses, promotion of Thoroughbred racing and enhancements to on-site experience at the world championships.” I removed the capital letters.

Here is my simple solution to all the ails and travails. Make the Breeders’ Cup a one-day event again, put it in December, and go back to the original seven races. The Juvenile, Juvenile Fillies, Sprint, Mile, Distaff, Turf and Classic. I bet the earth will not careen out of its circumsolar orbit if we lose the Dirt Mile.

There is one other way to solve all this. To rid the Breeders’ Cup of its red ink and the X-osphere of a fourth annual complaint about the order of the races. Just do away with the Classic. That would save $7 million right there.

The bathwater did not need the baby anyway.

Ron Flatter’s column appears Friday mornings at Horse Racing Nation. Comments below and at RonFlatterRacingPod@gmail.com are welcomed, encouraged and may be used in the feedback segment of the Ron Flatter Racing Pod, which also is posted every Friday.