The Breeders' Cup Classic is a Grade I Weight for Age thoroughbred horse race for 3-year-olds and older run at a distance of 1 1⁄4 miles (2,000 m) on dirt. It is held annually at a different racetrack as part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships in late October or early November. All of the races to date have been held in the United States except for the 1996 edition held at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Charles Edward Whittingham was an American Thoroughbred race horse trainer who is one of the most acclaimed trainers in U.S. racing history.
Sunday Silence was an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and Sire. In 1989, he won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes but failed to complete the Triple Crown when he was defeated in the Belmont Stakes. Later in the same year, he won the Breeders' Cup Classic and was voted American Champion Three-Year-Old Colt and American Horse of the Year. Sunday Silence's racing career was marked by his rivalry with Easy Goer, whom he had a three to one edge over in their head-to-head races. Easy Goer, the 1988 American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt finished second to Sunday Silence in the Kentucky Derby by two-and-a-half lengths, Preakness by a nose and Breeders' Cup Classic by a neck. Easy Goer prevailed by eight lengths in the Belmont. Both horses were later voted into the American Hall of Fame.
Easy Goer was an American Champion Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse known for earning American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt honors in 1988 and defeating 1989 American Horse of the Year Sunday Silence in the Belmont Stakes by eight lengths. Both horses were later voted into the American Hall of Fame. The victory deprived Sunday Silence of the Triple Crown. It was also the second-fastest Belmont in history, behind only the record performance of Secretariat in 1973. Easy Goer was the first two-year-old champion to win a Triple Crown race since Spectacular Bid in 1979. Easy Goer also ran the fastest mile on dirt by any three-year-old in the history of Thoroughbred racing with a time of 1:32 2/5, which was a second faster than Secretariat's stakes record, and one-fifth of a second off of the world record set by Dr. Fager in 1968.
Neil D. Drysdale is an American-based thoroughbred race horse trainer.
Damascus was a Thoroughbred race horse sired by Sword Dancer out of Kerala foaled at the Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1967, he won the Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes*, Jockey Club Gold Cup*, Wood Memorial, Travers Stakes, Dwyer Stakes, and Woodward Stakes and was named Horse of the Year and champion three-year-old colt, plus he shared the champion handicap male honors with Buckpasser. Also in 1967, Damascus finished third in the 1967 Kentucky Derby. A high-strung horse, he was enervated by the humidity and spooked by the crowd noise, so he was thereafter given a stable pony to calm him. During the same year, top horses Dr. Fager and Buckpasser were also competing. In Blood-Horse magazine's top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, Buckpasser ranks 14th and Dr. Fager ranks 6th. In a race many consider the "Race of the Century," Damascus won the 1967 Woodward by 10 lengths over both of these horses after his connections, as well as those of Buckpasser, used stablemates to set a blistering pace, thus weakening Dr. Fager. Damascus himself ranks number 16 in the Blood Horse listing.
LeRoy S. Jolley was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred horse trainer. The son of horse trainer Moody Jolley, LeRoy Jolley had been around horses all his life and at age nineteen received a New York State trainer's license.
Runaway Groom (1979–2007) was a Canadian Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse.
Steven Mark Asmussen is an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. He is a two-time winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2016. His horses have won the Breeders' Cup Classic, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes, Breeders' Cup Distaff, Kentucky Oaks and Dubai World Cup.
Smart Strike was a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse. The son of the Champion sire, Mr. Prospector, and out of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame mare Classy 'n Smart, Smart Strike is a half-brother to 1991 Canadian Triple Crown champion Dance Smartly.
Gato Del Sol was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for his win in the 1982 Kentucky Derby.
Arthur Boyd Hancock III is an American owner of Thoroughbred racehorses, the owner of Stone Farm, a 2,000 acre (8 km²) horse breeding operation in Paris, Kentucky, and a composer of Bluegrass music.
Halo was an American Thoroughbred racehorse and an important Champion sire.
Stone Farm is an American Thoroughbred horse breeding farm in Paris, Kentucky. It was founded in 1970 by Arthur B. Hancock III, part of the prominent Hancock family of Claiborne Farm fame.
Skywalker was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. He was best known for winning the 1986 Breeders' Cup Classic.
In Reality was an American bred racehorse. Bred in Florida, he was a son of Intentionally and out of the mare My Dear Girl, the 1959 American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly. His damsire was Santa Anita Derby winner Rough'n Tumble, who sired U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Fager. In Reality is best remembered for his win in the Florida Derby and his runner-up performance in the Preakness Stakes to Eclipse Award Champion and millionaire Damascus.
Ogden Mills "Dinny" Phipps was an American financier, Thoroughbred racehorse industry executive, and horse breeder. Widely known by the nickname "Dinny," he was chairman of the family's Bessemer Trust until retiring in 1994, and served as its vice chairman.
Arthur B. "Bull" Hancock Jr. (1910–1972) was a breeder and owner of thoroughbred racehorses at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, United States. He acquired European horses to breed in the United States, in particular Nasrullah and Princequillo, and gained great standing in the racing world as a result.
Wishing Well was an American Thoroughbred racing mare who won twelve of her thirty-six starts and who secured her place in Thoroughbred history as the dam of Sunday Silence, the 1989 Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Breeders' Cup Classic winner who was voted American Horse of the Year, inducted in the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame in 1996, and who was the Leading sire in Japan for thirteen straight years between 1995 and 2007.
The Grand Slam of Thoroughbred racing is an informal name for winning of four major races in one season. This term has been applied under at least two different configurations upon which it was accomplished. The first known completed grand slam, which pertains only to eligible three-year old thoroughbred horses, occurred in 1941 when Whirlaway won the four major races that season. The other winner of a grand slam was American Pharoah, who won the Triple Crown and the Breeders' Cup Classic.
