The Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf is a Weight for Age Thoroughbred horse race on turf for fillies and mares, three years old and up. It is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States as part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships.
Michael Earl Smith is an American jockey who has been one of the leading riders in U.S. Thoroughbred racing since the early 1990s, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2003, and has won the most Breeders' Cup races of any jockey with 26 Breeders' Cup wins. Smith is also the second leading jockey of all time in earnings with over $312 million. In 2018, Smith rode Justify to the Triple Crown, becoming the oldest jockey to win the title at age 52.
John R. Velazquez is a Puerto Rican jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. He began his career in Puerto Rico and moved to New York in 1990. In 2004 and 2005 he was the United States Champion Jockey by earnings and both years was given the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey. He was inducted into the Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2012, rode his 5,000th winner in 2013, and became the leading money-earning jockey in the history of the sport in 2014.
Rags to Riches is an American thoroughbred racehorse who in 2007 became the first filly to win the Belmont Stakes in over a century.
Lane's End Farm is a Thoroughbred horse breeding farm in Versailles, Kentucky established in 1979. The original land was part of Bosque Bonita Farm and was originally owned by Abraham Buford, a Confederate Army General. The land was later bought by horseman John H. Morris. Now owned and operated by the Farish family, Lane's End Farm has become one of the major breeding farms in North America.
The Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf is a one-mile turf stakes race for thoroughbred fillies two years old. As its name implies, it is part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships, the de facto year-end championship for North American thoroughbred racing.
Chad C. Brown is an American Thoroughbred horse racing trainer known for his expertise with turf horses and with fillies and mares. He has trained several Eclipse Award winners including Stacelita, Big Blue Kitten, Lady Eli and Flintshire. After receiving the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer of 2016, he won his first Triple Crown race with Cloud Computing in the 2017 Preakness Stakes. He also won the Eclipse Award in both 2017 and 2018.
Rachel Alexandra is a retired American Thoroughbred racehorse and the 2009 Horse of the Year. When she won the 2009 Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, she became the first filly to win the race in 85 years. She also won races in six states, on eight different tracks, against fillies and Grade 1 colts and older horses, achieving a long string of consecutive wins including numerous Grade 1 stakes. Rachel Alexandra neared or broke multiple stakes records, track records and winning margin records throughout her career. On September 28, 2010, owner Jess Jackson announced Rachel Alexandra's retirement. She was bred to 2007/2008 Horse of the Year Curlin and delivered a colt on January 22, 2012.
Informed Decision is an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2009 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint on her way to being named the American Champion Female Sprint Horse.
Luke McLuke was a bay Thoroughbred stallion born in the United States; he won the 1914 Belmont Stakes, the Carlton Stakes, Kentucky Handicap, and Grainger Memorial Handicap among his four wins from six starts. After his racing career was over, he became a breeding stallion, where he sired 11 stakes winners. Two of his daughters were named as year-end Champions in the United States.
Havre de Grace is an American Thoroughbred Racehorse who was 2011 American Horse of the Year. During her racing career, she was owned by Fox Hill Farms and trained by J. Larry Jones. Her sire is the 2005 American Horse of the Year, Saint Liam. Her dam is the mare Easter Bunnette, a daughter of Carson City. Her name derives from the city and racetrack of Havre de Grace, Maryland.
Mizdirection is an American Thoroughbred racehorse. A specialist sprinter, she is best known for winning the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint in 2012 and 2013.
Groupie Doll is an American Thoroughbred racehorse. A specialist sprinter, she is best known for winning the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint in 2012 and 2013. Unraced as a two-year-old she showed good form as a three-year-old in 2011, winning three races including the Gardenia Stakes. In 2012, she emerged as a world-class sprinter, winning the Madison Stakes, Humana Distaff Handicap, Presque Isle Downs Masters Stakes, and Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes before taking the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. In 2013 she repeated in the Masters Stakes and won a second Breeders' Cup. She was then sold as a prospective broodmare for $3.1 million. Her new owner chose to keep her in training into early 2014, running her against males in the Cigar Mile, and then in the Hurricane Bertie Stakes, where she won the final race of her career, to be retired and become a broodmare.
Judy the Beauty is a Canadian-bred, American-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred by Adena Springs in Ontario, she has been owned and trained throughout her racing career by Wesley Ward who bought her for $20,000 as a yearling. As a juvenile, she won her first three races before finishing second in the Spinaway Stakes. In a brief three-year-old season she finished second in all three of her races. In 2013 she established herself as one of the best female sprinters in North America, winning the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes and finishing second to Groupie Doll in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. She was even better at five, winning the Las Flores Handicap, Madison Stakes and Rancho Bernardo Handicap before ending her season with a win in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. After her retirement, Judy the Beauty was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2018.
Stellar Wind is an American Thoroughbred racehorse, known for her Eclipse Award winning three-year-old season, and later for her rivalry with the champion mare Beholder. Bred in Virginia, she raced in Maryland as a juvenile, winning one minor race from two starts. As a three-year-old, racing mainly in California, she improved to become arguably the best filly of her generation. In the spring of 2015, she won the Santa Ysabel Stakes and the Santa Anita Oaks before finishing a troubled fourth in the Kentucky Oaks. On her return to California, she recorded further victories in the Summertime Oaks and the Torrey Pines Stakes, and then ended her season by finishing a strong second in the Breeders' Cup Distaff. She was voted American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly of 2015.
La Verdad is a retired American Thoroughbred racehorse. She was bred in New York by Eklektikos Stable and is owned by Sheila Rosenblum's Lady Sheila Stable. A winner of 16 races from 25 starts, she won the Eclipse Award as American Champion Female Sprint Horse for her accomplishments in 2015.
Irad Ortiz Jr. is a Puerto Rican jockey who has been a leading rider in the New York Thoroughbred horse racing circuit since 2012. He won his first Breeders' Cup race on Lady Eli in 2014, and his first American Classic on Creator in the 2016 Belmont Stakes. He won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey in 2018 after leading the jockey list by both number of wins and earnings. He had four winners at the 2019 Breeders' Cup event, including wins in both the $4 million Turf and the $6 million Classic.
The 2018 Breeders' Cup World Championships was the 35th edition of the premier event of the North American thoroughbred horse racing year. The 14 races, all but one of which were Grade I, took place on November 2 and 3 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The races were telecast by NBCSN on Friday and early Saturday, and by NBC later on Saturday. The Breeders' Cup is generally regarded as the end of the North American racing season, although a few Grade I events take place in later November and December. The event typically determines champions in many of the Eclipse Award divisions, although it was missing the eventual Horse of the Year, Triple Crown champion Justify, who was retired in July.
