The midsummer weeks on the North American horse racing calendar traditionally signal a turning of the page from the Triple Crown to preparing for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships in the fall, and this year the path takes an unanticipated turn as the first domestic “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series race for the 2024 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic takes place not under the Twin Spires at Churchill Downs, but approximately two hours west of Louisville at Ellis Park.

The winner of the 42nd Stephen Foster Stakes gets a guaranteed spot in the starting gate of the $6 million Longines Classic, set this year for Nov. 4 at Santa Anita Park, with entry fees waived and a travel stipend provided if the horse is stabled outside of California. It’s the only “Win and You’re In” race on the extended July 4 holiday weekend schedule this year, but there are a handful of other races coming up that have also been significant in the 40-year history of the Breeders’ Cup. Let’s look ahead:

Stephen Foster Stakes

Where: Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky.

When: Saturday, July 1

How to Watch: on FanDuel TV

“Win and You’re In” for: Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic

Why it’s important: This 1 1/8-mile dirt race, which carries a purse of up to $1 million for 2023, has been won by some of the best horses of the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries. Five of them – Black Tie Affair (1991), Awesome Again (1997), Saint Liam (2005), Blame (2010), and Gun Runner (2017) – won the Stephen Foster and the Breeders’ Cup Classic in the same year. Two other Stephen Foster winners – Curlin and Fort Larned – won the Classic at other points in their careers.

Best winner during the Breeders’ Cup era: Tie between Curlin (2008) and Gun Runner (2017). Curlin, who had won the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Classic as a 3-year-old and been voted Horse of the Year, toyed with a Foster field that included $2 million earners Einstein and Brass Hat, winning by 4 ¼ lengths. He would be voted Horse of the Year again in 2008 and entered the Racing Hall of Fame in 2014. Gun Runner is almost certain to join Curlin in that hallowed venue. He romped in the 2017 Foster by seven lengths and earned the highest Equibase Speed Figure (127) in the history of the race. Gun Runner then won the final four starts of his career in similarly overpowering fashion, including the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, and was voted Horse of the Year for 2017.

Last year’s winner: Olympiad, trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado, won the Stephen Foster by 2 ¼ lengths as the 3-2 favorite. The colt won six of eight starts overall and earned more than $2.8 million in 2022, his final year of racing, and finished his career with a runner-up finish behind dominant Horse of the Year Flightline in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland.

2023 starters: This year’s Foster field is led by Rattle N Roll, who comes in on a three-race winning streak, the most recent a 1 ¼-length score in the $225,000 Blame Stakes at Churchill. Millionaire Proxy, who finished third in last year’s Stephen Foster, is another notable starter.

Other key races this weekend:

The Fleur de Lis Stakes for fillies and mares will also be held at Ellis Park Saturday instead of at Churchill Downs. From 2015 to 2021, the 1 1/8-mile race was a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Whether part of the Challenge Series or not, this race has been important in preparing some of the best female racehorses in training for attempts at the Distaff in the fall. Three of them have won the Fleur de Lis and Distaff in the same year: Escena (1998), Hall of Famer Royal Delta (2012), and Forever Unbridled (2017).

The seven-furlong John A. Nerud Stakes Saturday at Belmont Park was also a “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series race, in this case from 2017-’21, and granted winners a berth in the Qatar Racing Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Previously the Belmont Sprint Championship Stakes, it was renamed in 2019 to honor the late Hall of Fame trainer John Nerud, an enormously influential figure in 20^th-century racing who conditioned the great champion Dr. Fager. 

No Nerud winner has trained on to capture the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and the best sprinter to come out of recent runnings is arguably Whitmore. That fan favorite finished second by a neck in the 2018 Belmont Sprint Championship, then second in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, third in the 2019 BC Sprint, and then first in the 2020 BC Sprint at Keeneland. Life Is Good, dominant winner of the Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in 2021, cut back a furlong in distance and won last year’s Nerud by five lengths for trainer Todd Pletcher.

Wise Dan wins the 2013 Firecracker. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Another Churchill-transferred race held Saturday at Ellis, the one-mile Wise Dan Stakes on turf, is named after a Hall of Fame racehorse who dominated his division just a decade ago. Wise Dan had raced nine times on dirt or synthetic tracks – including a sixth-place finish in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Sprint – and won a stakes race before trainer Charlie LoPresti tried him on turf in the 2011 Firecracker Handicap at Churchill. His performance was a revelation as he romped by 2 ¾ lengths, and from then on a legendary career was formed. Racing primarily on grass (but also winning a Grade 1 stakes on dirt), Wise Dan won the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile Presented by PDJF in both 2012 and 2013 and also captured an incredible 15 other stakes races, including the 2013 Firecracker in a driving rainstorm.

Wise Dan was voted Horse of the Year, champion older male, and champion turf male for both 2012 and 2013, and in 2016 the Firecracker was renamed in his honor.  One other horse joins Wise Dan as same-year winners of this race and BC Mile: Miesque’s Approval in 2006.

Down in Florida, the Smile Sprint Stakes at Gulfstream Park has had some crossover with the Breeders’ Cup Sprint despite not being a “Win and You’re In” race. Two horses have won both events in the same year, and both were honored as champion sprinter at the Eclipse Awards: Orientate in 2002 and Big Drama in 2010.