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The Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint is a Weight for Age stakes race for thoroughbred racehorses three years old and up. As its name implies, it is a part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships, the ''de facto'' year-end championship for North American thoroughbred racing. The distance of the race will vary depending on the host track's turf course requirements.〔(Monthly Index to Online Story's | Blood-Horse.com )〕 The race was run for the first time in 2008 during the second day of Breeders' Cup racing at that year's host track, Santa Anita Park. The 2008 race was held at a distance of six and a half furlongs and was contested on Santa Anita’s signature El Camino Real “downhill” turf course. In 2008 the race was limited to 14 starters. Besides Santa Anita, the only tracks in North America capable of contesting longer than six and 1/2 furlong turf races are Woodbine 〔(Woodbine Track Records )〕 and Belmont.〔(Belmont Track Records )〕 Churchill Downs, which has hosted the Breeders' Cup eight times, only conducts turf sprints at 5 furlongs.〔(Churchill Downs )〕 Breeders' Cup Officials did announce a preferred distance for the race, unlike all other Breeders' Cup races. Because of technical requirements, it was not eligible for classification as a graded stakes race in its first two runnings.〔(Graded Stakes Committee releases 2008 changes - Thoroughbred Times )〕 Starting in 2010, it was a Grade II race, and was upgraded to Grade I for 2012. == Automatic Berths == Beginning in 2007, the Breeders' Cup developed "The Breeders' Cup Challenge," a series of races in each division that allotted automatic qualifying bids to winners of defined races. Each of the fourteen divisions has between three and ten of these, "Win and You're In," qualifying races. In the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint Division runners are limited to 14 and there are four automatic berths. The "Win and You're In" races are: 1. the TJ Smith Stakes, a Group 1 race at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, Australia;〔(Breeders Cup Challenge )〕 2. the Bing Crosby Stakes, a Grade 1 race at Del Mar Racetrack in San Diego, California;〔 3. the Nunthorpe Stakes, a Group 1 race at York Racecourse in York, England〔 and 4. the Nearctic Stakes, a Grade 1 race at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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