It’s less than three months to the 2022 Breeders’ Cup World Championships but preparations for the 40th event are already in high gear. Latest reports indicate that Santa Anita Park will for the eleventh time play host to the prestigious horse racing event in 2023. Dubbed the 40th Breeders’ Cup World Championships, the event will be held at a venue that has made a record by having the highest attendance in the history of the tournament.
Kate Richardson, sports betting expert and enthusiast hopes that the 40th event will break the current record by having the highest figure in terms of attendance and the amount wagered. Kate Richardson who has been reviewing the best betting sites for horse racing expects that the prestigious event will attract a high number of punters just like it has done before.
To find her profile as well as some of the reviews that Kate Richardson has done on sports betting click here.
The announcement
The organizers of the event, Breeders Cup Limited made the announcement two weeks ago as they prepare for this year’s event, the 39th championship which will be held on November 4 and 5th. The 40th event will be held on the 3rd and 4th of November 2023, on Friday and Saturday.
The event will bring together horse racing fans, participants, and horses from all over the world. Santa Anita Park is described as one of the most picturesque tracks with the organizers revealing that they selected it for its outstanding reputation. Santa Anita Park is a scenic track that provides an ideal setting with its size and attractiveness making it an ideal place for the large audience that is expected to attend.
Facts about the Championships
Breeders Cup world championship is a grade 1 Thoroughbreds race featuring horses aged three years and above. It is regarded as the most prestigious horse race, not just in North America but also in the world. It consists of the 4th and final leg in the horse racing Grand Slam. With a purse of $ 6 million, it is considered to be the richest in the world and the crowd it attracts makes it one of the highest attended horse races in the United States. Other high-attended events include:
- Kentucky Derby
- Preakness horse race
- Kentucky oaks, and
- Belmont horse race
Since its inception in 1984, the Breeders Cup is held every year. Between the inception year and 2006, the Breeders Cup championship was a single-day event. However, this changed in 2007 when it was expanded to a two days event. For all those years it has been held in the United States except in 1996 when Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto Canada played host.
Impact
Hosting such a world-class event comes with added benefits. It is not just a sporting event but with it comes entertainment and hospitality. The hosts expect that the 2023 World Championship will inject approximately $ 100 million into the Southern California economy. This estimate is based on a study that was conducted in 2017 where fans and other related parties will be expected to spend a substantial amount of money in terms of food, drinks, accommodation, entertainment, and other hospitality products. The prizes that will be won in this event are also factored in, more so if they are won by local participants.
With the attendance, there will be a booming business for the local hotels and restaurants and entertainment joints among other related establishments. The estimates are also based on a similar event that was held in 2016 in the same location where an all-time record attendance had close to 120k fans. The economic impact of the event will be even higher when horse racing betting is factored in. Records show that in 2019 when again Santa Anita Park played host to the event a new wagering record was set with more than $175 million bets made. Betting sites are hoping to catch big in the event.
With the exposure that the event gets all over the world and the fact that there has been a new development in the world of sports betting, where it is now easier than any other time to wager, it is expected that the 2019 wagering record will be broken. Organizers expect that Santa Anita Park will set new records, not just in terms of the attendance and the wagering amount but also in the attention it will create in the horse racing betting.
The 2023 event will be the second after a two years break occasioned by COVID 19. Keeneland will play host to the first Breeders Cup after the COVID 19 pandemic. The Keeneland event is also expected to attract large crowds as fans and participants are excited about the re-opening. However, the 2023 horse race is expected to be larger, given that it is being held in an area that is known to attract a huge audience.
It may be one year and three months from now but the horse racing participants, fans, and betting enthusiasts are already on a countdown for an event that is expected to break the record of the Breeders Cup World Championship.
