Breeders' Cup Lands Top Coolmore Runners

Multiple group I winners Treasure Beach and Canford Cliffs of Ireland and So You Think of New Zealand have been nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program through a special open enrollment program that closes June 30.

Coolmore nominated all three horses at $25,000 each under the program, which was instituted during the first half of 2011 to increase the number of eligible horses participating in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships to be held Nov. 4-5 at Churchill Downs. Treasure Beach, Canford Cliffs, and So You Think were not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program as foals.

Treasure Beach, a 3-year-old colt by Galileo, won the June 19 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby (Ire-I) at the Curragh, while Canford Cliffs, a 4-year-old colt by Tagula, most recently won the Queen Anne Stakes (Eng-I) at Royal Ascot. So You Think, a 5-year-old horse by High Chaparral, last time out finished second in the in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes (Eng-I) at Royal Ascot.

The open enrollment period is available to any previously non-nominated horse sired by any stallion standing anywhere in the world that has been nominated to the Breeders’ Cup in 2011.

“This open enrollment period has given us the chance to nominate our runners to the Breeders’ Cup at a reduced price than the usual $100,000 per horse,” Aidan O’Brien, head trainer for Coolmore, said in a statement. “Making it easier for European-based horses to run in the Breeders’ Cup also gives them future stallion prospects in the American market at the end of their racing careers.”