[tector]

After two years at Santa Anita, the Breeders' Cup returns to Churchill Downs and a dirt surface this year. They'll never do it (think of how long it took them to adopt color-coded saddlecloths), but the time has come for the Breeders' Cup crowd to strike the words "World Championships" from its branding. Historically, it's just not so. Twenty-six years on, there have now been 15 Horse of the Year champions who either didn't win or didn't run in the Breeders' Cup Classic. Rachel Alexandra is the eighth national champion who didn't run in any Breeders' Cup race. At election time, Eclipse voters, most of them, have shown a predilection for a body of work rather than one big afternoon in the fall. They're throwbacks, in a way. They still value the races that meant the most before the Breeders' Cup came along.

http://www.horseraceinsider.com/blog...d-your-horses/