The 2014 Breeders' Cup World Championships was the 31st edition of the premier event of the North American thoroughbred horse racing year.
[1] The Breeders' Cup is generally regarded as the end of the North American racing season, although a few Grade I events take place in later November and December.
In 2014, thirty-seven horses entered in the Breeders' Cup races qualified via the challenge series, including four of the winners.
Most notably, American Pharoah, favored in the Juvenile after winning the FrontRunner Stakes, missed the race due to a bruise to the left front hoof.
[6] The Breeders' Cup Classic became the subject of great controversy when the eventual winner, Bayern, broke rapidly from the gate and "took a hard left turn"[7] toward the rail, bumping the favorite Shared Belief in the process.
He started to close as they entered the stretch but could not get by: Bayern won by a nose over Toast of New York with California Chrome a neck back.
Shared Belief's part-owner, Jim Rome said, "The message is pretty much that you can commit a foul at the beginning of a race.
[14] In the Juvenile Turf, Bobby's Kitten was in last place with 200 yards remaining but closed rapidly to win in a photo finish.