The 2019 Breeders' Cup World Championships was the 36th edition of the premier event of the North American thoroughbred horse racing year.
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.
These included the two leading candidates for the Classic, McKinzie (Whitney Handicap) and Code of Honor (Jockey Club Gold Cup).
Other highly ranked qualifiers included Bricks and Mortar (Arlington Million) in the Breeders' Cup Turf and Midnight Bisou (Ogden Phipps, Personal Ensign Stakes) in the Distaff, both undefeated in 2019 and considered leading candidates for Horse of the Year.
[4] On August 17, 2018, the Breeders' Cup organization announced that Santa Anita Park would host the event for a record tenth time.
[5] The selection became controversial however when 30 horses died during Santa Anita's 2018-9 winter-spring meeting, raising concerns over the safety of the equine athletes.
The management of Santa Anita undertook several changes, including extensive testing of the track surface and changes regarding pre-race medication.
[8] Extensive wildfires in California, including the Getty Fire in western Los Angeles, did not affect the Breeders' Cup as they were all downwind from the facility.
Storm the Court took the early lead and turned back a late challenge from Anneau d'Or, another longshot.
The son of Aidan O'Brien also became just the second person to have Breeders' Cup wins as both a jockey and trainer: Freddy Head being the other.