Coolmore Turf Mile and Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity Headline Saturday’s Card
Churchill Downs One-Mile Maiden Race Winner Coach Pope Expected to Run in Saturday’s Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity (G1)
Live Coverage Also Features Two Additional “Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series Races: Oak Leaf Stakes (G2) and Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G2)
STAMFORD, Conn. – Oct. 1, 2026 – NBC Sports’ live coverage of “Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In” races continues with “Fall Stars Saturday” from Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky,. this Saturday, Oct. 3 at 3 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock. The final domestic berths into this year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships will be awarded in this weekend’s races.
NBC Sports concludes its 13th year presenting the “Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In” on NBC, Peacock, and NBCSN from some of North America’s most iconic racetracks, featuring 95 races in 14 countries on five continents. The complete series TV schedule can be accessed here.
Live coverage from Keeneland Race Course begins this Saturday, Oct. 3 at 3 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, featuring the $1.25 Million Coolmore Turf Mile, a “Win and You’re In” event for the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile, the $650,000 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity (G1), an automatic qualifier for the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), and the $400,000 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G2), which awards a berth into the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1).
Coming off his first career victory in a one-mile maiden race at Churchill Downs, Coach Pope joins American History among the headliners for this weekend’s Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity. Trainer Todd Pletcher, who won last year’s edition with Ted Noffey, will seek his sixth victory in the race and his fourth in the past five years with American History.
In the Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes, Rhetorical, who won the race last year, looks to be the first horse since Gio Ponti in 2010-11 to win the race in consecutive years. Zulu Kingdom, who won the G1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland in April, joins Rhetorical as a headliner in the race.
NBC Sports also presents a “Win and You’re In” event for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies: the $200,000 Oak Leaf Stakes (G2), held over 1 1/16 miles for two-year-old fillies from Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif.
NBC Sports’ coverage will feature host Britney Eurton, analysts Randy Moss and Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, winner of 15 Breeders’ Cup races including five victories in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic. Handicapper Matt Bernier, and reporters Andie Biancone and Nick Luck will be on-site in Lexington.
NBC SPORTS AND HORSE RACING
NBC Sports is the exclusive home to the most important and prestigious events in horse racing, including the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, Royal Ascot, and Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational Series.
ABOUT BREEDERS’ CUP
Breeders’ Cup Limited administers the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, Thoroughbred racing’s year-end Championships, as well as the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In, which provides automatic starting positions into the Championships races through partnerships with host countries around the globe, and the U.S.-based Dirt Dozen Bonus Series.
The 2026 Breeders’ Cup World Championships, featuring 14 Grade 1 Championship races run during a two-day festival worth more than $34 million in purses and awards, will be held Oct. 30-31 at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., and the 2027 World Championships will be held Oct. 29-30 at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y. The Championships will be televised live by NBC Sports and FanDuel TV. Press releases appear on the Breeders’ Cup website, BreedersCup.com. You can also follow the Breeders’ Cup on social media.
--NBC SPORTS--
