World Championships unveiled American racing`s showpiece event will have a new title recognising its status as the biggest meeting in the world, it was announced last night. The tag 'World Thoroughbred Championships' has been added to the billing of the Breeders` Cup, whose latest renewal is scheduled for Belmont Park in New York on October 27th. The series had already been seen by many as an unofficial world championships, having attracted most of the best horses from America and Europe in its 17-year history. But the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Breeders` Cup Limited have made the name change in a bid to improve public awareness of the 9.2 million eight-race meeting and to showcase the main prep races in the 'Road to the World Thoroughbred Championships.' The two bodies have also agreed in principle to a strategic alliance with the Emirates World Series of Racing, so that most of the races in that programme will be shown on television in the USA. 'The purpose of this international alliance would be to create a dynamic world racing series, which would generate enormous potential for global sponsorship,' said James E. Bassett III, chairman of the Emirates World Series and of Keeneland racecourse. NTRA commissioner Tim Smith said: 'When the Breeders` Cup World Thoroughbred Championships are held October 27th at Belmont Park, it will represent the single best day of thoroughbred racing anywhere in the world for the year. 'We believe the steps being announced today will help communicate that positioning more powerfully, while helping fans follow more easily the top races and divisional competition that lead up to the Breeders` Cup each year.'
