Whilst no official announcement has been made, it appears that Santa Anita Racecourse in California is set to host the 2012 running of the Breeders' Cup "World <cough> Thoroughbred Championships". Speculation has been mounting for a few weeks and earlier this week invitations were sent out by Breeders' Cup to racing journalists asking them to join them in LA for a "special announcement". As the only other tracks in the running were Churchill Downs in Kentucky (hosts of the 2010 and 2011 runnings) and Belmont Park in New York (last hosted in 2005), it seems unlikely they would make an announcement for these tracks in California! The move is unlikely to be popular with many US racing fans who feel that the venue has a "West Coast bias". Santa Anita has often been a good hunting ground for Europeans, particularly in the editions held in 2008 and 2009 which saw Europeans take home $4.6million and $5.9million of the $25million (per meeting) prize money. However, it is worth noting that the synthetic track at the racecourse was ripped out and replaced with a traditional dirt track earlier this year, so don't expect the same level of results as in previous years.
Shame they ripped out the synthetic track. Suppose they had to do something to stop the Europeans going off with the cash
