South African duo of Beach Beauty, Capetown Noir earn BC berths

South African duo of Beach Beauty, Capetown Noir earn BC

berths

Beach Beauty, winner of the Group 1 Paddock Stakes and Capetown Noir, who

captured the Group 1 Queen's Plate at Kenilworth Race Track on Saturday, became

the first two horses to earn automatic starting positions in the 2014 Breeders'

Cup World Championships at Santa Anita Park (October 31-November 1) through the

Breeders' Cup Challenge series.

Now in its eighth year, the Breeders' Cup Challenge is an international

series of stakes races whose winners receive an automatic starting berth and

paid entry fees into a corresponding race of the Breeders' Cup World

Championships.

The Shanks Syndicate's Beach Beauty, a seven-year-old Dynasty mare, earned an

automatic berth into the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf, by successfully

defending her 2013 title in the Paddock Stakes with a 1 1/4-length victory over

In the Fast Lane in the 1 1/8-mile turf race for fillies and mares, three years

old and up. Trained by Dennis Drier and ridden by Sean Cormack, the 22-21

favored Beach Beauty defeated 13 rivals in registering her 14th career victory.

She was recently third in the Green Point Stakes at about one mile on the turf

on November 23 at Kenilworth.

In the Queen's Plate one race later, Khaya Stables' Capetown Noir, the 5-1

second choice, drew clear in the stretch to defeat the even-money favored

Jackson by 1 1/4 lengths and grabbed an automatic berth into the Breeders' Cup

Mile. The Southern Hemisphere four-year-old by son of American-bred sire Western

Winter, trained by Dean Kannemeyer and ridden by Karl Neisius, won his second

race this season, following a fifth place in Green Point Stakes last November to

stablemate Ice Machine, who was 12th Saturday.

"I was always confident," Neisius told the Racing Post following the

race. "I got exactly where I wanted to be and in the straight I kept my eye on

Jackson. I quickened past him and everything worked out perfectly."

Capetown Noir, the 2013 Cape Award winner as the top three-year-old, now has

eight career wins.

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