Del Mar begins its one-month fall season Thursday at 12:30 p.m. Racing Friday starts at 11:35 a.m. (first of five Breeders’ Cup races is at 2:45 p.m.), and Saturday at 10:05 a.m. (first of nine Breeders’ Cup races is at noon).

The Breeders' Cup World Championships Nov. 1-2 at Del Mar in California attracted 212 of the world's top horses, including an intimidating 80-strong foreign contingent. The fields, announced Wednesday,

Fierceness, Ireland-based City of Troy and Forever Young from Japan are among a full field of 14 horses for the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic next month at Del Mar.

One started a beach footwear company. One oversees the sales of sports drinks. One works in promotions. One is a drive-time radio host. The Great Friends Stable, an eclectic Del Mar-based group 60 or so strong,

That’s true of the Breeders’ Cup, whose moveable feast of multimillion-dollar thoroughbred races has visited a dozen tracks in eight states and provinces in its 40 years. And nowhere is it more true than at Del Mar,

It’s not only the racing surface that could work against late-running horses, including Brown’s Sierra Leone in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, the main event of the second day, and Chancer McPatrick in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, the focus of the first day.