Also known as the metric mile, this is a premier middle-distance race, covering three and three-quarter laps around a standard Olympic-sized track.

The race is now regarded as New Zealand's premier weight-for-age race and has attracted interest from overseas, most notably with subsequent world champion miler Starcraft who ran second in 2004.

That indicates that Point Given, who won the Preakness, Belmont and Haskell, is an unlikely starter for the Travers, the meet's premier race.

He is notable for winning major races including the Cox Plate, Australia's premier weight-for-age race, and the New Zealand Cup.

Léon Théry (16 April 1879 - 8 March 1909) was a French racing driver, nicknamed "Le Chronometer", who won the premier European race, the Gordon Bennett Cup, in both 1904 and 1905.

It is an illegal piece of equipment rarely used in modern thoroughbred racing, especially in premier races like the Derby, which this year attracted 148,530 people and a national television audience.

Today, this race remains a premier races in Asia.

Series Debut The race marked the opening of a new series for older horses, 10 events from coast to coast from February to September, events already established as premier races but now linked as elements in the American Championship Racing Series.

Cefis, who was fourth, also will get some time off, and Granacus will return to Canada to prepare for next month's Queen's Plate, that country's premier 3-year-old race.

He has won premier races on two continents and will try running on dirt for the first time Saturday in the afternoon's marquee race, the $4.68 million Classic.