Courtesy of Cross Gate Gallery
Striking Images of Santa Anita Park Embrace Historic 40th Running
Claire Crosby/Breedes’ Cup
ARCADIA, Calif. ― Breeders’ Cup Limited today unveiled the official artwork of the 2023 Breeders’ Cup World Championships, by world-renowned artist Quang Ho. The 2023 World Championships will be held Nov. 3-4 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., giving Ho a magnificent landscape from which to draw inspiration.
Ho’s work will be featured on the cover of both the Friday and Saturday official track programs and on tickets. In Friday’s image, a striking gray wearing a purple saddle towel strides out in the paddock just before the call for riders up. In Saturday’s scene, a compact field races into the first turn with the San Gabriel Mountain Range forming a striking backdrop to the thrilling action unfolding on the racetrack.
“I went out for some racing last spring and got to walk about the racetrack, with the facility’s beautiful turquoise color and the mountain range behind it,” Ho recalled. “I spent a couple of days there walking around and seeing the horses up close, which is how the paddock inspiration came about. Where the racing scene was concerned, I could have taken it from so many different angles, but that iconic look of the mountain range behind the racetrack was looming in every race I watched.”
A native of Hue, Vietnam, Ho immigrated to the United States in 1975 at age 12 and pursued a passion for art formed at a young age, graduating from the Colorado Institute of Art at the top of his class in 1985. His long and illustrious career has resulted in many solo shows in London, Houston, Denver, Vail, and Taos, New Mexico. He is a much sought-after teacher and lecturer on art and has won numerous prestigious awards, from the Artists of America to the Oil Painters of America exhibits. He has held retrospective exhibits at the Steamboat Springs Museum of Art and the Woolaroc Museum in Oklahoma, as well as the Booth Museum of Western Art in Atlanta. His many interests in life, from music to science, food to philosophy, show up in his works as varied themes and explorative approaches to painting.
“We are honored to feature Quang Ho as this year’s official Breeders’ Cup artist,” said Justin McDonald, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Breeders’ Cup Limited. “Quang’s vivid images of one of the world’s most renowned racetracks will give our fans treasured mementos of two days of world-class racing as we celebrate our 40th running.”
Cross Gate Gallery’s annual Sporting Art Auction, which will include both pieces of Ho’s Breeders’ Cup art, will be held on Nov. 18 at 12:00 p.m. ET. For more information, please visit http://www.thesportingartauction.com.
The 40th running of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships Nov. 3-4 will be televised live by NBC Sports. Admission is still available at BreedersCup.com/tickets.
