The 28th annual West Virginia Breeders Classic and eight other stakes races will be staged this weekend (Saturday, Oct. 18 with post time at 7 p.m.) at the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races facility in Ranson.

The $500,000 West Virginia Breeders Classic is the richest of the stakes on Saturday’s nine-race card. The defending champion from 2013 is Fred High, who ran down the field with a commanding stretch drive last October.

Also on Saturday, the race track will host the annual Breakfast of Champions at 9 a.m. in the Skyline Ballroom. Tickets may be purchased at the door for $15. The annual breakfast draws a number of retired Washington Redskins such as Pat Fischer, Roy Jefferson, Brig Owens, Mark Moseley, Sonny Jurgensen, Sam Huff and Ron Saul.

This year’s special guest at the Breakfast is jockey Ramon Dominguez, a three-time Eclipse Award winner. The guest speaker for the event is Len Shapiro, an NFL Hall of Fame writer whose fame came when he was writing for the Washington Post.

In the days and nights leading to this year’s Breeders Classic night of racing there was the Gala Dance staged by invitation on Thursday evening at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center in Shepherdstown and the golf outing at the Locust Hill facility near Charles Town on Friday morning.

Every thoroughbred entered in any of Saturday’s nine stakes races has West Virginia connections. Long-time county trainers James W. Casey and Jeff Runco won races on the 2013 card. Casey posted two wins on the 2013 card and Runco had one win.

Altogether, the combined purses for the nine stakes races easily exceed $1 million.