SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - This Saturday and Sunday is the biggest and richest weekend for thoroughbred horse racing for those member nations of the Confederacion Hipica del Caribe that border the Caribbean Ocean.

Seven nations will have horses represented in stakes races here including Puerto Rico, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Mexico. The top prize is Sunday's $300,000 Clasico del Caribe for 3-year-olds at 1,800-meters (approximate1y 1 1/8 miles). Also on Sunday will be the first running of the CITGO Cup, a $50,000 invitational for runners three-and-up.

The weekend of international racing kicks off on Saturday here with the second Angel Cordero, Jr. Jockey Challenge that honors the hall-of-fame rider from this island.

The four-race challenge includes U.S.-based stars like hall-of-famer Pat Day and top jockey Jose Santos as well as Puerto Rico's own Jose Ferrer, a regular on the Florida circuit, who will be back to defend the challenge championship he won last year. Other Puerto Ricans in the competition are Juan Carlos Diaz and Ramon Vasquez. Also scheduled to ride are Panama's Angel Rivas, Venezuela's Santiago Gonzalez and Mexico's Javiar Matias.

Also on Saturday will be the $100,000 Confraternidad Cup, the $75,000 Dama del Caribe Cup and the $75,000 Velocidad del Caribe Cup.

ESPN2's Wire-to-Wire will have expanded coverage of this big weekend of Caribbean racing on Tuesday at 2 p.m ET.

"This is our greatest weekend of racing for the entire year," said Confederation President Lionel Muller. " This is the opportunity for our owners, breeders, trainers and jockeys to show off their very best for our richest races. We are especially proud to welcome our new international sponsor CITGO and to have such riding super stars as Pat Day and Jose Santos come to take part in our international jockey challenge series."

Through 36 runnings of the Clasico del Caribe that dates back to 1966, Panama leads with 11 victories to 10 for Mexico, 8 for Venezuela, 6 for Puerto Rico and one win for Colombia.