tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1266573065584680131.post480739614086689530..comments2023-05-23T06:58:05.579-04:00Comments on Fugue for Tinhorns: Breeders' Cup cuts would leave series incompleteGlenn Cravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09760553404742644042noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1266573065584680131.post-39689755261163242822009-07-12T07:01:24.976-04:002009-07-12T07:01:24.976-04:00Thanks, I responded on my blog for the most part, ...Thanks, I responded on my blog for the most part, but as to the topics discussed here.<br /><br />Re: the Princess Rooney - Admittedly it was a bit of a cheap shot with Indian Blessing out. With her, it wouldn’t have been an unusually weak G1 by AGSC standards, but still several levels short of what I’d consider a race of the highest quality. <br /><br />This was after all a race for older horses, but half the field had yet to finish on the board in any graded stakes, and IB and Game Face were the only ones that could be considered G1 caliber (with one or two more having fringe ability).<br /><br />I’m with Oaklawn Park on this, the AGSC grades are so useless that they should better not be mentioned at all (I only do it on my blog to mock such "highest level"-races as the Mother Goose)<br /><br />I think field size is a symptom, not the cause. There are simply far too many G1 and G2 races for a limited number of top horses. If I can add a G1 win to my resume without facing top quality, why would I run against RA to do so. It might be a coincidence, but NYRA (with its 3-horse MoGoose and 4-horse Tom Fool) has for years been worse than anyone else in scheduling glorified Overnights as Stakes races for 70K, to the point of regularly counter-scheduling their own prestigious feature events. No wonder if that shrinks the size and attraction of their scheduled stakes fields. <br />Of course I agree with your point that the local horseman should go for an easy grab at those runner-up purses.<br /><br />Re: F&M – we really don’t know. G3 level fillies never compete against G3 level colts, so how could we know how they’d do. Still, I’ve read 4 books and quite a bit of www stuff about handicapping, and have yet to find an author who says "female horses that drop from F&M Alw class into open Claiming company stand not a chance against male horses with comparable forms". If F&M races were generally much weaker, that would seem one of the most obvious handicapping principles.malcerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02913127739083446726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1266573065584680131.post-85830671948633817132009-07-11T18:23:23.475-04:002009-07-11T18:23:23.475-04:00Certainly females run against males elsewhere (i.e...Certainly females run against males elsewhere (i.e., not in North America) far more often than they do over here. To a large degree, though, I believe the separation of them makes sense. Most females aren't up to the level of competing against most males, of a similar class. When they can and do, that makes it all the more spectacular.<br /><br />As for the Princess Rooney, the scratch of Indian Blessing really cost that race. And unlike the scratch of Fabulous Strike from the Tom Fool last week (which was done only because the connections basically figured he'd lose), Indian Blessing had to be scratched because a shot of penicillin she got for an infection two weeks ago hadn't cleared her system enough to pass the race-day drug screen. ... That's unfortunate.<br /><br />Marina Ballerina was scratched with a cough, too, and she was 2-for-2 at this Calder meet, including a stakes win.<br /><br />Had Indian Blessing in patricular been in the race, you probably wouldn't be questioning the field as Grade 1, because there would have been a real throwdown in the stretch between her and Game Face. Marina Ballerina might also have figured, so the favorite and another nice horse were out, and the result was a tepid 1:10 and change for six furlongs.<br /><br />I do agree, though, that some U.S. graded stakes races have become a joke because of field size. The Tom Fool is a prime example. It was only going to be five horses anyway prior to the scratch of Fabulous Strike, and only two of the five had ever won a stakes race. (One had never PLACED in a stakes race.)<br /><br />Where are the owners of halfway-decent local stakes horses? Or even top allowance horses for whom $20,000 or $35,000 for third place would be a really nice payday?<br /><br />Back to the colts vs. fillies point, I think that in certain races, the genders merit being kept separate. In the U.S. there are so many sprinters that there's good reason to have one race for males (or females whose connections are confident in them) and another for fillies and mares.<br /><br />But note there's no turf mile nor dirt mile for fillies and mares. (And there are plenty of female milers.) No marathon for females. So I don't think the Breeders' Cup has gone overboard in catering to female-only races.<br /><br />However, I haven't read your post yet, so I'll probably learn something when I do!Glenn Cravenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09760553404742644042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1266573065584680131.post-89485983422243589142009-07-11T17:55:22.881-04:002009-07-11T17:55:22.881-04:00Hi,
I started writing a pretty long response to y...Hi,<br /><br />I started writing a pretty long response to your post, then got an idea which eventually lead to an entire <a href="http://thedresdenfile.blogspot.com/2009/07/bc-thoughts-juvie-turf-is-bad-idea-now.html" rel="nofollow">post/proposal</a> on my blog. So first of all, thanks for getting me to think about the subject.<br /><br />Most of what I wanted to comment is in that post, except for a part about why I dislike the F&M Sprint:<br />It's bad enough that the stupid notion of separating F&M's is grandfathered in over the classic distances, but do we have to artificially increase it by adding such races, or quotas for F&M sprint G1's (look at today's Princess Rooney at Calder, what a pathetic excuse for a G1).malcerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02913127739083446726noreply@blogger.com