Colonial stakes draw good fields, show Virginia's breeding-business weakness

My recent lamentations about shortened statebred stakes races at Colonial Downs notwithstanding, a fair number of entries were dropped in the box for the first two such races of the 2009 season.

The races are restricted to Virginia-born or Virginia-sired entrants.

In the John D. Marsh Stakes, which prior to 2008 a mile and a sixteenth race for 3-year-olds now cut to 5 1/2 furlongs and open to 4-year-olds as well, the connections of 10 hopefuls have entered-up. Six of the potential starters are 4-year-olds.

The clear morning-line choices are Hugo, a 4-year-old Stormy Atlantic colt installed as the favorite at 5/2, and Native Playboy, who'll open betting at 7/2. No other horse is at less than 5/1 odds on the morning line.

Hugo has won three of 14 lifetime for $88,010, including a third place finish in the World Appeal Stakes at Meadowlands as a 2-year-old. He'll break from the rail under Rosemary Homeister Jr.

Native Playboy, a 4-year-old gelded son of Distorted Humor, has won three of five lifetime for $56,420; no blacktype. He drew the 7 post and will have Sylvester Carmouche III in the irons. I like his chances better than Hugo's, but doubt you'll get a good price on either of them.

Of interest to me is that Michael Trombetta has entered a 3-year-old filly here against 4-year-old colts. So Vain (Mr. Greeley) was the winner of last summer's Jamestown Stakes for juveniles on the dirt at Colonial, in a mixed-gender group. It was her second lifetime start and she hasn't raced since. She'll only carry 113 pounds vs. boys on Saturday.

Morning-line odds aren't set at this writing for the fillies race on Sunday, the Oakley Stakes, which likewise was shortened by three furlongs a year ago, and thrown open to 4-year-olds in addition to sophomore runners. Among the favorites is likely to be Bopolene, a 4-year-old who placed in a pair of Colonial statebred stakes last year at 3, including the shortened Oakley.

I had expected to see Perfect Pet, a Marquetry filly whose breeders are among this blog's followers, pointed toward the restricted Colonial stakes this year. She's shown some ability on both dirt and turf and should like the distance. She was a place-finisher in last year's Jamestown behind So Vain, and has run competitively away from Colonial, as well, though she's yet to win her NW2L.

She was scratched out of a recent Pimlico allowance, then initially dropped all the way down for a $4,000 tag at Charles Town for a May 31 race, but scratched out of that one, too. If she's healthy and fit, she'd wouldn't have been out of her league in this group.

On a different note, both races show how weak the Virginia stallion ranks have become. For stakes races in which VA-foaled or VA-sired horses are eligible, of the 22 entries, exactly zero of them were sired by stallions still standing in Virginia. Only five of the 22 were sired within the Old Dominion at all, three by Housebuster (now deceased) and a pair by Bop (now in West Virginia).

The remaining 17 are all by studs based outside Virginia. Beyond the aforementioned by Mr. Greeley, Distorted Humor, Stormy Atlantic and Marquetry, the remainder are by: Whywhywhy; Prospect Bay; Van Nistelrooy; Not For Love (two); Proud Citizen; Strong Hope; Sligo Bay; Speightstown; Forestry; Congaree; Chief Seattle; Meadowlake; and Milwaukee Brew.

Anyone who thinks Virignia's breeding business is healthy -- I'm thinking of you, Gov. Tim Kaine -- isn't paying attention.

Here's a group of 22 Virginia-foaled horses -- many of them sired by stallions standing for $10,000 to $40,000 -- and all that breeding money, not only stud fees, but board, vet care, etc., is now spent outside of Virginia.

These are just the stakes runners from two statebred races. Of roughly 350 VA-foaled thoroughbreds last year, statistics suggest about two-thirds were sired outside the state.

Even if the governor and others in Virginia's government (and among voters) aren't interested in horses or racing, or are averse to wagering, how can they continue to ignore that sort of lost business, jobs and income (i.e., taxes)?

The long and the short of it: Colonial's turf course

In less than a week, they'll be off and running again at Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va. While some fans lament the track's location -- it isn't terribly convenient to any metro area, though less than an hour from Richmond -- I enjoy its rural setting and in my experience the track management and staff have always been quite accommodating both for fans and media.

What I'm not so tickled with is the stakes schedule, which is apparently limited by the configuration of its otherwise spectacular turf course.

Last year, Colonial didn't just trim, it hacked, significant distance out of a few statebred stakes races. I e-mailed the track to ask why, and a top official at Colonial called me back within 30 minutes -- I kid you not, called, not e-mailed, I told you they're accommodating -- and we discussed the matter for about a half-hour.

The Virginia Thoroughbred Association makes the decisions when it comes to statebred stakes races, I was told. And, having trouble filling some of them, I was informed by Colonial that the VTA decided shorter was better. So mile or mile-and-a-sixteenth races were carded last year at 5 1/2 furlongs instead, and mostly are again this year.

That isn't just "shorter." That's short. ... Really freakin' short.

Now, I'm a fan of turf racing, and of distance racing. Frankly, those two often go hand in hand, as grass horses frequently have a bit more European lineage and stayer influence. But I also appreciate the horses who can and do run short. Among Virginia-breds, Bop is one of my all-time favorites, and for him, shorter was always better.

But dropping the distance from 8.5 furlongs to 5.5 furlongs was unlikely to broaden the field, and last year it really didn't, even though the VTA and Colonial attempted to expand entries by turning 3-year-old only events into stakes races for 3- and 4-year-olds. The Oakley Stakes last year went off with seven horses, little or no improvement from when it was run at a distance.

That's because for every sprinter you draw with a short race, you risk eliminating a miler. I have friends among Virginia's horsemen and horsewomen who were out of the Oakley Stakes last year once they learned it was being run at 5.5f. It was just too short for their horse.

This year there are 23 nominations for the Oakley, which will be run next Sunday, June 7, on the meeting's opening weekend. We'll see how many make it to post.

The ideal compromise in my opinion would be to run these races at a "middling" distance; preferably 7 furlongs. That way the milers have to shorten up a bit, the sprinters might have to last just a little longer than they'd prefer, but in either case the connections of all might be willing to take a shot.

Trouble is, Colonial's turf course, the most beautiful (in my opinion) and widest (by point of fact, at 180 feet) grass course in the country, with up to 10 different rail configurations, apparently is restricted to either the shortest of sprints, or to route racing. It's seven-eighths of a mile in circumference with no chutes to provide for anything other than 5 or 5 1/2 furlongs, or a mile or more. (There's an abbreviated chute on the turn for home that, coupled with the widest rail settings, permits the 10 furlong distance of the Virginia Derby-G2.)

Seems like bad planning to me.

The track has a 10-furlong dirt course, with a chute so long that in the fall, trotters can blaze their way around a one-turn mile, a configuration unique among harness courses. But at a track where a majority of the thoroughbred races are carded on the lawn, there's no such thing as a 6-, 6 1/2-, 7- or 7 1/2- furlong grass race. None. ... And that's hard for me to fathom.

I wonder what, if anything, could be done about it now. I've included an overhead shot of Colonial while under construction (above, "borrowed" from Resource International, an engineering firm that was part of the project) and track layouts ("borrowed" from the Daily Racing Form) for both Colonial (top) and Lone Star Park.

What I'm wondering is whether a diagonal chute like the one Lone Star has cut between the apex of the turn for home and final stretch, could be duplicated in reverse, so to speak, at Colonial, where the chute would run through the open grass to the left of the two lakebeds in the aerial photo, in effect short-cutting the far turn, perhaps allowing for 6- and 7-furlong distances (just guessing).

I had often wondered why there weren't races from 6 to 7.5 furlongs (or somewhere in that range) on the turf course at Colonial, but apparently wasn't smart or inquisitive enough to find out.

But other than cost (likely considerable) -- and the prospects that, perhaps, the infield grass and lakes are part of a wetlands tradeoff (read the engineer's page on the project) that couldn't be altered -- I don't know why Colonial's track management wouldn't want additional configurations and distances.

I'm open to comments here, particularly from VTA members, Colonial Downs staff, or anyone with the inside skinny on why Colonial was built the way it was, and whether modifications to the course are feasible now.