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With even the Virginia Thoroughbred Association calling for its demise, I have to wonder if I'm the only person alive who appreciates the concept of the Grand Slam of Grass.
Battle of Hastings -- this year's winner, albeit hard-fought, of both the Colonial Turf Cup-G2 and Virginia Derby-G2 -- positioned himself to be the first-ever horse to claim the Grand Slam, a four-race series sponsored by Jacobs Investments (Jeffrey Jacobs owns Colonial Downs) that has the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park as its third leg and the Breeders' Cup Turf-G1 as the final base in the equine circuit clout. But Battle of Hastings won't be running this weekend in the Secretariat, apparently because the race is too close on the calendar to the horse's last effort 21 days ago in the Virginia Derby.
So, per the VTA blog, it's "Time to abandon the Grand Slam of Grass."
"Since 2004, when Colonial Downs owner Jeff Jacobs first offered the $5 million bonus (purse winnings included), no horse has come close to winning the four races that make up the Grand Slam," the blog states. "Colonial Downs management continues to cling to the Grand Slam of Grass bonus ignoring the obvious fact that owners and trainers aren’t embracing it for some pretty obvious reasons. The schedule is tough, and winning the Breeders Cup Turf against the best older horses from the U.S., Canada and Europe with a three-year-old is a tall order most won’t even consider pursuing. History has a nasty habit of repeating itself."
The VTA apparently would prefer to see the money Jacobs has spent funding big purses for the Turf Cup and Derby, the insurance premium that would actually pay the bonus of the Grand Slam, and the "considerable (advertising) dollars" spent airing the first two races on national television be applied toward "funding a turf stake for older horses so former Turf Cup and Virginia Derby horses could return to Colonial Downs." Those funds could bump the purse of the Kittens Joy Stakes to $250,000 or $300,000, the VTA writes.
So I oppose the VTA here on two counts.
First -- and again, I might be the only guy -- I think the Grand Slam of Grass is a great idea, though obviously one that has never really found traction.
The VTA and probably others, including the connections of top 3-year-olds, are apparently convinced the Grand Slam is unattainable. It isn't, and there is plenty of evidence to show that a truly great and deserving horse could win it. And, with $5 million total on the line, only a great horse should be good enough to take all four legs.
But let's examine what's so darned difficult about the Grand Slam of Grass.
Exactly how rigorous is the schedule, really? The Colonial Turf Cup-G2 in June, the Virginia Derby-G2 in mid-July, the Secretariat S.-G1 in early August. ... Then the Breeders' Cup Turf in late October or early November.
So the first three races fall in three different months; two of them at the same track. There's a 28-day span between the Turf Cup and the Virginia Derby, and another 21 days before the horse has to be fit again to try the Secretariat in Chicago. If a graded-stakes horse's conditioner can't figure out how to get a horse tight and right for three races in 50 days, perhaps he should call someone who trains a bunch of $5,000 platers for a little advice. Or anybody who's ever had a colt on the Triple Crown trail, which demands three races in 36 days.
So the Grand Slam of Grass races simply are not too close together. And even if they are, a one-week alteration in Colonial's schedule would add seven days between the Virginia Derby and the Secretariat, and if four weeks isn't enough, then either your horse or your trainer -- or both -- just aren't good enough anyway.
As for the difficulty of a 3-year-old winning the Breeders' Cup Turf at a mile and a half among older horses, such a win historically is improbable, but far from impossible.
In fact, seven of the 25 B.C. Turf winners have been 3-year-olds; that's 28 percent or nearly three in 10. Two of the first three winners of the race (Lashkari 1984 and Manila 1986) were younger horses facing older. So were two of the last three, including Conduit's stakes record in 2008 and Red Rocks' victory in 2006.
The remaining 3-year-olds to win the Breeders' Cup Turf were Prized in 1989, Tikkanen in 1991 and High Chaparral when he won his first of two at age 3 in 2002 (he dead-heated with Johar in 2003).
And other 3-year-olds have come close. Lately, Shamdinan was second to 5-year-old English Channel in 2007 and Kitten's Joy was runner-up to Better Talk Now in 2004, meaning that in four of the last five years, a 3-year-old has either run first or second in the Breeders' Cup Turf.
Kitten's Joy might be the best possible evidence that the Grand Slam is attainable. He didn't have a Colonial Turf Cup to try, but would have been among the favorites if he had. Then he won the Virginia Derby and the Secretariat before finishing second in what could have been his shot at the big bonus, the B.C. Turf, had his connections been targeting such a series from the get-go.
And the more we retire accomplished 3- and certainly 4-year-olds to stud, the more likely it becomes that a younger horse will win such a big race at the end of his 3-year-old season -- even on turf, even at a distance.
But if Jacobs and Colonial did drop the notion -- and the costs -- of the Grand Slam of Grass, funneling all those funds into only one other race would be a greater folly. Colonial Downs would benefit little from another Grade 3 or even Grade 2 race. And for the good of Virginia horse racing -- which is what the VTA is supposed to be all about -- a lower-graded race for out-of-state-breds certainly isn't the worthiest goal.
If Jacobs and Colonial were to drop the Grand Slam of Grass, the $200,000 to $250,000 that the VTA suggests should be added to the Kitten's Joy purse in an effort to make that one race a featured event on a third "big" Colonial date (to go along with Turf Cup Day and VA Derby Day) would be much better utilized in establishing a Virginia Stallion Series to save the state's breeding industry.
I've detailed repeatedly the sickening decline of Virginia's thoroughbred breeding business. It's the VTA that should be at the forefront of saving that industry and the jobs of those who work in it, and whatever the organization has tried for the past 15 years or so, hasn't worked. Once one of the nation's proudest and most active breeding states (where Secretariat himself was foaled in 1970), Virginia has declined from 154 resident stallions serving 837 mares in 1991 to just 41 stallions serving 123 mares in 2008.
"Epic fail," as my kids would say.
The best way to turn around Virginia's breeding industry -- and to add another big-ticket day of racing to Colonial Downs' annual schedule -- would be the establishment of a Virginia Stallion Champions Day. Like similar events in other states, I envision a full card of stakes races open only to Virginia-sired horses, regardless where they're foaled. (By contrast, this year's first two VA-bred stakes races drew 22 entries, 17 of which were sired outside the state, albeit born there, and none of which were sired by a horse still standing in Virginia.)
Taking a fairly modest estimate of a daily Colonial Downs total purse -- say, $125,000 to $150,000 -- and adding in the $250,000 the VTA advocates tossing wholesale at the Kitten's Joy Stakes (typically dominated by non-VA-breds) would create a $375K to $400K basic purse structure for such a "Champions Day." That's potentially eight $50,000 races for VA-sired horses, and that's a real incentive to use a Virginia-based stallion. With a major sponsorship, added funds from nominations and other minor sources, or an increase in available monies should the VTA ever succeed in its worthwhile goal of getting OTBs situated in Northern Virginia, that purse structure and the number of races on the card could grow.
The VTA is proud of its "100 percent VA-bred bonus program" at Colonial, wherein owners of Virginia-breds that win among open company get double the purse payout. That's great if you campaign a VA-bred; not nearly so beneficial over the long haul if you're the breeder who sold the horse to make a living. And it's no incentive whatsoever for a mare owner to use a Virginia stallion so long as said mare returns to the Old Dominion to foal, as a couple-hundred do each year.
It's far past time for the VTA to start supporting its staggering stallion industry. So if the VTA is going to advocate abandoning the Grand Slam of Grass, then it certainly shouldn't be touting a massive purse addition for the Kitten's Joy, a race that had exactly zero Virginia-breds entered this year.
The VTA instead should be pushing for that money to directly support Virginia farms, horses and jobs.
Going Long on the TURF at the "Spa"
7 hours ago
