The American Graded Stakes Committee is not doing the Thoroughbred breed any favors.
As I've written before, when the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association in the early 1970s undertook the worthwhile mission of ranking the best races with a Grade 1, Grade 2, or Grade 3 designation, there was not a single race at less than one mile for horses 3-year-olds and up among the 63 contests given Grade 1 status. To repeat: There were zero Grade 1 sprints for horses aged 3 and up.
The seven-furlong Vosburgh, a Grade 2 race when grading began in 1973, was elevated to Grade 1 status in 1980 – the only sprint for horses 3 & up rated at the highest level by the committee.
In 2022, 17 sprints (races under one mile for 3 & up runners) received Grade 1 status from the committee among the 98 total Grade 1 races. By comparison, France has three Group 1 sprints, Great Britain six, Ireland one, and Japan two among major racing countries in the Northern Hemisphere. The U.S. has more Grade 1 sprints that those four countries combined.
Winning a Grade 1 race greatly enhances a male horse's opportunity to stand at stud. It's not automatic, especially if that Grade 1 sprint victory came on turf, but it's a seal of approval from the group that determines which races are the most important in this country.
By increasing the number of Grade 1 sprint races, the committee is de facto blessing stallion farms to stand more sprinters at stud. But is that necessarily a bad thing?
This is a bit of a chicken and egg question. Are stallion farms standing more sprinters because that's what commercial breeders want, or is it because that's what yearling buyers are looking for, and mare owners are merely responding to market demand? And are those buyers, especially those shopping for colts, eyeing yearlings that look fast and racy in hopes of winning a Grade 1 sprint to secure that next stallion deal? And how much of a role do racing secretaries play in this? If they're mainly writing races for sprinters…well, that's what owners and trainers will buy.
Emphasizing sprint speed over stamina or soundness is just one area where the Graded Stakes Committee has fallen short.
There are far too many Grade 1 races restricted to 2-year-olds (15 in 2022, including seven for fillies) and 3-year-olds (27 in 2022, including 12 for fillies). The opportunity to win Grade 1 races at 2 or 3 encourages owners of these horses to rush them off to stud, instead of showing that they can prove themselves against older runners over a period of time and at longer distances. France and Great Britain each have five Group 1 races for 2-year-olds, while Ireland and Japan have three each.
In my opinion, the only Grade 1 races for 2-year-olds should be at the Breeders' Cup: the Juvenile, Juvenile Fillies, Juvenile Turf, and Juvenile Fillies Turf.
A similar restructuring should happen for 3-year-olds. Only the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes should be Grade 1. All of the pre-Triple Crown races for 3-year-olds are run within a few weeks of each other, allowing horsemen to pick and choose to find the easiest path to Grade 1 success. Downgrade them all to Grade 2. You could make an argument that the Travers and/or Haskell still qualify as Grade 1, but those races are deep into the racing season when 3-year-olds should be ready to take on older runners. And there should be no Grade 1 sprints for 3-year-olds.
This weekend, Parx Racing will offer two Grade 1 races restricted to 3-year-olds, the Pennsylvania Derby and the Cotillion for fillies. Later in the year, the Hollywood Derby at Del Mar, and the Malibu and La Brea at Santa Anita, are restricted to 3-year-olds. No major racing country in the rest of the world runs these restricted races so late in the season. None of those should be Grade 1, in my opinion.
So if this is a problem, what is the solution?
For starters, the committee members would be well served to take their heads out of their data-filled notebooks for a few minutes and have a genuine discussion about whether their actions are helping or hurting the breed. Because so many American Graded Stakes Committee members are active in the commercial breeding market, which is quite successful based on the hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions at recent yearling sales, I find it doubtful they will see any problems through their rose-colored glasses. (Original Graded Stakes Committee members in the 1970s, incidentally, were less engaged in the commercial market.)
But should profits from stud fees and yearling sales be the determining factor in whether the Thoroughbred breed itself is going in the right or wrong direction? No.
It's been 50 years since the Graded Stakes Committee was formed. In the mid-1970s, runners averaged over 10 starts per year. Average starts per runner now stands at six. It's not a good trend line.
Like anything in racing, the reasons for horses today having compacted careers with fewer starts over shorter distances is multi-factorial. Some things will be difficult if not impossible to change. That's not true of the Graded Stakes Committee. All it takes is some conviction and leadership.
That's my view from the eighth pole.
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