49 "Win and You're In" races
 

Thoughts?

http://www.drf.com/news/article/92273.html

Yawn.

It just seems like a bit much to me but what do I know.....

Can't wait to hear about the win and you're in races for the dirt marathon. Hopefully they will card one at Charles Town where they can pass the start finish line 4 times.

The BC needs to answer for their recent horrendous decision.

Hey congrats! Your post just earned you automatic entry in one of the BC races. :p

OK, now I've glanced.....it's even more idiotic than I expected. I love that the EP Taylor, Canadian International and Woodbine Mile are now included. I was worried that horses that won those races might now be able to get into the BC. And, with the first two races a week before the big event, I'm sure this will come as a huge relief to the connections of the participants. Plus, Canada must be going wild over this big news.

The winner of the Longacres Mile is now " in " the BC Mile. Thank God! I mean, there was a wrong that needed to be corrected. And, Delaware gets in the mix. Wait until the slot players hear. I can already see them getting off their perches to take in whatever big events those races are.

I understand, they have flooded the market with these races, so much so that few, other than the turf mile, will ever be oversubscribed again, so they are hoping by adding ridiculously slow participants they can make their convaluted plan appear to be a rousing success. To take a quote from the long forgotten " Hester Street "......." you can't pee on my hat and make me think it's rain. "

Aaaah, very nice post.

I just rolled my eyes when I read it but hoped someone would do it justice.....

Good stuff.

Furtermore I think it hurts euro competition because it could take spots away from the turf races.

Everything is so upside down, just so hard to support something that has the wrong direction, maybe zero direction

FYI, the E.P. Taylor and Canadian International were moved up two weeks and will now be run on October 4. That is a date that already included the First Lady, Breeders' Futurity and Shadwell Mile from Keeneland, and the Champagne, Frizette, and Jamaica from Belmont.

I'm certain that Woodbine chose to move those races up simply so that they could have the profound honor of being a "win and you're in" bestowed upon them. That or maybe a bit of mercy on the BC considering the Canadian International field was quite a bit more impressive than the BC Turf in 2007.

NT

Shame on Woodbine. They took on the BC and were winning.

That is really lame.

The thing though is that Woodbine subsidizes all travel expenses for horses shipping in and that's part of the reason why the Canadian International is usually very strong. Now, even with it three weeks ahead of the BC, you have to convince those European horsemen to take their charges another 2,000 miles to turf courses they generally do not favor (I know there have been exceptions) in much warmer temperatures on their own dime.

I don't know about all of you but two years of 8 horse fields in the BC Turf along with watered down Classics, Sprints, and Juvenile races does not have me excited.

NT

This is just an observation, but does anyone still care about the BC races other than US based or owned horses. I'm not sure anyone in Europe, Dubai, Japan and even Canada for that matter are scratching out dates in their blackberry calendars pointing for the BC.

Well, I'd venture a guess that the Coolmore and Godolphin operations still care a bit. Aidan O'Brien did bring a few over last year and has done so for quite some time. As far as serious interest beyond those two and maybe Juddmonte? No, no way.

NT

Coolmore are very sporting indeed, they even show up in Australia(Melbourne Cup) for bragging rights.

I'm just not sure if the BC is what it used to be, I used to get all jazzed up for this event, but lately it has been a yawn. The turf races have been substandard or atleast not the quality of when the Europeans would send multiple quality horses.

you know what though, this might actually attract more Euros with this scheduling, especially when the BC is on the east coast. They can ship into Woodbine expenses paid to Woodbine, and then stable at Belmont or somewhere until the BC, get two races in (Woodbines races and the BC races). Definitely worth the ship to get two races in, both with multi million dollar purses. Just a thought

I'm not sure that works with quarantine restrictions.

I know absolutely zero about those so maybe not.

If they are smart they have it marked for the next two years. They are going to crush us on that cushion crap that makes average American turf horses into G1 and G2 winners. Imagine how legitimately good turf horses are going to run on it. We'll be 0 for 28 the next two years. Actually probably worse than that since they'll have added six new races by next year.

While I agree with some of the things said here,I have a hard time seeing anything wrong with earning a bc trip

You're in the wrong house----believe me.

If they are going this far why not throw a bunch of top European races in there? Most of them won't show up but at least if they do they'll belong there unlike some of the horses that will qualify.

Every time the horses pass the finish line, the attending crowd can count down the laps!

You know, I'd care if some of them were Gold ticket races. Win it and you're really in. No worry about being eligible or paying the entry fee. Of course, that could make the "preps" (races that were once worthy of winning because of their prestige) more interesting than the corresponding BC race.

(Not a fan of what this has done to the Saratoga schedule.)

I really haven't followed the turf to poly/cushion angle for awhile, I think there was some validity to this when Keeneland went to it and to some extent Hollywood Park first went to it. I'm just not sure what to think as there seems to be mulitple forms of synthetic tracks making it hard to gauge. Will it be an advantage?