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Originally Posted by Danzig
mile races on dirt are a stud maker, the bc wants a met mile/type race.
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This is an old cliche that is decidedly false. Perhaps, because breeders nowadays prefer speedy precocious types they might want to push for milers as stallions doesn't mean those races are "stud makers". In fact, what is there, all of 3 Grade 1 at a flat mile for 3yo and up in North America on the dirt?
Let's see what recent stallions (with offspring of racing age) have been "selected for" by winning these races:
Met Mile:
Quality Road, Divine Park, Corinthian, Silver Train, Ghostzapper, Pico Central, Aldebaran, Swept Overboard, Exciting Story, Yankee Victor.
Cigar Mile:
Jersey Town, Kodiak Kowboy, Tale of Ekati, Daaher, Discreet Cat, Purge, Lion Tamer, Congaree, El Corredor
Dirt Mile:
Albertus Maximus, Corinthian
A handful of useful types, but not exactly lighting the world on fire. Ghostzapper is probably the best of the bunch, but he started out very slow.
Meanwhile, the stronger miler type stallions like Distorted Humor, Elusive Quality, Speightstown, More Than Ready, Tale of the Cat, War Front, Henny Hughes, Munnings, Street Boss, and Midnight Lute certainly didn't win and with few exceptions rarely competed in those top mile races that are such great "stud makers". They focused on sprints and the odd middle distance race here and there.
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and when a big turf euro comes over and runs in the classic.....does anyone complain it's watering down the turf race?
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No. The assumption can be made that the top Euro horses are superior to anything the US produces (in fact, most of our top turf horses are ex-second string Euros). The configuration and quality of NA turf courses are enough to keep most away. If Coolmore and Godolphin (basically the only two that toss a turf horse onto the dirt) want to produce the "perfect stallion", its quite telling they tend to use the BC Classic and not the Dirt Mile.