Watered down winter racing
It's bad enough that there is Dubai to kill winter racing....but the Sunshine Millions remains the ultimate horrendously bad idea.
Look at Sunday's Grade 2 Palos Verdes at Santa Anita. The 5/2 morning line favorite is Cal Bred Johnny Eves. He ran a 42 Beyer in his last start - and he is ducking the 300K Sunshine Million to run in a ultra pathetic 150K Grade 2.
The 3/1 second choice on the morning line is Florida Bred Machismo. An ordinary sort who lost five consecutive races at Calder last year - he's also in here ducking.
The Donn Handicap is going to be a joke. The two favorites might be Einstein and Kip Deville ... who both might be better suited for the 9 furlong Grade 1 GP TURF Handicap the day after the Donn. A race that will no doubt come up laughably pathetic if it loses those two to the Donn.
Why not just combine the Sunshine Millions races with existing stake races at GP and SA that it has helped to crush ... and if you must insist on handing out huge chunks of money to Fla and Cal breds ... let them race for big bonuses that go along with the Graded Stake purse.
You can even keep the cheerleaders - and the jocks on the Cal Breds can wear black pants, the jocks on the FLA breds blue pants, and the other jocks white pants. Just in case anyone is deranged enough to care about which breed is scoring more points.
Run four races at GP and four races at SA on the same day - but alternate them each year. Remember, a race can still keep its graded stake status if it's run once every other year.
* The Sunshine Million Dash is the Spectacular Bid at GP and San Pedro at SA
* The SM Oaks is the Old Hat at GP and the Santa Ynez at SA.
* The SM Filly & Mare Turf is The Suwannee River at GP and San Gorgonio at SA.
* The SM Sprint is the Mr Prospector at GP and the Palos Verdes at SA
* The SM Filly and Mare Sprint is the The First Lady at GP - and the Santa Monica at SA.
* The SM Distaff is the Sabin at GP and the Paseana at SA
* The SM Turf is the Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap at GP and the San Marcos at SA
* The SM Classic is the Donn at Gulfstream and the San Antonio at SA.
Nothing can be done about how Dubai has watered down winter racing - but getting rid of these restricted races is a big step in the right direction. I don't know which is worse - a $1 million race with a Grade 3 field like GP's 10th today - or a Grade 2 stake race with a field of eight has beens and never will be's like tomorrows 3rd at SA.
|