Euro the younger crowd who posts here in their 20's doesn't know anything different than what we have now. As long as they have been following the game its always been Breeders Cup oriented.
They truly don't remember the days of large fields in grade oes in the handicap and three year old divisions.
There was no reason to skip anything those days.
The famous longshots that used to light up the board are gone for themost part. and big winning streaks are normal now.
What people don't grasp very often is that field size is a HUGE factor in race outcomes, and guys used to take shots with longshots that the media now ridicules if they run.
Funny thing is that in two of the last three Fosters at CD, a HUGE longshot won, and both trainers only took a shot because CD put up their entry fees to ensure a larger field size.
Large fields almost always insure honest, if not fast paces and traffic jams at some point. In the days of yesteryear with traffic and not always an ideal pace and trip to contend with it was REAL hard to have a huge winning streak.
I hear morons now saying that so and so is no good because he or she lost two races in a row!!! LOL!! Imagine that!!!
Now you get small fields with pedestrian paces and no duels. They look like harness races at 1/2 mile tracks. Someone makes the lead and someone drafts along 2nd. Then maybe on the turn one horse pulls out to try and make a move and one follows him. The rest just draft along looking to suck up for 3rd or 4th money.
Its real easy to rip off winning streaks when you never have to encounter traffic or a less than ideal pace scenario. All you have to do is go along at an even clip and then make one move.
It allows horses to win on days when they aren't at their best because of the lack horses in the race who can trip out, or get lucky with a trip, or just plain run a huge race that day.
I mean, Bern can run a subpar effort and still win tomorrow. Wanderin Boy is gonna go to the lead, Bern will sit a clear 2nd, and the other two will race behind pretty far back in 3rd or 4th. There isn't any chance of a speed duel or of Bern getting boxed in or having to encounter traffic or getting pinned in on a dead rail. He can run subpar and still win.
The Breeders Cup is also responsible for the weakened triple crown contenders. The old timers in Ny used to run their best two year olds in the Champagne and then shut them down for the year. They'd head to Aiken, SC or Florida and give them real time off before cranking them up again for the Derby trail. That extra 3-4 weeks of training really does have a HUGE effect on them. They now only get 1-2 months of down time instead of 2-3 and you really can't even shut them down at all for a month. You still have to keep them in light training. There isn't any question in my mind that it hurts their development.
Last years first three Cup Juvy's, well see for yourself. First Sam came back a bit subpar, Stevie was injured in his next start, and Henny didn't reappear until Summer. Its simply too much to ask them to race that hard that late in the year and keep going into the crown. Same with juvy fillies. Folklore only made one more start, Wild Fit has never been the same, and Original Spin didn't get back into any kind of form until August. Does anyone really not see the link here?
Its one orgy that leads to a HUGE and lasting hangover.
Racing was no doubt better off by miles in the pre cup days. We had REAL grade ones with full fields and fans got truly excited on days where there was a grade one race. Grade one races on the dirt now mean 5 horse fields with a horse who is at least 3-5.
The ironic part of this is that horsemen still race turf horses all year long because they know the Euros are always tough to beat in the BC. They don't put all their eggs in one basket and still try to compete in and race all year long in the grade ones.