Quote:
Originally Posted by rgustafson
Not saying that I disagree with your rant about the Hopeful downgrade, but the Graded Stakes committe uses certain criteria to make their recommendations and evidentally felt that recent runnings did not measure up. Your other comments are somewhat misconstrued. The Keeneland upgrade, the Jenny wiley is on the turf so no promotion of their SPECIAL surface there, though I understand your comment pertains to leaving the Blue Grass a Grade I. As far as the Breeders Cup races that were upgraded they were the Juvenile Fillies Turf( not a sprint) and the Turf Sprint for older males, 3& up. I thimk that you would agree that it has pretty much been a foregone conclusion that once a Breeders Cup race has been run enough times a Grade I status is awarded( the exception being the Marathon which is an ill concieved joke of a race and hopefully will not be continued)
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The 2009 and 2010 runnings of the Hopeful were by no means spectacular but did feature 1-2-3 finishers that subsequently won the Gotham, Jim Dandy, Travers, Commonwealth, and Churchill Downs.
The 2010 Ruffian was won by a G2 winner who came back to place in a G2. The runner-up came back to win the BC Distaff. The year before the 2nd place finisher was a G1 winner and the winner was exiting a 2nd place finish in a G1.
Neither of these two races deserved to be downgraded. The Jenny Wiley and Cotillion were races that deserved to be upgraded.