Quote:
Originally Posted by Linny
The main idea is to incent folks to run their maiden 2yo's in NY. Over the last 8-10 years NY has just watched as the 2yo's ran in KY and didn't come to NY. There was a time when their were 2yo colts on Wed and 2yo fillies on Thu every week starting in mid April. By Belmont week they were running stakes for each sex. Big NY outfits used to point to break a 2yo's maiden and get some stakes cred before shipping to Saratoga. I'm not talking about the 30's but 15-20 years ago.
Moving the Futurity and Matron (and still calling them G2) is a ploy. They are no longer "G2" races while placed in the early summer. Of course, now you could win an early maiden then an inflated G2 and pick up a huge bonus That said, I think they have run one mixed sex baby race in NY, with a very short field. Of course to win the Futurity (formerly the Tremont) you have to beat a KY shipper and a Delaware shipper who each probably faced better horses.
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The Futurity is the Futurity, it is not formerly the Tremont, and if you bothered to look, you would see that neither the Futurity nor the Matron is on the Belmont Summer Stakes schedule this year. As for " still calling them G2 " they are Grade 2s. Are you suggesting we should voluntarily lower them...or drop the grade altogether? You are aware that last year's Matron winner was Millionreasonswhy?
Hopefully the bonus offer will bolster both the 2YO maiden races at Belmont and the 2YO Stakes at Saratoga. The racing office is doing what they can to strengthen these races. The money is there. We'll see if the horses run.