Quote:
Originally Posted by Danzig
you might want to re-read the article. he wants the preakness moved to the first wknd in june, and the belmont to the first wknd in july.
i can see his point, to a point. pimlico doesn't get the carryover of horses moving on to md, and he thinks it's due to the spacing.
then again, it might be due to the racing and purses offered. i don't know that moving preakness day would suddenly induce horsemen to run on the undercard because you have to have a good undercard. it has to be worth their while to ship there.
also, how many horses who skip the preakness go to the belmont? i'm sure many skip both of the other jewels, and take a break before going elsewhere, or dropping to some of the lower level races.
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You are right. He wants an extra two weeks between each race. With regards to whether we would get more TC winners if there was extra time between races, I don't think there is any question. When a horse wins the first two legs, it is usually because he's the best horse. How many of those have we had over the last 35 years? There have been at least 10. I think it is a safe bet to say at least a couple of those would have won the TC if there would have been more time between races. Some of those horses lost the Belmont because they were so knocked out after the first two races. That wasn't always the reason or the only reason but it was one of the main factors in many of the cases. I'm not claiming that we would have had 10 TC winners over the last 35 years if there was more time between races. But I think we would have had at least a few.
The way things stand right now, being the best horse isn't enough. You need to be an "iron horse" to win the TC. If there was more time between races, just being the best horse would sometimes be enough. Some may argue that would be a bad thing because it would lessen the accomplishment of winning the TC. There is some truth to that but you have to weigh the good and the bad. If it was up to me, I would add one more week between races. That would still be extremely challenging. Running those 3 races over 7 weeks (instead of 5 weeks) would be very tough, but reasonable. The current spacing is not reasonable IMO.