2009 Graded Stakes

[Linny]

Originally Posted by lemoncrush

The AK Derby last year with Gayego and King Silver's Son or whomever...that was an awful field compared to previous years....could have more to do with the crop of 3-yo's last year than anything else.

My issue with Graded races is for 2-year olds. I just don't understand why there are so many Grade 1s and Grade 2s in the spring/early summer when it's basically a group of maiden winners entered. It's basically a first level allowance races masquerading as a G1 or G2 stakes race.

The pathetic quality of this years crop effected the Ark Derby this year. As for the 2yo G1's they are holdovers. There was a time when a races like the Hopeful or the Del Mar Futurity were the 4th or 5th start for a colt and he had actually proven something. The babies used to "sort themselves out" well before reaching those races. Now they go straight to races like the Hopeful. That's why they lost the G1 for the Futurity. When they go Maiden->G1 it weakens the G1 because the odds are that a big percentage of those "impressive" maiden winners won't turn out to be that much.