Your Gold Cup Exacta Please?

[Thoroughbred Fan]

The real culprit here is not the Breeder's Cup. It's the owners and breeders!!! You now have a totally different agenda than in the past. In the past, most horse owners really wanted to win races. They enjoyed the sport. They want the excitement and prestige of watching a horse who represented them, and ran in their colors, cross the line first. They wanted to hoist a trophy. Now, unfortunately, their is an agenda to create a specific profile for the breeding shed. This requires most horses to be pushed ahrd before they a really ready and to be run harder early. As soon as you win one good (even a weak G2 will suffice) race, you avoid having your image tarnished. You stick to easy spots or just retire. This is all predicated by a "try to get out ahead on this horse" - breeding shed mentality. It is really sad. A second, but less important overall, side effect of the breeding/sales explosion has been that the Darley folks often own many good horses in the same divisions. I can understand them not wanting to beat themselves, but at the cost of having any exciting racing???

Who knows what the answer is? Maybe if the folks at the stud farms had higher standards for the stallions they would stand. Maybe if the buyers at the sales had higher standards of the accomplishments of the stallions of whom they would purchase offspring. It seems that the champion caliber handicap horse with fifteen career wins is becoming as common as a unicorn.

Whatever the case, I think they should determine the champions in each division through a predetermined racing point system. Take it out of the voters hands. That way you have to RUN to win it.