BC moves Mile up in race order..

[Linny]

That was 10 years ago. The race never superceded the Arc, despite the fact that when it was inaugurated the BCT had a purse about 5x that of Longchamp's 12f. Top milers have continued to come so I think it's fair to say that from top to bottom the Mile has been a stronger race over the last 15 years.

Any given year one race may be better than another (You could argue that last year's Juvie grass races were better than the dirt counterparts) but over the long term the dirt races are generally better races in terms of generating productive 3yo's. Similar with the Mile vs. the Turf. Once the top Euros stopped coming in droves the race weakened. Certainly the last 5 runnings of the Turf don't stand up to the Mile and that takes into account that the presence of Goldikova might ave actually scared some good Euro's away.

[ateamstupid]

Originally Posted by Linny

That was 10 years ago. The race never superceded the Arc, despite the fact that when it was inaugurated the BCT had a purse about 5x that of Longchamp's 12f. Top milers have continued to come so I think it's fair to say that from top to bottom the Mile has been a stronger race over the last 15 years.

It was six years ago, and no American race will ever supersede the Arc. The Mile is a stronger race, but I don't think it's because of Euro presence. Other than Goldikova, I don't think the Mile has gotten any more European superstars than the Turf has recently. And the 2005 BCT at Belmont was basically a duplicate of the Arc.