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  #1  
Old 12-30-2021, 10:55 PM
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RolloTomasi RolloTomasi is offline
Oriental Park
 
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How in the holy hell did the Graded Stakes committee reinstate the rankings for the Mathis Mile and the American Oaks?

The Mathis Mile, a silly race made up a few years back to honor a horse that did very little in his career aside from upsetting Mr. Purple and Serena's Song in the Big Cap (Sir Beaufort) and that has been so puffed up by the geniuses at Santa Anita that it now ruins the once fairly important San Gabriel (the only one of the 3 turf races on opening day that WAS downgraded) by siphoning off the good turf 3yos that should be taking on their elders by now...

This year's Mathis Mile featured 4 winners of graded turf stakes so I suppose it was a legit grade 2...on turf. But that's moot; the race moved to the main track. It featured exactly NO graded stakes winners on the dirt. It featured only 2 horses that had even ever started in a graded stakes on dirt. Their collective record in those races? 3-0-1-0.

To be fair, the 1-2 finishers did each own one of the few dirt wins in the entire field, those coming in maiden special weight races at Santa Anita earlier in the year.

Law Professor won his MSW in March just before being pummeled by the great turf...er...dirt horse Rock Your World in the SA Derby. That MSW ended up pretty strong, too; collectively aside from the Mathis Mile win there has been 11 victories from the members of that MSW field. Of course, 9 of the 11 victories came on the turf...

Beyond Brilliant also broke his maiden in a MSW, back in June in a 5-horse field. None of the other horses has won back although I think one did hit the board in a subsequent race...and it was even on dirt.

The lesson? Maiden Special Weights at Santa Anita are comparable to Grade 3 races...and Maiden Special Weights originally scheduled for the turf are at the very least similar to Listed Stakes.

I won't bore you with the details of the Grade 1 American Oaks aside from the unimportant fact that the collective dirt record of the entire field was 4-1-0-1. There was not a single horse that started in a graded stakes on the main track.

The only thing I can come up with that justifies the race remaining a Grade 1 is that the sires Honor Code, American Pharoah, Lemon Drop Kid, Medaglia d'Oro, and Empire Maker were represented by offspring in that race and THEY all had won Grade 1 dirt races during their own racing careers.

Either that, or Mike McCarthy has compromising photos of some of the members of the Graded Stakes Committee...
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  #2  
Old 12-31-2021, 09:24 AM
blackthroatedwind blackthroatedwind is offline
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Wait, the American Oaks, which shouldn't even be a Grade 1 anymore on turf, was still kept as a Grade 1 when it was switched? Here I thought the Canadian ratings making the Natalma and Summer Grade 1s was an embarrassment. I guess, once again, we eclipsed them in ridiculousness.
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  #3  
Old 12-31-2021, 10:14 AM
freddymo freddymo is offline
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Canadian G1 is only valued at .75 of a US Grade 1. It's not even Blacktype at the Sales. It's Gray
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  #4  
Old 12-31-2021, 04:30 PM
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RolloTomasi RolloTomasi is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by freddymo View Post
Canadian G1 is only valued at .75 of a US Grade 1. It's not even Blacktype at the Sales. It's Gray
It took me like 8 paragraphs of nebulous material to set up an overused one-liner that I probably plagiarized subconsciously (like George Harrison) from the comments section on Youtube; Freddy slays and is more clever in less than 20 words.

He has completed his evolution from Drinking Man to Thinking Man.

Either that, or he has compromising photos of some witty person that he makes post using his screen name.
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  #5  
Old 12-31-2021, 08:30 PM
Dahoss Dahoss is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RolloTomasi View Post
It took me like 8 paragraphs of nebulous material to set up an overused one-liner that I probably plagiarized subconsciously (like George Harrison) from the comments section on Youtube; Freddy slays and is more clever in less than 20 words.

He has completed his evolution from Drinking Man to Thinking Man.

Either that, or he has compromising photos of some witty person that he makes post using his screen name.
I’ll take the latter for the table limit
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  #6  
Old 01-01-2022, 01:54 PM
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Kasept Kasept is offline
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SANTA ANITA NEW YEAR'S EVE MAIDEN SPECIAL WEIGHTS

SA 3yo-F MSW (7f): Distractedprincess 86 (Distorted Humor) B. Baffert/J. Velazquez
SA 3yo-F MSW (6f): Smitten by Kitten 76 (Kitten's Joy) M. Glatt/A. Cedillo
SA 2yo MSW (6.5f): Wharton 70 (Candy Ride) B. Baffert/J. Velazquez
SA 2yo MSW (6.5f): McLaren Vale 66 (Gun Runner) B. Baffert/J. Velazquez
SA 2yo MSW (1m): Flying Drummer 74 (Gun Runner) B. Baffert/J. Velazquez
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Last edited by Kasept : 01-05-2022 at 05:16 PM.
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  #7  
Old 01-02-2022, 08:57 AM
Dahoss Dahoss is offline
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I thought Simplification looked really good yesterday.

Nice day for Castellano as well
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  #8  
Old 01-02-2022, 04:33 PM
freddymo freddymo is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dahoss View Post
I’ll take the latter for the table limit
Andy is too savvy to allow a jerk like me to catch him in the act
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