BC Stunner: 2 days, 3 new races..

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

The whole idea is basically a poor one....but it's the BC....the enemy of major league racing...... so why would it be a good idea?

Starting from the top....the mile. This will dilute the Classic ( not seriously ) and the Sprint in two detrimental ways. One, it will take away somewhat interesting contenders and two it will open the sprint up to more useless vermin that, in theory, doesn't belong in a championship race.

Now, the Filly and Mare sprint. OK, I understand one could argue they sort of " deserve " their own race...however.....fillies and mares have fared VERY well in the BC Sprint over the years and so in reality this race will further rob the BC Sprint of its overall quality.

Now, the 2YO turf race.....I'm sorry, what exactly is the US program that leads up to this race? Some turf maiden races seems to be about it. So this is great, we now have a BC race that caters to US horses that are too slow to run on dirt and Euros. OK, fine, I will personally enjoy this race and maybe the Euros do sort of deserve a race of their own, but don't try and fool me that this was a race that demanded to be run. I like the $250K filly version of this race they are already running and see no reason they shouldn't have run the same purse for the boys. Labeling it a " BC " race does not make any of the contestants better or more important horses.

I agree with this completely. The Classic and Sprint will suffer in quality and depth. There aren't 42 horses of grade one quality to fill the three races and quite a bit of the horses in the Classic wouldn't go there if there was a mile race instead. There just aren't that many quality 10f males in this country anymore. The much larger purse of the Classic will ensure that it will still attract a large field but it's going to be mostly filler as many of the quality horses end up in the mile.

Second, there is absolutely no need for a f/m sprint. There have been too many fillies that have done well in the open sprint. Horses like Very Subtle, Safely Kept, Meafara, Pine Tree Lane, Xtra Heat, Desert Stormer, Soviet Problem, and Honest Lady didn't need to have a separate race. At this distance, females are more than capable of running with the boys at an equal level.

There is a another problem that I haven't seen mentioned on here. Nobody has mentioned this part of the press release:

The expanded Oct. 26 program will include three $250,000 stakes funded by Breeders' Cup. They are a 1 1/16-mile event for 3-year-olds fillies, a one-mile turf race for 2-year-olds fillies, and a six-furlong test for 2-year-olds. Total purses for the Friday card will be $4 million, which makes it the second-richest day of racing in North American behind Breeders' Cup day.

What they forgot to add was that they are trying to get these three races increased to $1 million and make them BC races also. That would give us 14 races over the two days. I don't understand for the life of me why they would be adding an 8.5f race for 3yo fillies. Have they been having too hard a time winning the Distaff and I just haven't noticed? Let me think for a second.

Life's Magic-2nd 1984
Lady's Secret-2nd 1985
Sacahuista-1st 1987
Winning Colors-2nd 1988
Gorgeous-2nd 1989
Go for Wand-1st 1990
Dance Smartly-1st 1991
Versailles Treaty-2nd 1990
Hollywood Wildcat-1st 1993
Heavenly Prize-2nd 1994
Ajina-1st 1997
Sharp Cat-2nd 1997
Banshee Breeze-2nd 1998
Spain-1st 2000
Surfside-2nd 2000
Unbridled Elaine-1st 2001
Farda Amiga-2nd 2002
Elloluv-2nd 2003
Ashado-1st 2004

So they've won seven (eight if u count Go for Wand) and (again counting GfW), have taken 19 of 46 exacta spots in the history of the race. Yeah, they are really at a huge disadvantage and need their own race. This would impact the Distaff much more than a dirt mile will impact either the Sprint or Classic. It's stupid.

I think the whole idea is stupid. Let's see. Take the BC coming off of it's worst ratings in history and dilute the races even more and spread them out over another day. I mean, if nobody watches on one day, surely they'll circle the televisions for two days, especially since the first day will be full of secondary races. Brilliant.