BC Official: Friday 'True Championship'

Pedigree Ann · #1 03-03-2008, 04:16 AM

I knew Breeders' Cup was in trouble when they stuck "World Championship" in their title. The BC is about as much a world championship as the World Series. If it weren't for a few trainers like Dermot Weld, Andre Fabre, and Aidan O'Brien, the Euros would be uniformly second stringers (Red Rocks, etc.). Southern Hemisphere horses don't attend, because November is spring, their horses are just gearing up for the classic season, and they aren't going to miss the Melbourne Cup or Carlos Pellegrini carnivals to pay shipping and enormous supplementary fees on the long shot that their horse adapts to US conditions fast enough. (The purse structures in South America are such that a champion horse may not have earned enough money to pay a full BC supplement, sire not nominated, foal not nominated.)

"World Championships" sounds like something a PR flack thought up and management bought into it as a means to attrack new fans. But it is lie.

And so is "win and you're in". A non-nominated horse cannot get in by winning one of the designated races; he still has to pay the supplement. The lack of basic understanding of the meaning of English words in the upper BC management is staggering.

SniperSB23 · #2 03-03-2008, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cardus

It's nonsensical to use dirt races as "Win and You're In" for Breeders' Cup races that, absent a surface change this summer, will be held on a synthetic surface.

Not as nonsensical as having the "World Championship" dirt races held at a venue without a dirt course.

parsixfarms · #3 03-03-2008, 11:10 AM

For several years after its formation, the Breeders' Cup was a positive influence on the game. However, in recent years, as trainers start their horses less and less, the Breeders' Cup has directly cannibalized the traditional fall races in this country. Adding more Breeders' Cup races only exacerbates this trend. And now, by splitting the true "championship" races (Distaff, Juvenile Fillies, Filly and Mare Turf), from the Saturday card, the Breeders' Cup is cannibalizing itself.