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Originally Posted by King Glorious
No I didn't. Street Sense got a 102 in Tampa and Curlin got a 111 in the Preakness. That's why I used the 115+ as my barometer. Flat times are one thing but a speed figure helps determine how legit that final time was and how fast the track was. Those are decent numbers for 3yo's but nothing Earth shattering. The top 3yo's of the past few seasons like Bernardini, Discreet Cat, Smarty Jones, Point Given, Funny Cide, Afleet Alex, War Emblem.....they were routinely faster than these two.
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This current group might be slower, but I remember everyone saying that heading into last years Derby too, and the hearing the same thing the year before that as well.
It all has to do with the lack of seasoning for these young horses. Horses develop over time and with experience, just like any athlete. Look at most of the great distance horses in history, they continued to develop at the end of their 3yo season and beyond. Today, horses are retired at 3.
Those faster times you want to see would come if these horses were running more frequently early in their career. Will you have more physical issues, yes, and that is where the problem lies. Owners are focusing solely on a few select races in a horses career that if they do win them, its like winning the lottery. It has made the owners scared to death to hurt a prospective stallion before he gets to the triple crown races. The opportunity for profit is so huge that it just not worth the risk to them to run their horses as frequently as they did in years past.
I think the only solution is to significantly increase purses in graded stakes races. Making it very difficult for owners to walk away from a huge purse, or a share of it. I think graded purses are too low when compared to top level other sports, and the industry has failed to show a fair increase over the years. The perfect example is the Arlington Million, which is still the Arlington Million 26 years later, what sense does that make? in todays market, it should be the Arlington $10 Million...
The stakes increase could funded by a number of areas, but mostly it should by the people who are going to reap the benefits, the owners and breeders. Putting a take out %, just like we have to pay at the mutual windows, on the live foal fees as well as the auction rings. For as much money is exchanged hands, the % would not have to be much. There are record numbers being spent each year, yet we are seeing less and less Graded quality horses... its only going to get worse until the industry realizes they are sacrificing quality racing for their own greed.