NEW BC races will NOT be G1!!!???

[Merlinsky]

It's fairly clear the popular decision here is to dislike the additions. I'm sure I'm in the minority for liking the races themselves but my issue is the different day thing (although I also don't now how you'd put it all on one day. It's obviously meant do be like an Oaks/Derby thing). It was a definite slap in the face over the new additions but that said, either they're championships or they're not. They've sorta set these up like the technical Emmys or something. It kinda dulls the anticipation of the pageantry of the next day if they aren't made as big as possible.

If they're not the decider of the year end honors you're arguing either that there's insufficient quality of horse to get enough G1 caliber animals or that there's not enough preps to make a need for them to have a year end honor. If you think there's enough G1 caliber horses who have races in place to gear to a championship, you make them G1 off the bat. Now do all 3 meet the requirement? Not so much.

It helps if you add prep races for a Juvenile turf, otherwise we might as well mail the trophy to the top European 2yo and save them the airfare. As an American I'm frustrated with other countries getting the loveliness of turf racing sooner and more often than we do so I'd love nothing more than to see that sort of thing pick up. That said, I can see them saying 'are you nuts?' about a G1 Juvenile turf in the current situation. The thing is, if you have some horse that gets lucky on turf and it's graded, they can use that to jump the queue in the TC trail. I mean graded stakes earnings are graded stakes earnings right? Turf or dirt? Almost dangerous to make it a graded race til you know what you got but they need proper preps or they just shouldn't do it.

I wanted a dirt mile for some time now, call me crazy. To me there are enough talented milers you could get one heck of a race set up and these are horses that frankly shouldn't be in the Classic anyway. Can you get enough horses though? I guess you'd end up with some stellar miler types and make up the rest with horses that use it as a backup if they can't make the Sprint, Classic, or turf Mile. Could be, er, "interesting." Is it insane to move the Cigar Mile up to before the BC Dirt Mile? It feels like they'd skip the BC for that or maybe use it as a prep which would be lame--it's supposed to be the big prize. Filly/Mare Sprint's an obvious one they should've done.

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by Merlinsky

The thing is, if you have some horse that gets lucky on turf and it's graded, they can use that to jump the queue in the TC trail. I mean graded stakes earnings are graded stakes earnings right? Turf or dirt? Almost dangerous to make it a graded race til you know what you got but they need proper preps or they just shouldn't do it.

Or you could just hold out for the Delta Jackpot -- an equally useless big money event disguised as a graded stakes race which could affect the Derby picture. A second there is worth more than a second in the Wood, and worth the same as a second in the Arkansas Derby. How about that? I'm more worried about that race than I am about the Juvenile Turf sending a horse to the Derby.

[Linny]

How many graded stakes are there on grass to worry about? Most of them have $100k purses and th 60k winner's share wouldn't usually get them to the Derby. The early season (and late 2yo) grass races are not worth enough ($ wise) to matter. Besides, part of Barbaro's "graded total" was from grass racing.

If a horse is from Eurpoe, all his graded earning are from turf. They may run a couple of G3's on "All Weather" surfaces but they are rare. Would you keep out a qualified E#uro because of his lack of "dirt" earnings.