Derby AE List

[Thunder Gulch]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

They changed the rules this year to let a totally undeserving horse from England in. One more slot taken from a deserving horse. I am not saying that ther are a huge number of horses that have missed being in the 20 but as people are more apt to run fillies, and slot tracks keep adding money to fairly insignifigant races especially as two year olds, the deserving (ie, better horses) will see their numbers dwindle further. Imagine the handwringing if a horse misses the cut, there are 2 scratches and that horse goes on to easily win the Preakness, Belmont, Travers, BC Classic....Then the rules will certainly change but using hindsight as usual. AE's are not a foreign concept the other 364 days of the year.

AE's are not a foreign concept to the other 364 days, but 20 horse fields are. I just don't believe that the last one in takes away a spot from a deserving horse because the 20th one in isn't all that deserving.

As for lightly raced late bloomers. Everyone knows the rules and has the same opportunity to chase inflated 2yo purses. I'm not against modifying the rules to weight the graded earnings for 3yo dirt routes, but I'm not clamoring to call one deserving when he runs 3rd in one G1 race. Win one and you are in.