Perhaps as early as this Thursday the Breeders' Cup board will make an important decision about the event's future.
If Breeders' Cup names a long-term or permanent host track (rumored to be Santa Anita), it will be a departure from one of the Cup's best traditions - a rotating venue.
A roaming Breeders' Cup has a communal feel to it, giving the whole industry a sense of ownership. A permanent site threatens to make it parochial.
The logical move for the immediate future is a geographically balanced, four-year rotation that roughly mirrors what the Cup has been doing the last 26 years: Churchill Downs-Belmont Park-Santa Anita-rotating random site.
This plan shares the year-end championship between the Midwest, East Coast, and West Coast, with an opportunity every fourth year to expand internationally or spotlight other American tracks.
No track hosted the Cup for two consecutive years until Santa Anita in 2008-'09. It was a puzzling move considering the controversy surrounding Santa Anita's synthetic main track, which not only has drainage problems but so far has not yielded a single Breeders' Cup winner that previously raced on dirt, the surface favored by American racing for more than 200 years.
That decision cost the Breeders' Cup (and the sport) a potential all-time great moment had Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta settled the Horse of the Year debate on the track. Rachel's owner Jess Jackson kept her out of the 2009 Cup because of Santa Anita's surface.
Imagine if Major League baseball announced the World Series will be played at Fenway Park every year, and they were replacing the stadium's dirt and grass with a new synthetic material that would favor a certain type of ballplayer. Or the NFL decided the Super Bowl always will be played at the Louisiana Superdome.
The Boston Red Sox and New Orleans Saints only make it to the championship once in a while. Horses based at a permanent Breeders' Cup site will be there every year. It would create a home field advantage that is unprecedented in major sports.
At a time when the industry needs to come together, an end to the Breeders' Cup rotation could further splinter it.
Rotating sites is part of the Cup's identity. If it aint broke, don't fix it.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Stately Victor: Polytrack fluke or classic contender?
There were audible groans as 40-to-1 longshot Stately Victor blew by the field and won the Blue Grass Stakes (G1) by a widening four lengths at Keeneland last Saturday.
Another flukey result in a graded stake on the Polytrack...
Even in a weak edition of the Blue Grass -- this year's nine-horse field contained three Grade 3 winners -- Stately Victor looked overmatched on paper.
But there was nothing flukey about the way he won. Bumped at the start and in traffic early, Stately Victor settled in sixth place. Turning for home he and jockey Alan Garcia went by Interactif, arguably the classiest member of the field going in, and set aim on the leaders.
Stately Victor ran the final three furlongs in a powerful 35-2 and galloped out far ahead of the field.
In hindsight, he should not have been 40-to-1 in the Blue Grass. Although his PPs are spotty, the hints were there:
--He debuted in a good maiden race at Saratoga on August 22. Breaking slowly from the rail, he finished second and was gaining on subsequent Holy Bull Stakes (G3) winner Winslow Homer at the wire. Stately Victor was just getting going in the final furlong of that seven-furlong race.
--In his second start he broke his maiden going 1 1/16 on the Saratoga turf course. Shooting through a hole on the rail, he drew off by 4 1/2 lengths for a great looking win.
Now comes the hard part to look past. Stately Victor produced two dull races to close out his two-year-old campaign and showed none of his prior good form in his first two races of 2010.
But in a non-winners of one allowance on the turf at Gulfstream Park on March 7, Stately Victor gave a clue that he might be ready to move forward. For much of the past winter Gulfstream's turf course was as speed biased a turf course as I have ever seen. In 10th place turning for home and in traffic, Stately Victor fell off the screen.
It was a hopeless position, but he reappeared near the wire, running like a wild horse to finish fifth, beaten 1 3/4 lengths but moving best of all.
Most people are completely discounting the result of the Blue Grass and Stately Victor's chances in the Kentucky Derby (G1), and perhaps for good reason. But Stately Victor will enter the Derby with improving form, an impressive win, and a strong pedigree (He's by Horse of the Year and BC Classic winner Ghostzapper, out of the Grade 1 winning Dynaformer mare Collect the Cash).
If he works well leading up to the Derby and is ignored at the windows again, I will be tempted to play him to at least hit the board.
Another flukey result in a graded stake on the Polytrack...
Even in a weak edition of the Blue Grass -- this year's nine-horse field contained three Grade 3 winners -- Stately Victor looked overmatched on paper.
But there was nothing flukey about the way he won. Bumped at the start and in traffic early, Stately Victor settled in sixth place. Turning for home he and jockey Alan Garcia went by Interactif, arguably the classiest member of the field going in, and set aim on the leaders.
Stately Victor ran the final three furlongs in a powerful 35-2 and galloped out far ahead of the field.
In hindsight, he should not have been 40-to-1 in the Blue Grass. Although his PPs are spotty, the hints were there:
--He debuted in a good maiden race at Saratoga on August 22. Breaking slowly from the rail, he finished second and was gaining on subsequent Holy Bull Stakes (G3) winner Winslow Homer at the wire. Stately Victor was just getting going in the final furlong of that seven-furlong race.
--In his second start he broke his maiden going 1 1/16 on the Saratoga turf course. Shooting through a hole on the rail, he drew off by 4 1/2 lengths for a great looking win.
Now comes the hard part to look past. Stately Victor produced two dull races to close out his two-year-old campaign and showed none of his prior good form in his first two races of 2010.
But in a non-winners of one allowance on the turf at Gulfstream Park on March 7, Stately Victor gave a clue that he might be ready to move forward. For much of the past winter Gulfstream's turf course was as speed biased a turf course as I have ever seen. In 10th place turning for home and in traffic, Stately Victor fell off the screen.
It was a hopeless position, but he reappeared near the wire, running like a wild horse to finish fifth, beaten 1 3/4 lengths but moving best of all.
Most people are completely discounting the result of the Blue Grass and Stately Victor's chances in the Kentucky Derby (G1), and perhaps for good reason. But Stately Victor will enter the Derby with improving form, an impressive win, and a strong pedigree (He's by Horse of the Year and BC Classic winner Ghostzapper, out of the Grade 1 winning Dynaformer mare Collect the Cash).
If he works well leading up to the Derby and is ignored at the windows again, I will be tempted to play him to at least hit the board.
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