Post by *Ripley* on Aug 22, 2012 8:21:50 GMT -5
I'm trying to spread out my stock over the upcoming racing calenders at both GHF and TW. However, I keep running into this issue of lack or limited races. We have a ton of grade three races and up races. Yes, I understand that most of these are important races and that only the best should be able to run in them, but it's weakening our racing levels. We do not have that many superstar grade three horses just at this moment. While those limited races become more dominant in the schedule there is a steady decrease in the amount of races offered to grade fives and fours.
The majority of the horses on this website are grade fives and fours. These horses are the back bone of Green Horse Fields and The Wire. It takes a while to even approach grade three and most of it is because of a lack of races available to lower level horses.
I understand that it is difficult to set up a racing calender and that too many races will cause problems with judges and what not. But I am finding it difficult to find places for my four year old and three year old grade fives because the races are becoming more selective to two year old horses and grade threes. And even for three year olds as well. Three year olds not pointing for the Triple Crown, Tiara or Turf Triple Crown do not have as many opportunities to run and move up to grade three unless they run on The Wire at a steady rate.
My suggestion would be to open up the Memorial races to grade fours, races that are open to grade fives should be open to grade fours as well. In my own personal opinion we should put less significance on the grades of horses when judging and in scheduling races. It weakens the level of competition and variation of horses in the races and chases away people because of just a grade.
And the four year old and up races like the These Old Bones Stakes, Who's More Youthful and any other races like those should be open to grade fours at least. We shouldn't limit who can run so severely because already the target group seems to be very select.
The best modeled group of races to me is the Breeder's Cup and The Stable Face Off. They are races open to everyone, while still maintaining specific boundaries that make entering easy. Excuse my rant, but this has always been my opinion since I started years ago.
I bet Sillenia, Worldbreaker, Alluring Assault, Flashy Wings and Sunset Crusade are tired of running against the same old competition. I used to find those open races or grade one races interesting because there was such a wide variety and anyone could win, but when Sillenia is getting victories over only one single horse in a race it kind of puts a damper on her whole record. Plus, in real life Sillenia would be finding it challenging to maintain her amazing form over such an extended period of time. [Sorry for picking on you Frosty, but Sillenia was an easy example for proving my point]
So I'll bullet what I said, simply because my rant made it hard to follow even for me:
- Open 4 year old and ^ races to grade fours at least
- The Memorial Races should be open races.
- Races specific to grade five as the year goes on should be also open to grade four to keep variation in competition.
- Put less significance on grades because even in real life a horse with only two starts can and will run against grade one company depending on his talent and capabilities.
- Do away with Grade Three and Grade Two races as there are plenty of opportunities to move up when running in open company.