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Originally Posted by Danzig
i don't think so. seems every year horses ship in for the ark derby. but it did help the arkansas to have a graded prep at oaklawn. it's a really good series of races for three year olds, so at least it's possible to get graded earnings in more than one arky race.
as to whether the arkansas deserves to be a grade one, i just would argue the point that it shouldn't be the same level as the rebel.
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It just all doesn't work, the Derby field is split among 5+ preps, how can they all be G1s? Really how can any of them be G1 if the horses are split among five races? So let's call them all G2. Now the March preps for them have to be a lower grade so they have to be G3. That in turn would mean the February preps have to go down to ungraded which would mean they would have no relevance on graded stakes earnings and no one would run in them. So now we've ruined the whole Triple Crown prep season and given the trainers their excuse to wait until March to race just cause we can't have the Rebel and Arkansas have the same grade even though they have roughly the same field. Grading the Southwest was a good move, it should be relevant in getting into the Derby starting gate. Keep the Arkansas G2 and consider downgrading some (or all) of the G1 preps.