[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

I agree with you about the Derby preps and their graded status. However, I can also understand the other side of the argument. There are pros and cons and the people that spend a great deal of money for horses have more than a right to a say in this matter. However, there is something highly illogical about TC preps being Graded the same as the actual TC races. However, they don't carry the same weight, or anything close, in terms of commanding breeding attention.

I don't care a great deal either about the whole thing but I do find the entire system greatly flawed. I wish there was a way to objectively grade all races at the end of the year, after they have been run, and after we have seen what kinds of horses actually comprised the fields. One of the main problems, of course, with this is the same people with questionable judgement, and personal agendas, would be doing the post race rating as well. Thus, all in all, I guess I would have to agree that it just doesn't matter or isn't really worth wasting much time over. However, wasting my time is my full time job.

I brought up the idea of grading races at the end of the year a long time ago to a semi-prominent trainer on the Southern Cal circuit. He said that he thought it was a good idea but that one of the main problems we'd have if we did that was that if we thought the problem of top horses ducking each other was already a problem, it would become even moreso by grading races after. Take the situation in 2003. As much as I wanted to condemn Mineshaft's being selected for HOY because he beat NOBODY and the only time he faces another horse that was considered one of the top 6-7 older males (Perfect Drift), he lost, I had to at least acknowledge that his people put him in the races that were considered the best races during the second half of the year. That nobody chose to face him in those races wasn't their fault. Now, if there was no grading until the end of the year, the connections of several different horses could pick and choose their spots and stay away from other top horses and make the claim that the race they went in was the best race and the others ducked them. At least by knowing ahead of time what the grades are, we know which races are supposed to be the best ones and where the best horses are supposed to go.