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Originally Posted by Pedigree Ann
Marathon - give it a couple of years before you condemn the Marathon. The best US runner at the distance - Delosvientos - was not there because his owner's Seventh-Day Adventist beliefs wouldn't let him run it on a Saturday. Another major contender, Evening Attire, was injured and retired. EA is a 10yo and if this race had come along a few years back, you would have seen something. We haven't had the structure of races to identify and promote 12f dirt horses since the 1960s; its a lot to expect us to find anything world-beating right off the bat.
Yes, we in the US consider anything up to 7f a sprint, even up to 8f if it is around one turn. But before now, we hadn't had any category for milers; you were a sprinter, or you ran in 9f-10f races with the big boys. Choosing Santa Anita for the debut of the turf sprint was a bad choice; its unique configuration gives a huge advantage to horses with a race over the course.
The Main Track Mile was a bad idea. The sprint at 6f was a bad idea that has changed the breed for the worse. If they want a race for horses who can't manage the classic, they should have a single one at the longest one-turn distance the track can manage up to 8f, be it 6.5f, 7f, or 7.5f. A consolation prize.
Square Eddie has a North American pedigree so it may just be that he appreciates going around two turns rather than one or none. (He is inbred to the Champion Broodmare Smartaire, a mare from Fred Hooper's Alabama operation.) I told everybody I could that 'Danetime over an Efisio mare' did not translate into an 8.5f winner, but not enough listened.
They use pacemakers in the Arc, the KGQE, the various Derbies, why not in the Breeders' Cup? And this is no 'World Championships'. Northern Hemisphere, maybe, but Euro participation is spotty (some top ones show up, but not most don't) and Japanese is sporadic (a horse every couple of years). And no current Southern Hemisphere animals will ever take part, since the BC conflicts with their spring classic season; only animals that have been sold overseas show up. Dubai is the closest to a 'World' meeting.
Like many US horses who have raced there, Curlin hasn't seemed as good a horse since he came back from Dubai. It is an odd phenomenon, but that trip seems to take a lot out of horses who run particularly well there.
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I'll take your points in turn:
I will give the Marathon a few years, but boy does the standard need to improve. Muhannak, a horse who's previous best rating with us was 103 (on an artificial surface), a Breeders' Cup winner? That's verging on the ludicrous. The fact that he's won lends the race a stigma that it will do well to overcome.
What's wrong with a) intermediary distances and b) a sprint over a straight course?
I agree, a dirt mile offers little.
I don't think you can say that Square Eddie was beaten for stamina. He clearly ran his best race, improving for the step up in trip. The fact that I believe him to be second rate is by the by!
If this is no 'World Championships', why market it as such? Your point re pacemakers is fair; I was being churlish.
European horses don't tend to suffer this 'Dubai bounce syndrome'. Is it not more likely the case that the horse is simply regressive?