[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Nascar1966

Ive been following this great sport for years now. Let me ask you this if an American won a race like the Prix De La Arc Triomphe do you think it would will the Cartier Award off of just that one European start. Probably not. I dont think its right to reward a horse who has just one North American start. The list of the winners you i do remember especially the High Chaparral's dead heat with Johar. That was the year that Richard Mandella won four Breeders Cup race on one day. You gave a pretty opinion and I respect it, but I must say I also disagree with it.

I can't comment completely on the question that you asked because I don't know the necessary criteria needed to be considered for a Cartier. I'd like to hope that the Europeans are smarter in this area and have made it mandatory to have the majority of your starts in Europe or at least more than one but I don't know. I do know that if an American went over and won once, he wouldn't win any awards but again, I don't know if it's because of rules or because they have more common sense. I wish the Americans did also. I personally don't like the fact that a one-time winner can walk away with the award and think the criteria should be changed. However, until it is, I also have a hard time not supporting a Euro winner. The criteria simply says that a horse has to have made at least one NA start and it's hard for me, in a situation like Raven's Pass vs. Big Brown, to believe that Raven's Pass is not the most deserving. I believe his one start was better than Big Brown's best was. Also, it's unfair to stop giving awards to current horses when others have won it without changing the system. One thing that the Euros would never do is open the floodgates from the start, which the Americans did. If you don't want to award Conduit this year, they should have never awarded any of those past winners.