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Originally Posted by Linny
This race, like many others is a victim of trainers interest in more time between races. They want to space their horses' races at 6 week intervals and as such, the idea of Travers-Super Derby-Goodwood (or JCGC) is no longer acceptable.
September has become the "lost month" in racing, esp when the BC is late. Meets like Saratoga and Del Mar grab leading BC candidates with big money finales like the Pac Classic, Woodward, Travers plus big events for other divisions. After that, "six weeks" takes you into October and those big weekends at BEL, SA and KEE that Travis mentioned. From there, it's on to the Cup
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This point is spot-on. Trainers demand spacing...how many times in recent years have we seend...Travers to BC, Pac Classic to BC, Woodward to BC, ______ race to similar BC race.
This is part of the reason I look down on the arguments that races such as the Super Derby and others are drawing "bad fields" - it's comparing two completely different periods in horse racing. Even eight to ten years ago, I'd argue things were different.
Overall, the rest of the racing world is often completely different than North America on this fact as well. Horses might have longer layoffs (due to racing seasonality), but will often run a load of races in short periods of time.
Similarly, I can only hope that the declining auction receipts, as seen this week, will encourage a reduction in stud fees, which will result in horses racing longer so as to make their stud prospects more viable, and stand out versus others.