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Originally Posted by tector
Well, I can't speak for others, all I can say is that I never criticized the layoff for Zenyatta per se. But it did leave them just a few races, and they chose those races way too conservatively, until the last one.
Really, there are only a handful of non-turf (can't call them dirt) CA races that have cachet throughout the country--and part of that cachet relates back to when they were contested on dirt:
Big Cap
SA Derby
Hollywood Gold Cup
Pacific Classic
The Ancient Title and Goodwood used to be held in very high regard as BC preps, on dirt. Now they are only relevant for a plastic BC, which I don't expect to see again soon, especially if SA goes back to dirt (but then both of these preps will be back on dirt, too).
That's about it. The Malibu, Pat Obrien, etc--some people know them, some don't. And the whole slew of "san" and "santa" races are just a jumble to people who didn't grow up watching them. And almost nobody ships into them. Everybody ships to the Haskell, for example.
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I grew up watching a lot of them but the sans and santas do smudge together...
The big ones sans Derby you mentioned would have been a good pinata for Zenyatta to take a stab at ---lots of quality history and prestige ...
Shipping to California does seem to be a thing of the widening past..
Bid and even Cigar seem light years off now ...
Sadly agree ...