Watered down Graded Stakes

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Since 2004, there have been a grand total of zero horses to win at least one Graded Stakes race and make more than ten starts in Graded Stakes races in the same year.

In the year 1996 alone - 7 different horses managed to do just that. Serena's Song made 15 starts in Graded Stakes, Diplomatic Jet 14, Shoop 14, Mecke 13, Editor's Note 12, Victory Speech 12, and Honour And Glory 11.

In 1996, 58 different horses who won atleast one Graded Stakes race that year made 11 or more starts that year alone in all races .. ungraded stakes, alw, etc included. I don't have an ARM or Graded Stakes yearbook with last years runners in it .. but I would expect the number to be 5 or less as opposed to the 58 it was in 1996.

Not only are good horses racing dramatically less often over the last 12 to 15 years ... but their connections seem to be trying much harder than ever to avoid facing other good horses ... and worst of all - the number of Graded Stakes appear to be fairly consistent in number to where they were about 12 to 15 years ago.

I guess this best explains how a field like last weekends Haskell could be described as an all-time great field .. only to see a strong favorite winner run no faster than nobuddy 4yo Omniscient did earlier in the day, a strong second choice in the betting running 2nd in his Graded Stakes debut, and a 1-for-9 3rd place finisher get his 4th straight Grade 1 placing.

With the way horses are being campaigned now - you'd have to eliminate a huge number of Graded Stakes races to almost force them into coming together to counter the watering down effect. That's obviously not going to happen.

Thankfully, admirably consistent top class horses like Rachel Alexandra, Zenyatta, Quality Road, Gio Ponti, Lookin At Lucky, Eskenderya, Blind Luck, Devil May Care, Rail Trip, and Blame have all been there for us to deny a pile of truly despicably unworthy horses from winning important Grade 1 races.

These top class slayer of slowpokes have combined to prevent so many miserable bums from winning Grade 1 races .. that I think we should all give them a round of applause.

Gio Ponti just had a horse who was defeated in a 35K claimer last out run 2nd to him in a Grade 1 .. but who can forget his fine work last year, when he denied Grade 1 wins from such swine 2nd place finishers as Marsh Side, Muskatieer, and Just As Well ... if only he could have outdueled Interpretation!

The watering down process of these big races have obviously allowed top horses of today to put together big resumes so much easier than top horses who raced even 10 years ago had to deal with.