Quote:
Originally Posted by SniperSB23
Cause this isn't an improvement. This is declaring outright war on Oaklawn when those two tracks should be doing everything they can to compete with NY and California. A $750k Grade 2 eight weeks from the Kentucky Derby is a gold mine. It rules March and will attract the best horses. A $750k Grade 2 five weeks from the Kentucky Derby is just another Derby prep.
And let's not forget that the World Cup moves to synthetics next year so all the top dirt horses won't be a guarantee to go over there. That means between the Donn and the Met Mile there is a huge gap for races like the New Orleans Handicap and Oaklawn Handicap to gain G1 status. By having the two races compete with each other instead of feed into each other it assures that neither will get there anytime soon.
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Considering that Oaklawn has boosted the purses of the Southwest and Rebel (which have conflicted in the past with the Risen Star and Louisiana Derby), and that has drawn horses directly from Fair Grounds, it can be said that Oaklawn declared war on FG well before this. FG and Oaklawn have always had a love/hate relationship. FG has a better group of horses stabled on the grounds than Oaklawn does, and Oaklawn has been dependent on these horses vanning up to Hot Springs to enhance its stakes races. It used to be that there was a mass exodus of horses from FG when Oaklawn opened; that has not happened over the last 10 years.
I'm not holding my breath for the Graded Stakes Committee to designate any FG stakes a Grade 1. The FG Oaks and Mervin Muniz (especially when it was worth $700k) were among the top races in each stakes division for several years, but neither was ever graded past the Grade 2 level.