Rees addresses AGSC omission of Clark as G1 citing 'bias'..

[johnny pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Kasept

How can the Clark still be a Grade II?
http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs...-grade-ii.html

But wait... Instead of simply laying out the reasonable case for making the Clark a G1, she can't help but talk about 'bias' for East and West Coast interests...

"I really believe there is institutional bias built into the system, where New York and California have the advantage because those tracks have more graded races, which means more of their horses are graded placed, which helps those races keep their grading."

There's no AGSC bias more tilted than the one toward Lexington... I love Jennie, but the Committee kowtows to Keeneland like nobody's business. There has been constant pell mell upping of the grades of events at Keeneland for no especially apparent reason.

If she wants the Clark upped to a Grade 1, which I have no issue with, doesn't the Blue Grass deserve at this point to be reduced to a Grade 2? Or has General Quarters, Monba and Dominican done too much to keep the Blue Grass' reputation pristine?

i agree the blue grass is a non-prep event now and should be downgraded while the arkansas derby upgraded. keenland can blame the polycrap for that. the horses that win the blue grass have virtually no shot now at the derby. they usually run in the back of the pack. as for the events with the "older" horses included. the whole grade, 1, 2 or 3 system is a joke. there are not enough 4 yo's and up to fill the criteria. heck as far as grade ones go theres hardly none running this year. most retire after the 3 yo campaign. years ago, horses like macho again and bullsbay would be grade 3 at best. the smaller tracks she champions for are another part of the problem. i'll use gone astray as an example. he could not even win a grade 3 in ny but won a million dollar race in the penn. derby against garbage. thats why the bigger tracks get the preference. gone astray won two overhyped races against inferior competition. his competition in those races would have trouble winning allowance races here. thats the reason those big tracks get preference, the level of comp. my opinion is the whole grade 1, grade 2, grade 3 thing should be scrapped. half the time i can't see the difference. theres such a lack of strong horses that the "good" ones can show up in any of the three categories especially in the older ranks. where grade one is just a higher number on the same old bunch.