Derby replaces graded earnings with point system

[NTamm1215]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

I've been thinking about the silliness of this new system for the last few days. Envision the horse who breaks his maiden impressively at DMR, takes the Del Mar Futurity second out, and wins the Norfolk with ease in his third start (10 points). The horse racing world would be buzzing about said horse. Horse has a minor fever and is held out of the Breeders Cup, but is well enough to come back and run a very game second in the Cashcall Futurity (four points). After a freshening, the same horse comes back and airs in the Robert B. Lewis (10 more points), but has all kinds of trouble and ends up fourth in Santa Anita Derby (10 points).

After all of that, this horse would have easily made the Derby under the old system, but under the new system, he's very much a fringe candidate. And for the casual fan who just happened to catch the maiden breaker at DMR and as a result has been following the horse into his 3YO career, it would be difficult to explain why such a clearly talented animal is missing the field.

I'm going to need a cheat sheet to understand Derby entry come 2013.

There is absolutely no way that a horse with 34 pts is missing the Derby. None. It's also highly unlikely he is a fringe player. This 40 pt number is hysterical. It's like saying under the old system you needed 500k to get in the gate.

More importantly, this hypothetical horse's trainer could have easily started him between the Lewis and SA Derby. It's OK for horses to be run more than twice before the Kentucky Derby.

[slotdirt]

Horses aren't machines. Stuff happens. What if a horse lost a week of training time because of a minor ailment between the Robert B. Lewis and SA Derby?

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by NTamm1215

There is absolutely no way that a horse with 34 pts is missing the Derby. None. It's also highly unlikely he is a fringe player. This 40 pt number is hysterical. It's like saying under the old system you needed 500k to get in the gate.

More importantly, this hypothetical horse's trainer could have easily started him between the Lewis and SA Derby. It's OK for horses to be run more than twice before the Kentucky Derby.

Yeah.

The person who started that idiotic 40 points cut-off stuff was Churchill Downs communications director Darren Rodgers.

The system is stupid and the Chuchill people who claim they did "extensive research" in the USA Today piece aren't very bright to say the least.

[10 pnt move up]

Originally Posted by NTamm1215

It's OK for horses to be run more than twice before the Kentucky Derby.

Thanks, that was the point I was making early on, maybe being ultra conservative race 2 times in the 5 months prior to the Derby might be given a second thought.