JC / Railbird

Breeders’ Cup Archive

Instant Reaction …

To the Breeders’ Cup announcement that the event will feature an all-female day of racing on Friday, that the Breeders’ Cup Distaff will be renamed the Ladies’ Classic, and that the Breeders’ Cup will be partnering with organizations to host “cause-related programs focused on women’s health” the same day:
– An all-female day of great racing is a great idea (as suggested by Superfecta months ago). [2/28 Addendum: Or maybe not so wonderful. Over on Left at the Gate, Alan worries the Friday move “threatens to make the Ladies second class citizens.”]
– Renaming the Distaff the Ladies’ Classic is a silly and very bad idea. The name change tosses tradition and manages to sound both trivializing and unpleasantly old-fashioned.
– Please, don’t put the pink ribbon on the saddle cloths. I’m all for women’s health, but women are more than their bodies. If the Breeders’ Cup is going to promote an all-female day of racing, let’s see positive expressions of women in the sport as horseplayers and horsewomen, not marketing tie-ins about women’s health issues.
More: Reactions abound across the blogosphere, some positive, some negative. “It smacks of sexism,” writes John on Not to the Swift. I second the sentiment.
Columnist Maryjean Wall also protests the changes: “Every time I think that maybe, just maybe, we might hope to get past genderizing our culture, I am reminded how we really only stand on the brink of tottering backward.”

Posted in Breeders' Cup on February 27, 2008

Beyers, Pre and Post BC

Intrigued by Steven Crist’s post comparing the Beyer figures Breeders’ Cup runners earned over the rain-soaked Monmouth surfaces on Saturday to their previous efforts, which included a chart showing that only 20 of 77 (26%) equaled or surpassed their last figure, I took a look at the 2006 and 2005 Breeders’ Cup numbers, and found that the 2007 percentage of non-progression, while it seems low and potentially indicative of horses not handling the slop or soft grass, might not be that far off. In 2006 (applying the same criteria as Crist), 22 of 86 (25.6%) runners matched or bettered their Beyers; in 2005, 26 of 81 (32%) did so:

What I find interesting about the numbers, and maybe more suggestive of horses not running their races, is the pattern of Beyers in each race and the difference between the two previous years, which were run over dry tracks, and 2007. There’s a flattening in the 2007 figures, with fewer big Beyer changes and no horse finishing worse than fifth showing any improvement. This year’s Classic is the race that appears most odd in comparison: Both 2006 and 2005 look formful, Beyer-wise, for all runners; 2007, not as much.
11/2 Addendum: A note from reader Richard raises a good point: “I think something unmentioned is the idea that most horses’ Beyer numbers are likely to go down when the competition toughens up. The BC participants’ prep races are versus softer competition and therefore they can perform better and earn a higher Beyer number. But as the numbers from the past three years show, stiffer competition separates the men from the boys, so the boys’ numbers regress while the men’s numbers get better.” Absolutely. There’s a relationship between class and speed that wasn’t addressed in this short post; it is very likely that the depth of Breeders’ Cup races results in regression for a number of starters, explaining why only a minority can match or better a previous performance, as measured by the figures. “Class will trump speed figures,” Richard writes, and while that’s not always so, it’s a heedful warning that relying too much on Beyers, or any one factor, will lead the handicapper astray, especially when talking about this level of racing …

Posted in Breeders' Cup on October 30, 2007

New York Dominates

– One of the can’t-miss stories of the Breeders’ Cup was the dominance of New York-prepped and based horses in every race. As Mike Watchmaker points out:

Nine of the 11 Breeders’ Cup race winners — Maryfield, Corinthian, Indian Blessing, War Pass, Lahudood, Midnight Lute, Ginger Punch, English Channel, and Curlin — made their last starts at either Belmont Park or Saratoga. This made for an imposing success rate for New York preps of 81.8 percent. And it should be noted that one of the other two Breeders’ Cup winners at Monmouth, Mile winner Kip Deville, is New York-trained. (DRF+)

Eye-catching stat. It’ll be interesting to see next year, when the Breeders’ Cup is run over the Santa Anita Cushion Track, if the results tilt toward synthetic-surface prepped horses and if trainers, anticipating that trend, send more horses west to run at Del Mar and Oak Tree.

– Let the Derby drums begin beating for War Pass: The undefeated Juvenile winner scored a Beyer speed figure of 113 for the race, which I suppose fits the final time of 1:42.76, but obscures how slow the colt came home, running the final sixteenth in :7.12 and the final quarter in :25.99. Something to keep in mind for next year as the Derby prep season heats up …

– Midnight Lute, for his brilliant last-to-first Sprint win, earned 108, off 16 points from his monster Forego performance last month. Trainer Bob Baffert said on Sunday that Midnight Lute would race next year and could possibly start once more this year, in the Cigar Mile. “We’ll play it by ear regarding one more possible start this season,” he said. “We’ll let him tell us” (DRF).

– Bill Finley has no confidence that Curlin will race as a four-year-old. “Racing is just like everything else these days. It’s always about the money” (ESPN).

– Ray Kerrison’s Breeders’ Cup day was “a fiasco rescued by some good luck” (New York Post). Mine was mostly fiasco.

– Owners begin transferring horses from trainer Patrick Biancone’s barn: Lady of Venice goes to Kiaran McLaughlin, Belgravia to Todd Pletcher (Blood-Horse).

Posted in Breeders' Cup on October 29, 2007