I don't like to be characterized by repeated rants but I figure it's been a while since I've expressed some frustration at how my beloved Breeders' Cup is changing for the worse. I've always been a big fan of the Breeders' Cup and I've decided that I'm part of the problem because no matter how much I dislike the changes I'm still going to get excited about racing's championship day and I'm still going to support it.
But even my great affection for the Breeders Cup doesn't fully gloss over the logical inconsistencies we're being served. Focus for a moment simply on the line up of races.
The Dirt Mile will not be run on Dirt.
The Marathon is being run at the upper end of the classic distance band. Everywhere in the world, including America, Marathon's start at 1 3/4 miles.
There are three versions of the Sprint and all of them are different distances. The Filly and Mare Sprint is 7f, the Turf Sprint is 6.5f and the Sprint is 6f.
They have tried to create parallel races for males and females and the Classic is longer than the Ladies Distaff, the Turf is longer than the FM Turf but the Sprint is shorter than the FM Sprint. So please explain the logic to me.
The Breeders' Cup also tries to loosely mirror the main track races with Turf races. The Turf is longer than the Classic and the FM Turf is longer than the Ladies Classic. That makes sense, since in general Turf horses are known for having more stamina. But then why are the main track juvenile races longer than the juvenile turf races?
It's almost as if someone just randomly assigned the distances of the various races. I'd actually prefer to hear that they just didn't think about what they were doing rather than finding out that they gave it careful thought and this was the best they could come up with. I'd rather believe that the people controlling the greatest day in racing are just negligent instead of flat out stupid.
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4 comments:
My dad once told me,
"You can crap in one hand and wish in the other. See which one fills up faster."
I don't think the BC knows enough to be negligent.
Great points Kennedy, ones I don't think I've seen anyone else make. There's just so darn much rant about with the BC these days!
And Winston, did we grow up in the same house?
The reason for the difference in distance is probably due to the different configurations of the turf and main course and where the race would have to start from. At SA the F & M Turf Sprint was
6 1/2f because the sprints are all run on the downhill turf course.
There is no FM turf Sprint. The FM Sprint and the regular Sprint were both run on the main track at different distances. Configuration had nothing to do with it.
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