OUR READERS COMMENT – Year-to-date earnings condition unrealistic
EDITOR’S NOTE – A reader of the Complete Racing Guide responds to the new conditions announced last week for the 2016 running of the Diamond Mile. The reader is particularly concerned about the use of year-to-date earnings as the modus for choosing horses for the race.
Some of these condition changes were much needed and practical, BUT using year-to-date earnings makes no sense to me.
The competition between an average Grade 1 race and an Overnight or Allowance race is so enormous, and the minimal purse differences do not reflect it. When you consider that very few G1 races are written in a year and the length of time a Grade 1 winner is trapped in the top class, you leave an opportunity for lesser horses who won their conditions and are hard-knocking overnight/allowance horses to get in over them.
Why would they not use a points system like the Kentucky Derby or Breeders’ Cup? Doesn’t a horse who has won three Grade 1 races in a year (app. $1.7 mil) deserve for that to count more towards their Diamond Mile chances than a horse who wins out their conditions and an Overnight race (app. $2 mil earnings)? Makes no sense to me.
They should also ensure all races with automatic Diamond Mile qualification are set weight or condition races not handicapped. It makes no sense to reward a horse who wins by a nose with 50kgs on his back over a horse who ran with 57kgs.
To solve the problem as I see it, and if they wanted to use earnings that badly, they should have also rejected earnings from condition races (maiden to non-winners of four).
More practical conditions which would better account for the competition level differences would have been (for the current year):
Grade 1, Graded Stakes and 3-Y-O Classic races:
1st – 20 points
2nd- 15 points
3rd- 10 points
4th-7 points
Open allowance and Governor’s Cup:
1st- 10 points
2nd- 7 points
3rd- 5 points
4th-3 points
Overnight Allowance:
1st- 5 points
2nd- 3 points
3rd- 1 point
No other races should carry points, as winning or placing in any other race should not benefit your chances of being in the prestigious Diamond Mile.
Yours truly
Peter John Persard
