Whoo!!!!

After several years of trying, Delaware Park finally has a Grade 1 race again. The Delaware Handicap which is the crown jewel of the meet has earned the highest grade you can earn in American Thoroughbred racing. Also being upgraded is the Hopeful at Saratoga which was run as a G2 this year. Downgraded from G1 status where the Charlie Whittingham, Gazelle and Santa Monica. 

As someone whose hometrack is Delaware, I am very happy to see the DelCap be upgraded. It's been well deserved for the past few years, especially after this year's edition where Royal Delta went on to win the Beldame and BC Ladies Classic, and Love and Pride won the Personal Ensign and Zenyatta. Realistically, next year's field could be one of the best if all the major players (RD, Questing, My Miss Auriela, Tiz Miz Sue, Love and Pride) all show up. That will be awesome! Of course hopefully all of them will stay healthy. The prep for the DelCap, the Obeah will remain a G3, however I think if the winner or runner up in the race does well in the DelCap next year, it will get G2 status for 2014.

The Hopeful prob. should not have been downgraded for this year in the first place, but will be back to G1 status next year. What helped was that Currency Swap and Trinniberg the 1-2 from last year tore up the 3yo Sprint division with the latter ending his season with the BC Sprint title. And even though American Graded Stakes Committee looks at the first four finishers, I'm sure they also looked at this year's record of the 6th place finisher too. As that was none other then I'll Have Another. This year's Hopeful featured BC Juvenile winner Shanghai Bobby and Dover Stakes winner Vegas No Show (1/2 brother to Bullsbay).

As for the races that where downgraded, the Gazelle it was time. Since moving from Belmont to Aqueduct the field had been getting worse and worse. With making it now a G2, the quality could be more in line with the race conditions. I feel bad for the Whittingham, so that was a bit of suprise that was downgraded. As for the Santa Monica, that was a bit of a toughie as well since that was the only G1 for female sprinters on dirt in California (that is when the BC is not in the state).

Overall, the AGSC made to me the right moves. One of the hottest races for Older Females gets to be a G1, the premier Summer juvenile race is back on top and a race filled normally of second stringers was downgraded. So what do you guys think? Leave a comment for me to approve or tweet me at Twitter (@furlongdrive). 

Graded Stakes for Next Year- The Recap

Well yesterday the Graded Stakes for next year where announced. The biggest mover and shaker was that the BC Juvenile Turf was made a G1 while the Clement Hirsch Turf Championship was downgraded to a G2. The Juvy Turf now becomes the only Juvenile G1 that is run on turf, so it makes sense that it's a G1. However, I'm really disapointed that that was the only major change that they made.

I find the Juvy Turf a bit of an enigma of a race. Technically speaking, the American Graded Stakes committee is supposed to look at the entire field. However, for a minute lets just at the winners only.

Since the race was established in 2007, here is what the Winners have done since.

2007: Nownownow- Has won only once since
2008: Donativum- Has won only once since, did not make a start this year
2009: Pounced- Has not made a start since
2010: Pluck- being pointed too the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket

Now this race is getting better as time goes on. Still there is something when the top 2yo from this year Frankel (who is named for the late Bobby Frankel) doesn't come over.

As for the Clement Hirsch, it's a bit of a dispointment as that is the big California race for the BC.

What does the Fantasy and Delaware Oaks need to do in order to get the G1 destinction that both of those races deserve. There are some races like the Clark and Ashland that I don't think have the fields recently to show it was deserving of a G1 status. It doesn't help that I really don't care for either of those races.

Sigh, at least there's 2012.