Competitive racing is being ruined by there being too many Group 1 races. Getting a Group 1 victory used to mean something as your horse was running against the best. Now they are just trial races for these ridiculous Championship races run in October. While the Coventry being raised to a Group 1 would not dramatically affect the equilibrium of 2yo racing I just don't see the justification for it. The horses in it are just the most precocious of a mainly immature bunch of horses. What would it signify by making it Group 1 over what we already know? There should be one Group 1 race over 6f for 2yos and we have that in the Middle Park. Sure, the French have their Prix Morny in late August. Two 6f Group 1 races over 6f in Europe is quite enough. What would be gained by another one? The Pattern in Europe has been messed up by too many Group races giving easy stepping stones to some future race. They deny the racegoer worthwhile competition. True Group 1 horses used to have to run in Group 2s or not run at all. In those races true champions proved their worth by giving weight away.
Bustino, you’re right what you say about “these ridiculous Championship races run in October.” Likewise, Cheltenham in March has meant an even worse effect on National Hunt Racing. Progressively it has torn asunder the winter game by becoming the “ be all and end all” instead of the “cream on the cake.” Trainers don’t run their top horses in handicaps and, even after only one run, talk of “putting them away for Cheltenham.” They run an average of three to five times a season. I ask you. Is that racing? Don’t they remember horses like Stalbridge Colonist who ran fifteen times one season, winning eleven, or Dextra Dove which won seventeen handicaps in his career? Furthermore, trainers seem obsessed with the “going.” Perhaps they should remember that the greatest steeplechaser in our lifetime, Arkle, carried 12st 10lbs in handicaps on all types of ground. That says it all. What we have today was epitomised by that pathetic meeting at Ascot last Friday and Saturday. It wasn’t even worth switching on the TV!
This coming Saturday demonstrates the point perfectly Tam. The race formerly know as the Henessey currently has 27 entries and yet the highest rated is Monty's Star on 159. Its not so long ago that we had Cheltenham Gold Cup winners Native River, Bobs Worth and Denman (twice ) taking Hennessy glory but the race just doesn't seem to attract the really high class horses any more. There are simply too many graded races for them to aim for. Grey Dawning should have running at Newbury instead of trotting round Haydock on the snaff.
