Grade II $750 K Delaware Handicap...Royal Delta vs Awesome Maria

[LarrytheK]

Saturday ...Delaware Park

Want a horse race?


Probables

Royal Delta..........124 lbs Highweight
Awesome Maria
Love and Pride

POSSIBLES

Cash For Clunkers
St. Johns River
Pachattack
Tiz Miz Sue
Afleeting Lady
Check Point

[Laurierace]

May never see a race as good as last year's rendition.

[LarrytheK]

Last year will be hard to top, but they have the horses to try...

[LarrytheK]

Last year will be hard to top, but they have the horses to try...

Horse vs Horse.......

Royal Delta -150
Awesome Maria +125

[janpal]

Shame this race isn't a G1 (and wasn't one last year, or the year before). More than a shame, really, as it smacks of intentionally slapping at a track.

Several wonderful horses have broken their maiden at Delaware. You'd think they would have gotten the message of the quality participating on that track by now.

[dustino140]

Shame this race isn't a G1 (and wasn't one last year, or the year before). More than a shame, really, as it smacks of intentionally slapping at a track.

I take the counter-argument. Shame there are so many G1 races floating around that any time one draws a decent field for a few straight years it automatically deserves an upgrade.

[sweettalk]

I take the counter-argument. Shame there are so many G1 races floating around that any time one draws a decent field for a few straight years it automatically deserves an upgrade.

shame there are so many g1 races that when a race truly deserves it, its knocked down by saying "there are already too many" as opposed to reassigning grades and fitting in a proper one like this

[dustino140]

shame there are so many g1 races that when a race truly deserves it, its knocked down by saying "there are already too many" as opposed to reassigning grades and fitting in a proper one like this

I don't assign grades, so it doesn't really matter what I think.

I do think there are too many Grade 1 races, though, and I think many races should have their grades reassigned. I think the whole graded stakes process is too arbitrary, and I'm quite ambivalent toward it. I think the intentions of the committee are generally well based, however I actually think they too often get caught up in the emotion of the decision too often and make changes for the sake of doing such.

Racing would probably be better off with fewer Grade 1 races, though. Nobody has still figured out how to explain to me that the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont are Grade 1 races, and the Wood Memorial, Blue Grass, Ark Derby, SA Derby, LA Derby, and FL Derby are also Grade 1 races. Keeping in mind that the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont haveabout 10x the importance of any of those races, it's somewhat baffling that those prep races carry the same grading as the ultimate goal. They're stepping-stone races, yet they're graded like they're on par with the Derby.

[Somnambulist]

I do think there are too many Grade 1 races, though, and I think many races should have their grades reassigned. I think the whole graded stakes process is too arbitrary, and I'm quite ambivalent toward it. .

There should be one G1 per (good) track, per distance. Even that has holes though. I've no solutions.

Is the Jamaica at Belmont still a G1? If there's ever a race that needs to be de-graded..

[Somnambulist]

I may've thought similar to you, Dustin, until I saw the problems trying to map out the schedules for top horses. It suddenly shows that there aren't as many opportunities at the distance, surface, and top grading as it may seem to us just looking on.

So ultimately I don't think it's as big of a problem as some think.

Too lazy to this myself.. I'm guessing you have an example?

[dustino140]

I may've thought similar to you, Dustin, until I saw the problems trying to map out the schedules for top horses. It suddenly shows that there aren't as many opportunities at the distance, surface, and top grading as it may seem to us just looking on.

So ultimately I don't think it's as big of a problem as some think.

I don't necessarily think it's a problem. Racing will go on for eternity with the system as it is, so it's hardly anything more, IMO, than a slight deficiency.

Personally, I want to see a scenario where Grade 1 wins are earned by beating legitimate Grade 1 competition. I've seen a lot of fields where a horse earns a Grade 1 score by beating a bunch of horses in over their head at that condition. I don't necessarily think we need to make it "difficult" to map out schedules for top horses, but I do think that there should be incentive in racing for the best horses to race against the best, and I think that limiting the opportunities to run for the must lucrative prizes will aid in that. And since there is no way to restrict tracks like Parx, Delta, Mountaineer, or Hoosier from throwing 500k, 750k, or 1000k at a race hoping it'll draw someone, I think the logical approach is to tweak the grading.

And heck, maybe if you make it tougher to win a Grade 1...more horses will stick around to try and win one. That's just a pipedream, though.

To me, it's just somewhat confusing. What type of message is it that the Kentucky Derby is a Grade 1, and just about every 'final' Kentucky Derby prep race is also a Grade 1? The rest is, frankly, almost too arbitrary to wrap my head around. For example, the Arkansas Derby was upgraded to Grade 1 status following its 2009 rendition. I know that race was a lightning rod for the "why isn't it a Grade 1" crew, but I find the timing more baffling. Between 2004-2008, Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, Lawyer Ron, and Curlin won the race. In 2008 and 2009, the winners were Gayego and Papa Clem. The year it was upgraded (2009), the field was Papa Clem, Old Fashioned, Summer Bird, Win Willy, Flying Private, Flat Out, Poltergeist, Captain Cherokee, Danger to Society, and Ziegfeld. The 2008 field was even worse (best horses that year, Gayego, Tres Borrachos, Z Fortune, My Pal Charlie). So what happened in 2009 to put that race over the hump? Summer Bird? I'd find that a bit less arbitrary if he wasn't 26/1 in that race and was a MSW winner at the time.

But like I said, it's all very arbitrary. I'm sure Delaware will get an upgrade more often than not. Until then, I'd rather see a Grade 2 field with two legitimate talents than I would a Grade 1 field without it. The number doesn't much matter. Kudos, I think, to Pletcher for lining Awesome Maria up against Royal Delta at a distance that, in theory, should help the latter infinitely more than the former.

My biggest question is will Delaware get 5 entrants?

[TapitsGal]

Love Awesome Maria but am hoping Tiz Miz Sue does well here if she goes as she's a favorite

[janpal]

Love Awesome Maria but am hoping Tiz Miz Sue does well here if she goes as she's a favorite

Hoping for a battle down the stretch between RD and Maria, similar to last year's. Wouldn't that be AWESOME!

[second_glance]

@GrahamMotion: Pachattack has been entered in the Del Cap. Not crazy about taking on R Delta & A Maria but she should love the 11/4, now just need a jockey

[Man o' Taz]

Too lazy to this myself.. I'm guessing you have an example?

Let's take Havre De Grace's 2011 campaign as a for instance...

If she just wanted to run in Grade 1 9 furlong races or more as a 4 year old on the East Coast on dirt she has a pretty limited opportunity...

Apple Blossom
Ogden Phipps
Personal Ensign
Beldame

A race like the Del Cap which used to be a Grade 1 is not included and it has had top fields.

[second_glance]

7 entries.

@Alex_Brown: Morning line for Delaware Handicap: Royal Delta 7-5, Awesome Maria 9-5, Paccattack, 6-1, Cash for Clunkers, 8-1

The field:

http://twitpic.com/a91gar

[Ty88]

None of the above: Love and Pride.

[curtisw]

I take the counter-argument. Shame there are so many G1 races floating around that any time one draws a decent field for a few straight years it automatically deserves an upgrade.

I'm with you over on the dark side. I'd blow up the system altogether and just not grade anything. In many ways the grading system makes horse racing too much like College Football's BCS--and that's not a good thing. Tracks like Delaware are like the Mountain West Conference. We didn't seem to have too much trouble separating the wheat from the chaff before 1973. I don't see how the grading system has really helped.

[Man o' Taz]

Very sorry I will not be there.

[Paladin]

Delaware Park - July 21, 2012
Race 10 - 5:45 PM
Delaware H. (Grade II)
Purse $750,000. For Fillies And Mares Three Years Old And Upward. One And One Fourth Miles.

PPHorseJockeyWgtTrainer
1 Royal Delta (KY) M E Smith124W I Mott
2 Tiz Miz Sue (KY) J Rocco, Jr.114S Hobby
3 Cash for Clunkers (KY) A Garcia114R A Violette, Jr.
4 Daring Reality (KY) 112C A Lynch
5 Pachattack (KY) 118H G Motion
6 Awesome Maria (KY) R A Dominguez121T A Pletcher
7 Love and Pride (KY) J Rose115T A Pletcher