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There is reason to argue for as many Group One races for sprinters as there are Group Ones for milers. Firstly there is a similar horse population of sprinters and milers in this country.
Australia where there is no "stigma" attached to sprinters have many more Group Ones. On the basis of international rankings there is not much between our sprinters and their’s.
In this country I believe that there is a handicapping bias in favour of milers and middle distance horses which results in them appearing to be superior.
You are quite right!
I have long thought I was the only person on the planet who realised that the annual parrot-cry of "the current crop of sprinters is no good" has generally been nonsense for many years.
The reason that we have so few really clear-cut sprint champions these days is that the division is just so competitive that it’s hard for one horse to dominate.
We often hear trainers (not just AOB!) chirping away about how their mile or middle distance Group 1 winner has anough speed to win the July Cup or the Nunthorpe, but they never seem to run them in these races, do they?
Just because something is parrot-cried, doesn’t make in untrue.
The sprinting division has lacked quality for many years, hence the Australian successes at Royal Ascot. Can anyone honestly imagine an English-trained sprinter of the last 7 or 8 years even contesting the Breeders Cup Sprint, never mind winning it like Sheikh Albadou, should-have-won-it like Dayjur or would-have-won-if-he-had-ran like Cadeaux Generaux. I mean, really?At least there are two of us now Venusian.
I thought for quite a while before deciding to just go ahead and post it anyway. There are so many people who listen to the rubbish in the media about the sprinters and accept it as fact.I think that I have heard "this is the poorest lot of sprinters for many years" every year I have been following them. Even when there were vintage crops eg Oasis Dream’s year.
Andy
I think you’d find it very hard to argue for Group 1 status for Group 2 races that
saw the likes of Finalmente, Balkan Knight, Bulwark, Geordieland etc… placed.Sprinters are being unfairly underrated. The two outstanding Australian sprinters Choisir and Takeover Target were only rated 121 and 120 respectively in the world rankings! Disgraceful imo.
Haydock goes heavy when someone throws it bucket of water on it.
Why dont they move the Temple Stakes too a track in Scotland, bump up the standerd up their.
I am glad they have bumped up The Kings Stand as it is a group one in all but name as was the queen anne for a long time.
As for stayers, like allot of horses they suffer from this stupid busness of having mega prizemoney in handicaps yet gsartbish prizemoney for stakes races, why show your true colirs in a say a 30k group race when you can win double that in handicap like the norththumberand plate or the ebor.
Too my mind no handicap run in the uk should carry more prize money than stake, period…
Hope this upgrade to G1 attracts the Far East boys
Would be great to see them, the Ozzies and that Hughie Morrison plodder
lining up at Royal AscotJust because something is parrot-cried, doesn’t make in untrue.
The sprinting division has lacked quality for many years, hence the Australian successes at Royal Ascot. Can anyone honestly imagine an English-trained sprinter of the last 7 or 8 years even contesting the Breeders Cup Sprint, never mind winning it like Sheikh Albadou, should-have-won-it like Dayjur or would-have-won-if-he-had-ran like Cadeaux Generaux. I mean, really?Why would someone with a top class European turf sprinter want to take on American horses on their home ground on Dirt. They would be at a huge disadvantage. Most are naturally slower from the stalls and are then hit by the kickback.
Australian sprinters have certainly done well over here at five furlongs but their record at six furlongs is much weaker.
End of season Timeform ratings:-
Sakhee’s Secret 128
Benbaun 127
Miss Andretti 127
Red Clubs 125
Desert Lord 124
Soldier’s Tale 124
Takeover Target 124
Dutch Art 124You seem to have fallen for the Aussie hype.
The management of Ascot have certainly done well over the past two decades, or so, in getting their races promoted to Group 1 status: the QE II, Fillies Mile, St James Palace, Coronation, Queen Anne, Prince of Wales, Golden Jubilee and Kings Stand. No other racecourse would have been able to fund the increase of prize money this has entailed. Especially as six of those named cannot be sponsored.
Rumour has it that Ascot has also been trying for a number of years to get the Hardwicke elevated to Group 1 status. The proximity of the Coronation Cup and the Grand Prix de Saint Cloud has probably thwarted their efforts so far.As AP has pointed out, there seems to be no racing related reason for the transfer of the Temple Stakes, but as Sandown have obviously wanted it off their balance sheet for a while it must be purely a financial matter.
And as AndyRAC points out Sandown’s race programme over jumps has been losing ground to its competitors for a while. Presumably the proximity of the Welsh National doomed the Mildmay Cazelet, although it did hang on for quite a while, and the Gainsborough Chase has been a casualty of the resurrected Compton (Aon) Chase at Newbury and the popularity of the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham.
Cheers AP, I was working strictly from memory, just remember Celtic Mill coming a cropper at Sandown with Frankie on board (and, indeed, on the ground) and thinking it must have been the Temple. You are probably right about the circumstances regarding the fall (I haven’t seen it since that day) but nevertheless it stands to reason that crowding causes falls and there is more crowding at Sandown over 5f than Haydock.
I agree the demise of the "old" NH program and chase course at Haydock is quite pathetic but don’t know enough about the politics to offer an opinion over how that impacts on which flat races they are awarded.
Great move for Haydock.
Could also help the 3yo sprinters by upping the grade of the Field Marshall Stakes (if they still run it) which was a 5f listed race for 3yos at Haydock run in April. Either way there’s a total lack of 3yo sprints.
The quality of the majority of staying races does not warrent another group 1, wish it did. I enjoy them very much, Gold Cup and Leger are two of my favourite races, but we must keep Group 1’s for the very best horses. Hopefully the breeding industry’s bias against the word STAMINA comes to an end soon.
Why has Newbury overlooked for the Temple Stakes? It is the fairest course in the country.
The King Stand deserves to be a Group 1 judged by previous winners.
My question about the King Stand and Golden Jubilee is this:Do Australian horses have an unfair advantage?
To ease the stress of the journey over, they are allowed to use steroids. These are not in their system when racing at Ascot. However, they have, surely been trained with the steroids still in their system over here. Do they have muscles where our sprinters don’t?Ginge
Value Is EverythingThere’s nothing to stop our trainers using drugs Ginge – as far as I’m aware there’s no out of competition drugs testing in racing so from an equine point of view as long as it’s out of the system by the time they race you’ll be ok. It does no good to the horse though and does cause nerve problems and fertility issues (from what I’ve been told by a good friend in Australia).
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