Irish Stamp
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Posted by Kennedy over at TB Champions
Half of each Breeders' Cup field is supposed to be determined by WAYI berths and graded stakes points. In the case of the new Juvenile Turf, the criteria might as well have been the number of unicorn horns on each colt's forehead: There wasn't a single Win-And-You're-In prep, and there hasn't been a single U.S. graded stakes race for 2-year-olds on the grass this year.
All of which makes the exclusion of Globetrotter from the body of the race, and his relegation to the #3 spot on the AE list, look like a whopper of a bad decision by the BC Selection Committee. Globetrotter, a 2-year-old Street cry colt owned by Earle Mack and trained by Graham Motion, is 2 for 2 and won the Grey Stakes at Woodbine, a Group 3 race under Canada's conservative grading system, in his second start. His earnings of $182,775 are the fourth highest among the 23 pre-entrants for the race and he is one of only five entrants with a graded or group stakes victory of any kind.
Yet he has been ranked 15th in a field that will be limited to 12.
The fact that there is not a single graded stakes on grass in the United States before the BC Juvenile Turf is one reason why the Breeders' Cup overstepped, and was properly rebuffed by the American Graded Stakes Committee, when it demanded the race be given Grade 1 status for its inaugural running. It's also the reason that Globetrotter, like race favorite Prussian, was sent to Canada to win a graded/group stakes. So he wins it, but then is ranked below five horses who have won nothing more than a maiden race.
Six of the 12 Juvenile Turf berths were supposed to go to either WAYI winners or graded-stakes points leaders. But there were no WAYI slots, and the only way to earn graded-stakes points was to run in main-track races. So a horse such as Preachin Man, who has never tried grass or gone beyond six furlongs, but was second in the Sapling on dirt, automatically got in; but Globetrotter needs three defections to get into a race for which he is eminently qualified. He's even ranked behind Your Round, who finished third in a G3 Canadian race (to Prussian) and then fourth in an ungraded stakes at Keeneland. It ain't right.
Selection order
Achill Island (IRE)
Cherokee Triangle
Domestic Fund (IRE)
Gio Ponti
Ibn Khaldun
Nownownow
Old Man Buck
Preachin Man
Prussian
Strike the Deal
Texas Fever
The Leopard
Not selected into the field and listed in order of preference by the Breeders' Cup Racing Directors/Secretaries Panel:
Shore Do
Your Round
Globetrotter
Annie Skates
Moral Compass
Cowboy Cal
Why Tonto
Horse Doctor
Cannonball
Overextended
Austintatious
One hell of a mess up from the Breeders Cup - think not letting Rio De La Plata run in the Dewhurst for an equivalent.
Half of each Breeders' Cup field is supposed to be determined by WAYI berths and graded stakes points. In the case of the new Juvenile Turf, the criteria might as well have been the number of unicorn horns on each colt's forehead: There wasn't a single Win-And-You're-In prep, and there hasn't been a single U.S. graded stakes race for 2-year-olds on the grass this year.
All of which makes the exclusion of Globetrotter from the body of the race, and his relegation to the #3 spot on the AE list, look like a whopper of a bad decision by the BC Selection Committee. Globetrotter, a 2-year-old Street cry colt owned by Earle Mack and trained by Graham Motion, is 2 for 2 and won the Grey Stakes at Woodbine, a Group 3 race under Canada's conservative grading system, in his second start. His earnings of $182,775 are the fourth highest among the 23 pre-entrants for the race and he is one of only five entrants with a graded or group stakes victory of any kind.
Yet he has been ranked 15th in a field that will be limited to 12.
The fact that there is not a single graded stakes on grass in the United States before the BC Juvenile Turf is one reason why the Breeders' Cup overstepped, and was properly rebuffed by the American Graded Stakes Committee, when it demanded the race be given Grade 1 status for its inaugural running. It's also the reason that Globetrotter, like race favorite Prussian, was sent to Canada to win a graded/group stakes. So he wins it, but then is ranked below five horses who have won nothing more than a maiden race.
Six of the 12 Juvenile Turf berths were supposed to go to either WAYI winners or graded-stakes points leaders. But there were no WAYI slots, and the only way to earn graded-stakes points was to run in main-track races. So a horse such as Preachin Man, who has never tried grass or gone beyond six furlongs, but was second in the Sapling on dirt, automatically got in; but Globetrotter needs three defections to get into a race for which he is eminently qualified. He's even ranked behind Your Round, who finished third in a G3 Canadian race (to Prussian) and then fourth in an ungraded stakes at Keeneland. It ain't right.
Selection order
Achill Island (IRE)
Cherokee Triangle
Domestic Fund (IRE)
Gio Ponti
Ibn Khaldun
Nownownow
Old Man Buck
Preachin Man
Prussian
Strike the Deal
Texas Fever
The Leopard
Not selected into the field and listed in order of preference by the Breeders' Cup Racing Directors/Secretaries Panel:
Shore Do
Your Round
Globetrotter
Annie Skates
Moral Compass
Cowboy Cal
Why Tonto
Horse Doctor
Cannonball
Overextended
Austintatious
One hell of a mess up from the Breeders Cup - think not letting Rio De La Plata run in the Dewhurst for an equivalent.
