What is the purpose of Group and Grade 1 races? The general, logical and sensible idea is that the top-level contests are staged to determine champions who run fastest, are physically and mentally the strongest, have the best attitude and instinct to racing - and are sound and healthy.
In other words, they’re deciders to find the horses most likely to enhance the quality of the Thoroughbred. So obviously it’s important that all top-flight races be staged on a level playing field.
But they’re not.
Imagine a final at Roland Garros or Wimbledon, where Rafael Nadal meets a young, rising star who has yet to win a big tournament. The organisers decide that, because Nadal has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles and his opponent hasn’t won any, Nadal will be 0-30 down at the beginning of each game. In another match, a player is given permission to take extra breaks because he is a bit immature and becomes rather nervous on big occasions.
Ridiculous, of course. Which is why it puzzles me that such things happen all the time in racing.
Why did Domestic Spending and Colonel Liam, for instance, carry more weight than their rivals in the G1 Manhattan Stakes at Belmont Park on Saturday? Why should a contender for a Guineas at Newmarket be allowed to be accompanied by a pony in the paddock and also on the way down to the start? Why should two contenders be permitted to wear hoods in the preliminaries, one to wear it in the race, and one be allowed to go down early for the G1 Epsom Oaks, where two of the more recent winners of the G1 Derby have worn cheekpieces?
And does it make sense, given that it is a race staged in order to ‘enhance the breed’, to see two runners both wearing blinkers fighting out the finish to the G1 Belmont Stakes?
It's just the way things are, isn't it? Though perhaps we should say it is ‘how things have become’.
The G1 Melbourne Cup, meanwhile, is just about as uninteresting as the Grand National, handicap contests where the best performance is all too often produced by a horse who is beaten. Of course, they are great spectacles and sometimes put the sport on the front pages and in prominent slots on the TV news reels, but giving a handicap G1 status … what’s all that about?
When the 2019 winner of the Melbourne Cup, Vow And Declare, pipped Master Of Reality by a head, he carried 52 kg, the lowest weight in the 24-runner race and 2 kg (about 4lbs) less than the horse he beat so narrowly. The weight spread in the race was 5.5 kg (just over 12lbs).
Back to Belmont Park on Saturday - and the latest edition of the ‘Met Mile’, the G1 Metropolitan Handicap, won by Silver State from By My Standards. This is one of the toughest dirt races in the world, and often referred to as a ‘stallion maker’.
Is this in the true spirit of the sport?
What many seem to overlook, however, is that, like the Melbourne Cup, the Met Mile is also one of the world’s most unfair championship races.
This year’s winner carried 120lbs, while the runner-up shouldered 122lbs and the favorite, Knicks Go, was assigned 6lbs more than the winner. Traditional handicapping says that 6lbs equals about 3 lengths over a mile. Knicks Go was beaten 3¼ lengths. Mischevious Alex checked in three parts of a length further back in third, while spotting By My Standards 2lbs and Silver State 4lbs. At level weights, this race could easily have turned into a photo finish between four horses.
Look back on the 2018 result of the Metropolitan, and you will find that Mind Your Biscuits lost by a nose to Bee Jersey, who enjoyed a 4lb pull at the weights. Mind Your Biscuits was undoubtedly the best horse on the day. Was it in the true spirit of sport that he had to concede weight?
The Manhattan is another championship race where horses are denied the opportunity to meet at level weights. Race conditions for this ten-furlong turf contest are somewhat bizarre: Weights, 124 lbs. Non-winners of $165,000 twice or $500,000 at a mile or over in 2020-21 allowed 2 lbs; of $165,000 at a mile or over in 2020-21 allowed 4 lbs; of $110,000 twice at a mile or over in 2020-21 or a Graded sweepstake twice at a mile or over in 2021 allowed 6 lbs.
How this makes sense is hard to fathom, not just because it wipes fairness aside on the day, but also since these races are ‘Win and You’re In’ contests for the Breeders' Cup.
Unfair advantages
It looks rather strange that horses running in championship events can be fitted with blinkers, hoods or cheek pieces, wear shadow rolls, ear plugs and bandages – and also have the help of a pacemaker. If a horse is sound, well balanced, genuine and mentally strong, does it need extra equipment? Blinkers and shadow rolls are not fitted to add extra spice to the appearance, we all know that much.
Pacemakers are not thrown as a ‘the more the merrier’ approach either. One sometimes hears comments like, ‘pacemakers make the races fairer’. In some cases that may have some credence, but I guess we have all sussed out why a trainer runs a pacemaker in a race where he sends out a strong contender. It is to help his main contender, nothing more, nothing less - whether that is by setting fast fractions, or to go to the lead then try slowing things down (sometimes stacking the field up, causing a falsely run race).
Allowing pacemakers gives the big operations an unfair advantage as they will always have a group of horses to pick from when they need one. The smaller trainer, who finally has a top-class horse in his care, might not have a single horse in his stable that could do the job. A horse that wins a valuable race with the help of a pacemaker has, in effect, been a winning player on a team, and team tactics are normally forbidden. Go figure.
When it comes to the use of blinkers and other equipment to help a horse, it could be argued that this is not an unfair practice because everyone who has a runner in a G1 has the option of declaring the horse with such equipment. Fine, but is it ideal for the breeding industry to get more and more stallions and broodmares who won championship events with such help? Would it not be preferable if horses that ran without any such help were given well deserved, dominant roles at stud, while the standings of animals that were not the real deal were rightfully downgraded?
Connections of horses fitted with blinkers are often quick to furnish members of the media with quotes like “he is not ungenuine in any way, he just needs something to help him focus”. At the same time, we often see blinkers being removed asap before a horse enters the winner’s circle and is about to get photographed.
The importance of mental strength
A Thoroughbred’s mental strength is an important factor. But is it camouflaged by the way our championship races are being staged, as the use of hoods, often called pacifiers, and earplugs etc are allowed?
When a horse is allowed to go early down to the start, that is because of a mental issue. Even more remarkable observations have been made prior to G1 events at Newmarket as contenders have been accompanied by ponies in the preliminaries, even on the way down to the start. Their trainers were not bending the rules, though quite often some are happy to do so. On a regular basis, horses come very late into the paddock and, for races where there is a parade, runners have sometimes broken the parade. The trainer is given a fine, but why not disqualify the horse? After all, taking part in the parade is stipulated in the race conditions. If a rider weighs in light, a fine is not the only punishment.
Horseracing is striving to become clean, to improve its image. In certain jurisdictions, the situation has become rather dire. The use of medication is at the forefront of this ugly beast, doing its level best to kill the sport, but it is sadly not the only issue.
These matters can be rectified, though not without a seriously strict stance being taken by regulators. Perhaps, while they are at it with a major cleaning task anyway, they should also address all this unfairness.