With several historic races losing their lustre, the US Graded Stakes system does not revere any sacred cows – unlike its bloated counterpart in Europe, it seems
Everyone likes a quiz. What do Man o’ War, Smarty Jones and Goldikova have in common? Same thing as Forty Niner, Smile, Swale and Hill Prince, same thing as Desert Stormer, Kona Gold, Royal Heroine and Prioress.
Four legs? Tail? Repository of happy memories? Mind, you’d need to be 175 to have any clear recollection of Prioress, so that’s probably the wrong tree to bark up.
Give up? Each of these fine horses, of varying denominations of greatness, has their name attached to a race to be run in the US in 2024, and in every case ‘their’ race has been downgraded – among a host of other changes to the schedule – by the TOBA American Graded Stakes Committee.
The headline change is to the Man o’ War, which has been a G1 race on turf since the ranking system was introduced in 1973 but will be run as a G2 in 2024, one of five races so downgraded this year.
How are the mighty fallen; the Man o’ War at Belmont Park, commemorative of one of the absolute greats of the sport, stripped of the larger part of its prestige with all the brusqueness of a parade-ground cashiering.
Such a demotion can be viewed as both harsh and fair. Harsh because of the cachet of Man o’ War himself and also of a skein of top-class winners of the race that include Secretariat, Dahlia, Theatrical, Daylami and Fantastic Light; fair because the standard of the race has dipped markedly in recent years, concomitant with the general decline in potency of the turf division Stateside.
The 2023 winner was the nine-year-old gelding Red Knight, gaining his only success at the top level in a 38-race career. It is a similar story for the previous two winners Highland Chief and Channel Cat, one-hit wonders at G1 level thanks entirely to the increasingly easy pickings afforded by the ailing Man o’ War.
Malaise of the turf scene
The race had ceased to showcase G1 quality, and paid the price. The malaise of the turf scene in the US has also led to this year’s downgrading of the former G1 lawn showpieces United Nations (Monmouth Park) and Beverly D. (Colonial Downs, erstwhile Arlington) – although conversely the only race upgraded from G2 to G1 for 2024 is also a turf race, the Franklin-Simpson, a sprint at Kentucky Downs where purses have increased exponentially in the last two or three years.
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More fair than harsh, then. If the system of racetrack prestige denoted by G1, G2, G3 is to have any relevance, it should reflect the present rather than the past, however glorious that past may be.
The actions of the US administrators are refreshingly decisive in comparison with their counterparts in Europe, where the most recent downgrading from G1 came in 2019, when the Premio Lydia Tesio lost its status amid the ongoing dilapidation of the sport in Italy, which no longer stages a G1 contest.
The European Pattern Committee has yet to announce its alterations for 2024 but it would be truly remarkable if any G1 were to be downgraded despite the bloated nature of the system.
It is far more likely that races will be upgraded – the unnecessary quest for a G1 over seven furlongs in Britain is expected to conclude with the promotion of the City of York, which was a Listed contest as recently as 2015.
What goes up very rarely comes down, at least as far as the European Pattern is concerned. The Europeans prefer the cosmetic approach to their annual surgery, a nip here, a tuck there, while the Americans favour the expediency of the battlefield, a speedy amputation to give the patient a fighting chance.
Surely this is a better method, serving the horse population – declining, generally – and the purpose of a system designed to reward and identify the best horses out there. There are no sacred cows in the US, no right of tenure, the Henry Ford doctrine regarding history adopted wholeheartedly.
Take the Woodward, which has a far starrier honour roll than the Man o’ War, possibly one of the most glittering in the whole canon. Kelso, Gun Bow, Buckpasser, Damascus, Forego times four, Seattle Slew, Affirmed, Spectacular Bid, Slew o’ Gold, Alysheba, Easy Goer, Holy Bull, Cigar, Ghostzapper, Curlin – to cherry-pick its past heroes is to strip the tree.
Watershed moment
Yet after 2017 the quality of the race dropped precipitously, and in 2023 the Woodward was downgraded to G2 status. It was a watershed moment – arguably akin to demoting the Eclipse in Britain, which may actually soon be something to consider as the race struggles to attract runners during a summer blizzard of similar G1 contests.
If they come for the Woodward and the Man o’ War, they can come for anything apart from the Triple Crown races and the Breeders’ Cup. And that’s not a bad thing. Who does it hurt?
Vexed bettors will not prowl the enclosures brandishing placards reading ‘Give us back our G1 Man o’ War’. There is still prize-money and prestige to be earned for owners, trainers and jockeys, just not so much in the old familiar places.
Here and there a racing historian may blot away a nostalgic, rose-tinted tear, but it must be remembered that the Graded-stakes system is an artificial construct that was designed with adaptability in mind – and fashions change.
The Vosburgh, a G1 as recently as 2019 and won for the last two years by champions Elite Power and Cody’s Wish, will be a G3 in 2024. The Man o’ War may follow a similar trajectory, or it may stabilise, or it may even rebound and regain its former top-level status in the future.
Neither has fallen as far – and may never do – as another race tucked unobtrusively away near the bottom of the bulletin of thumbs-ups and thumbs-downs supplied by the American Graded Stakes Committee.
The Baltimore/Washington International Turf Cup at Pimlico was once one of the most famous races in the world in its original guise of the Washington DC International at Laurel Park, but it has now been shorn of its G3 status and will be run in 2024 as a mere Listed contest.
Sorely misplaced
In 2022, Mike Rogers, the acting president of the Maryland Jockey Club, spoke with optimism about the race’s future, optimism that has proved to be sorely misplaced.
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“There have been many discussions and ideas over the years on revitalising the race,” he said. “The evolution of the race and the opportunity for a fresh generation to experience it and make it their own is part of ensuring a successful future for our sport.”
That process of evolution has left the Baltimore/Washington International Turf Cup on the endangered species list, facing extinction. Indeed, perhaps it might be kinder to kill it off, that tack being almost preferable to reopening the old wound of nostalgia every year simply to rub in the salt of the race’s continuing dishevelment.
Yet even this is evidence of the system working, democracy on the hoof, the sport adapting to the current climate and building for the future. It is a natural process, for in order to move forward we must always leave something behind.
The Man o’ War is simply the latest example. Sometimes even the mighty must fall. We hear the crash, contemplate the wreckage, and wonder what might come next. Who will be the answers to next year’s quiz?
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