A total of 455 of the 806 U.S. stakes races will be contested as graded events in 2018, nine fewer than the number of races that were graded in 2017, according to information released Friday by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA). That organization's American Graded Stakes Committee, comprised of six TOBA members and five racing secretaries from around the country, held its annual grading session Nov. 28 and 29 in Lexington.
The Delaware H. was the lone race downgraded from Grade I status, despite the race having been won in recent years by the likes of champions Royal Delta (Empire Maker) and Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro) when a Grade I event and Blind Luck, who defeated future Horse of the Year Havre de Grace when the Del 'Cap was a Grade II in 2012. A total of 106 races, or 23.3% of the graded races, will be contested at the highest level in the upcoming year. Seven races were downgraded from Grade II to Grade III status while an additional 11 races will be run with listed status in 2018, having been staged as Grade III tests in 2017. There are no new Grade I races for 2018. Seven races saw a hike from Grade III to Grade II, while there will be five new Grade III races-up from listed status-in the upcoming year.
One newly minted Grade III is the Kentucky Downs Ladies' Sprint S., now one of four graded events during the increasingly popular all-grass meeting at Kentucky Downs.
“This is the latest step in our evolution into an industry leader, and we are thrilled to offer four graded stakes in 2018 during our five-day meet,” said Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs' senior vice president and general manager. “Kentucky Downs will be well-positioned as a launching pad to the Breeders' Cup at Churchill Downs next fall. And we encourage stables joining us from outside the region bring other horses for our $130,000 maiden races and $140,000 or $145,000 allowance races.”
For 2018, the Committee also amended its eligibility requirements to make races previously run with a condition of “non-winners of a sweepstakes” and meeting all other eligibility requirements eligible for Listed black-type. These races will be designated as 'listed-restricted' and will be denoted as LR in sales catalogues produced by members of the Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers (SITA). Six races were upgraded to listed-restricted status for 2018: the C.E.R.F. S. at Del Mar; Clocker's Corner S. at Santa Anita Park; and Fasig-Tipton De La Rose S., Fasig-Tipton Lure S., Shine Again S. and Summer Colony S. at Saratoga.
The Affectionately S. and Evening Attire S. at Aqueduct; Sixty Sails S. at Hawthorne Race Course; Super Derby, Super Derby Prelude S. and Unbridled S. at Louisiana Downs; Decathlon S., Elkwood S., Jersey Shore S., Lighthouse S., Monmouth Beach S., Sorority S. and Teddy Drone S. at Monmouth Park; Valley Forge S. at Parx Racing; Remington Park Sprint Cup S. at Remington Park; and Last Tycoon S. at Santa Anita Park were not eligible for grading in 2018.
After hinting in early 2016 that a change could be on the horizon, the AGSC left the total number of graded stakes unchanged at its meeting last November. The process that has resulted in the current reduction has been an organic one, said AGSC Chairman J. David Richardson.
We do not go into any of it with an agenda to do this our that,” he said. “It wasn't that we set a quota or target anything like that. What we've noted the last few years is that we have an awful lot of short fields which don't have very many high-quality horses running in them and that's obviously an area of concern.
He continued, “We look at each race individually. There are certain metrics that we use and we all know the horses pretty well in addition to the metrics. The metrics would include things like number of graded stakes wins, number of stakes wins overall and placings. You get points for each of those based on the quality of the race. Our North American Racing Committee gives a thing called NARC ratings similar to the European ratings and they have their own set of metrics that we look at. And then we also look at speed figures as well.”
The decision to downgrade a race like the Delaware H. was not an easy one, Richardson said.
“We don't discuss specific races, but as a general rule, the higher the grade, the harder it is to either upgrade or downgrade,” he commented. “Races often have traditions and they've gotten to be a high-grade race for some reason, so all those things are very difficult for the committee, I'll say that across the board. Nothing is done lightly. It's a very hard process. We try to be as objective as we can.
“One of the really difficult things that comes into play is when you have a single dominant horse, for example, and how that impacts the field,” Richardson continued. “So we have to take that into account, but you can't grade any race based on just one horse. That is the conundrum that the committee often faces. You have to take into account a really dominant horse. Are they scaring competition away? Or are they choosing to run in that spot because they think it's going to be an easy spot, which is a different issue? Those are all individual factors we consider for every race.”
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