Op/Ed: Too Many Stakes Races, Not Enough Stakes Horses

Some may have been scratching their heads when Saturday's GIII Frank J. DeFrancis Memorial Dash at Laurel attracted just six starters. It's a prestigious race with a rich history and a purse of $250,000. The betting customer would have loved to see a 12-horse field with a 4-1 favorite. Instead it got a lackluster betting race with a 1-5 shot in X Y Jet (Kantharos) heading the lineup. He finished third.

The total in the win, place and show pools for the DeFrancis, the showcase race of the Laurel fall season, was $166,083. The very next race was a $35,000 claimer. But it was on the grass and had 12 runners. The win, place, show pool for that one was $187,258, 11.3 percent higher than the DeFrancis. The exacta, trifecta and superfecta pools were also larger on the grass claimer than on the DeFrancis. In the case of the exacta, it was an eye-opening difference–$156,629 versus $94,382.

Laurel and its racing department did nothing wrong. They were just a victim of an insane situation that prevails in this sport–there's way too much racing, far too many stakes events and not nearly enough good horses out there to fill these events and create the type of betting races the customer demands.

The DeFrancis was one of three major sprint races to be run within a five-day period in the northeastern corridor of the U.S. Wednesday night Penn National will run the $200,000 Fabulous Strike H., like the DeFrancis, at six furlongs. The quality of the field is very weak, but it did, at least, attract 11 horses before what is sure to be a scratch or two. Just one day later, Aqueduct will run the GIII Fall Highweight H., still another six-furlong sprint for males, 3-year-olds and up. Nine are entered, but one, Weekend Hideaway (Speightstown) is expected to run at Penn National instead.

Though it probably didn't have much, if any impact, on the DeFrancis field, it's worth noting that last Saturday's sprint fest also included the $80,000 Bet On Sunshine S. at Churchill.

This happens all the time, and not just with sprint races. You don't need me to tell you this is an untenable situation that is only going to get worse with the smaller foal crops. It's great for the owners. Who doesn't want to have a 3-5 shot in a graded stakes race worth $200,000 or $300,000 with a four-horse field? But it's terrible for the sport because the sport keeps delivering the type of watered-down product that its customers have told it repeatedly they do not want.

It's also creating a problem the graded stakes committee needs to address. With such a glut of races, inferior horses are winning or placing in graded stakes races. A graded stakes win or placing in 2016 is not what it was in 1996. Not even close.

Like most things in horse racing, there is no easy fix, but something needs to be done.

A good place to start would be for the racing secretaries of all the major tracks to get together every year and try to work on the problem and cooperate with one another. Sorry, but Penn National and Laurel, 118 miles from one another, do not need to be running the exact same race four days apart.

This is exactly how they do it in harness racing. Before any track releases its stakes schedule, the racing secretaries of virtually every standardbred track in North America get together at an annual meeting and make sure they won't be tripping all over one another. Granted, that's a lot easier to do in that sport because there are fewer tracks and harness trainers actually believe in racing their horses more than four times a year, but the meeting is a productive concept and an idea that the thoroughbreds need to steal.

And the discussion should start with the idea of eliminating dozens and dozens of existing stakes. Wouldn't NYRA be just fine without the Fall Highweight? Maybe it's not fair to criticize Penn National for trying to put on a good show, but what, exactly, is the benefit of holding the Fabulous Strike? If I were a local Penn National horsemen I'm not going to be happy when $200,000 of my purse money heads out of town. There's only one locally based horse in the race.

Besides, $200,000 races don't move the needle any more. Only big events do. If a track were to cut out half of its stakes races that money could be moved to dramatically increase the purses of the remaining races. Fewer stakes across the map, but more stakes with huge purses. That's a combination that would create better, richer racing, bigger fields…everything the customer wants.

When a $35,000 claimer can out-handle a Grade III, $250,000 race at the same track on the same day, the sport has a problem. And it needs to be addressed.