The European Pattern Committee reiterated its position to safeguard the continent's staying programme when announcing that a number of races under that category will receive status and prize money upgrades in 2017.
The Qatar Goodwood Cup (16f, 3yo/up) will be upgraded to Group 1 status with a £200,000 purse boost to £500,000, while Royal Ascot's Queen's Vase (3yo) will be upgraded to a Group 2 and see its distance reduced to 14 furlongs. Germany's Oleander-Rennen (16f, 4yo/up) will also be upgraded to Group 2 status, while Ireland's Loughbrown S. (16, 3yo/up) and Eyrefield S. (9f, 2yo) will receive Group 3 status. A handful of new staying races are also on the cards: a 13-furlong listed race for 3-year-olds at Navan on May 20, and two new 4yo/up races over 14 furlongs in Germany on Apr. 16 and Aug. 13.
The European Pattern Committee agreed that all European Group 1 staying races should be worth a minimum €500,000 as soon as possible, and as such the purse of the G1 Palmerstown Estate Irish St Leger was raised to that mark. The committee also agreed that no pattern races over 13 furlongs or greater would be eligible for downgrading before 2022, thus protecting them a further five years.
Brian Kavanagh, Chairman of the European Pattern Committee, said, “The EPC has agreed that it remains vital, now more than ever, that Europe supports a strong programme for horses racing over extended distances. No other part of the world provides a meaningful programme of races for such horses, and some appear to have almost given up altogether. Whilst the programme for stayers features some important races, it does not offer a Group 1 race over a distance in excess of 14 1/2 furlongs between Royal Ascot and the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe meeting. We agreed that it would seem sensible to have a European Group 1 over two miles in the summer, and the historic Goodwood Cup is well-positioned in the year, and was felt to be the obvious candidate.”
“We also agreed that the overall stayers' programme needs to cement together well, with various other more minor gaps and enhancements which we've looked to address,” Kavanagh added.
Regarding the changes to the Queen's Vase, Kavanagh noted, “A few years ago the EPC downgraded the Queen's Vase at Royal Ascot. The race serves a specific, and currently unique, purpose, but it was required to be downgraded automatically under the Ground Rules. This was an uncomfortable outcome, for all of us, but it helped to concentrate our minds on the need to develop greater depth to the pool of young stayers. The reduction in trip for the Queen's Vase should help to make it more of a target for a greater number of quality young horses.”
“The European programme needs to be ambitious enough to capture people's attention and start to change behaviour, by making the breeding and buying of stayers a more attractive option,” he concluded. “Our aim was to embrace a small number of meaningful enhancements to the Pattern for 2017, with scope for further developments in the years to come.”
Trainers React To Queen's Vase Change…
Trainer Mark Johnston was among those to speak out about the distance reduction for the Queen's Vase, saying his “first reaction is desperate disappointment.”
“In my eyes, the race is the 3-year-old stayers' championship,” said the Middleham-based conditioner, who has won the Queen's Vase seven times. “Horses win that and then you can dream about the Ascot Gold Cup. To do that [drop down in trip] seems to be the opposite of what they are aiming to do with the staying programme. It's not as if the race hasn't attracted great horses and great winners, especially in recent times.”
William Haggas took the opposite stance, saying, “The existing trip of two miles is a very stiff test for a 3-year-old in mid-June, whereas the slightly reduced distance will see the race appeal to a wider pool of young horses with potential to be high-class stayers of the future. This is the key 3-year-old staying race in the first half of the season and there is good reason to make it a real target, rather than an afterthought for horses felt to perhaps not be good enough to win over 12 furlongs.”
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