http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/84597/bc-scraps-marathon-alters-nomination-fees
One of the races I felt we should have stood by.
Bummer. 
I think they needed to scrap races… lots of 'em. But that was not one of the races to scrap.
It’s a real shame, since the Marathon was a chance for some of the hard knocking, TRUE racehorses to earn recognition and a championship. As opposed to the FOUR separate championships for 2 year olds alone. Sigh.
“the conditions of the race have not developed into a competition that we believe reaches the standard set by the remaining races comprising the Championships”
Huh? That doesn’t make since to me. Are they saying the horses that run in the marathon are just sub par race horses? I’m disappointed.
Right. And the 2 year old juvenile fillies turf is just riddled with talent and competition. eye roll
The Marathon has not drawn top class runners because there is no “division” for those horses throughout the year. When the marathon was run on synthetics, there were some Euro plodders who were OK but it just isn’t championship caliber race.
While I’d rather see 2yo turfers in one race, those race have been better than the Marathon. We’ve had major Euro’s run in them.
I was happy when they did away with the 2yo sprints. They stunk and no one even ran in them, for all that money!
I don’t think there should be 2 year old championships period, regardless of the surface. It does nothing but perpetuate the precocious, “breed to sell” style of racing. The majority of the 2 year old champions never repeat their successful youth. The rest of the crop just catches up to them.
When the Marathon started, I hoped it would create a division. Unfortunately, it didn’t.
[QUOTE=Linny;7548456]
The Marathon has not drawn top class runners because there is no “division” for those horses throughout the year. When the marathon was run on synthetics, there were some Euro plodders who were OK but it just isn’t championship caliber race.
While I’d rather see 2yo turfers in one race, those race have been better than the Marathon. We’ve had major Euro’s run in them.
I was happy when they did away with the 2yo sprints. They stunk and no one even ran in them, for all that money![/QUOTE]
I agree, for the most part they didn’t garner TOP caliber horses, however I feel they should have stuck with this race. I really don’t think they ever stood behind it much. Wasn’t it only a grade 3? You are right, there need to be more similar races throughout the year building up to it.
Like TexAr, I thought this one promoted the “true” racehorse.
sigh
While I’m a believer in the longer races, like “back in the day” when 1.5 miles was not uncommon, and the Jockey Club Gold Cup was two miles, there is NO “DIVISION” as others have posted. Everything in this country has been shortened…
We are shorter, faster, younger as a business.
Even the Europeans weren’t interested–they have the Turf for their grass runners. It’s already getting unmanageably long so it’s not surprising that’s the one they cut.
[QUOTE=Angelico;7548592]
I agree, for the most part they didn’t garner TOP caliber horses, however I feel they should have stuck with this race. I really don’t think they ever stood behind it much. Wasn’t it only a grade 3? You are right, there need to be more similar races throughout the year building up to it.
Like TexAr, I thought this one promoted the “true” racehorse.
sigh[/QUOTE]
It’s been a G2 since 2011. It was a G3 in 2010, before that it was ungraded for the first couple of runnings.
But the BC has no control over the gradings, those are handed out by the American Graded Stakes Committee, and the grading reflects the quality, or lack of, that the race attracts. The recent Juvy races became G1s much quicker than the Marathon because of the calibre of horses they attracted.
I have mixed feelings on the Marathon. I love me some staying races. I believe the Gold Cup at Ascot is truly one of the world’s great races. I love the Melbourne Cup. The Tenno Sho, at 2 miles, is a cracking race that attracts the best of the best Japanese runners, even the superstars like Orfevre, Deep Impact and Jaguar Mail. But, except fort the couple of times it was on synth, the Marathon was basically full of allowance level horses and was for all intents and purposes a war of attrition.
On top of that, because of the nature of dirt racing, staying races on the dirt are generally not fun to watch, as it seems they are all going backwards in the last half mile. Calidoscopio’s win was a perfect example of this, while it looked like he had put on the afterburners and was coming out of the clouds, he was actually not going any faster in the later part of the race than he did early on, but every other runner had slowed to a veritable canter.
It would probably have helped if there were more longer races, and thus an actual division, as so many of the runners were running that distance for the first time, so it was a total crapshoot if they were going to stay the distance. But we know there will never be any desire from trainers to run horses in longer races, because it takes longer for a horse to run back after those efforts and it takes too much time investment to put the foundation into a horse to run 1-3/4m to 2 miles on a regular basis.
Besides, when you think about it, should there really be a championship race at 14f on dirt, when 90%, maybe 95% of all races on dirt in the US are under 9f? It seems totally at odds with day to day US racing culture.
I admit I’ve become far more interested in following European and Australian racing of late. The Aussies especially seem to be far more interested in developing racehorses rather than breeding shed and sales ring stars.
I mean, who couldn’t love a horse like Cirrus des Aigles and his completely gutsy win over Treve in today’s Prix Ganay? Last year’s Arc champ had him headed in the stretch but he just dug down and fought back. I know he’s a gelding and so will run as long as he’s sound and interested, but I love him!
I liked the Marathon for the novelty. Maybe Santa Anita will add an undercard long distance route to keep the spirit of it going. I know that several horses in the past 2 years had trouble finishing which is never fun to see.
