Quote:
Originally Posted by cj
The proliferation of turf racing and synth tracks for a time has led to much less aggressive riding and thus slower paces. To run really fast races, you a need fast pace.
I also think many horses that could be very good sprinters are being wasted chasing the Derby.
I would also consider the current group just one cycle in time that isn't very good, so too short a time period to draw conclusions. There are some good 3yo sprinters coming along.
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I agree that the deeper dirt surfaces and slower average paces are probably part of it, but imo it's qualitative also.
If you don't look at times/figures at all, you'll see more examples of horses coming out of limited winner ALW races, listed stakes, and Grade 3 moving into the top sprint ranks and being competitive immediately and competitive horses dropping out of the top ranks not being dominant against weaker. That used to happen years ago also, but less frequently. IMO there's just not as big a gap between the ALW ranks and lower level stakes vs. the very best stakes as there used to be.
I totally agree that a lot of top sprinters try to stretch out for the Derby and then drop back later. Plus virtually all the versatile horses stretch out for the bigger money and prestige at 8F or longer. But that's been true for decades.
I don't want to knock these horses too much because I don't know how much of it is quality and how much surface, race development, and figure issues but a 90 Beyer winning a Grade 1 older sprint is
