Beyer on CHECKBOOK HORSEMANSHIP

[First_Place]

samyn on the green uttered:

"Whats up beyers articles?...now this garbage piece based on racism and ignorance."

That's nonsense...everyone just knows that "there is no such thing as race"..."race is just a social construct"..."we all bleed red" (you know the rest of the Marxist-based, politically correct sewage).

Back to horse racing...

FP

[PriceAnProbability]

The spending will lead to their undoing.

This was tried 20 years ago when the Arabs of that era paid ridiculous prices for yearlings, and it failed then for the same reason it will fail now.

The reason? The Arabs are "steam chasers." They never get the horse at the good price. Instead, the horsemen who can find the talent when it's inexpensive now get huge bankrolls to strut their stuff even more in the future. Tim Ritchey plucked Afleet Alex out of a yearling sale for $75,000 based on his pedigree and confirmation. Give a guy like that $5 million to play with and he'll do it ten times over.

Think of it as nature's salary cap. You really can't buy this sport. The Arabs are great for the sport because they are directly rewarding those who can find great horses at good yearling prices.

I also always thought that back in the day, farms like Calumet and the other Kentucky playgrounds with their million-dollar homebreds were a far greater threat to the sport, because they were cash cows for the farm, as well as literal factories of graded stakes horses.

[depalma13]

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

Well the point of the article was that they had a dominant position in Europe for years and they are now applying the same stategy to US dirt racing. So this is not one random year. It's the beginning of a new assault.

They are free to do whatever they want and I am free to conclude that the current direction of the sport (which they are part of) is a bad thing for the growth of the "sport".

Do you happen to know if the number of Grade 1 races has increased since the late 70s and 80s?

Not sure how much the number has increased, but it is 104 this year. The ability to ship the horse to these grade 1's has become much easier though and that makes picking and choosing a Grade 1 far too easy.

[trp]

Originally Posted by depalma13

Not sure how much the number has increased, but it is 104 this year. The ability to ship the horse to these grade 1's has become much easier though and that makes picking and choosing a Grade 1 far too easy.

Here is an article from 2003 that gives the number of G1, G2, G3 stakes by year from 1973-2003.

http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=19236

[depalma13]

So there were overall 300 less races in 2002 than in 1973, but there were 39 more Grade 1's and 58 more Grade 2's. That pretty much sums up my case.