AMERICAN GRADED STAKES STANDINGS brought to you by Keeneland: KENTUCKY DOMINANCE
By Ray Paulick
Kentucky-bred horses dominated the Eclipse Awards handed out in Beverly Hills, Calif., earlier this week, but that’s no surprise. Of the 10 horses that won an Eclipse Award, eight were Kentucky-breds, including Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra and runner-up Zenyatta. The two others were Mixed Up, steeplechase champion, bred in Pennsylvania, and Goldikova, female turf champion, bred in Ireland.
The 80% strike rate by Kentucky-breds among the Eclipse Award winners was even more dominant than the performance in 2009 American Graded Stakes races by horses bred in the Bluegrass State.
According to Paulick Report records, of the 322 individual American Graded Stakes winners of 2009, 192 of them were bred in Kentucky. That’s a percentage of 59.6%. The state that bred the next highest number of AGS winners was Florida, with 35, 10.9%. California and New York bred eight AGS winners each, a percentage of 2.5%.
How do those percentages stack up with opportunity?
Well, Kentucky breeds the most Thoroughbreds (10,466 Kentucky-breds were registered in 2007, according to the Jockey Club), and accounts for 30.9% of all foals bred and registered in the United States. So Kentucky-breds are overachieving in American Graded Stakes at a ratio of nearly 2-to-1 (30.9% of foals compared with 59.6% of AGS winners). Florida is holding its own, contributing to 12.7% of the foal crop and winning 10.9% of the AGS races. California was ranked third in 2007 by foals, accounting for 9.0% of the foal crop but winning only 2.5% of the AGS races. Louisiana is fourth by foals produced, accounting for 7.4% of foals but had no AGS winners of 2009. New York is fifth by foals, with 5.3% of the foal crop and winning the same 2.5% as California in AGS races. (Click here for the ranking of U.S. states by foals born)
Who wins the most Grade 1 races? You only get one guess.
Of the 80 American Grade 1 winners of 2009, 58 of them were bred in Kentucky, or 72.5%. Four G1 winners (5%) were bred in Florida, three in California, and two each in Maryland and Virginia.
The state that did the most with the least was Virginia, which produced five American Graded Stakes winners from a foal crop of only 403 in 2007, the 14th largest breeding state in the U.S., and accounting for just 1.2% of all U.S.-bred foals.
There were 13 Irish-bred winners of American Graded Stakes, three of which won G1 races in the U.S. Great Britain produced the next-highest number of AGS winners, 10, with three of them winning G1.
Here is the complete list of American Graded Stakes winners by state/country where bred, with G1 winners in parentheses: Kentucky, 192 (58); Florida, 35 (4); Ireland, 13 (3); Great Britain, 10 (3); California, 8 (3); New York, 8; Maryland, 6 (2); Virginia, 5 (2); Argentina, 4 (1); Brazil, 3 (2); France, 3 (1); Canada, 3; Oklahoma, 2 (1); Germany, 2; Pennsylvania, 2; Australia, 1; Arizona, 1; Illinois, 1; Japan, 1.
The message is clear: Kentucky, while facing severe economic and competitive challenges from states with breeding and racing programs recently enhanced with revenue from slot machines and other forms of gambling, remains the clear-cut leader in the production of top-quality Thoroughbreds. How long it can maintain such a position of dominance remains to be seen.
Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report
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Tags: AGS, american graded stakes, american graded stakes brought to you be keeneland, Horse Racing, Paulick Report, Rachel Alexandra, Ray Paulick, Thoroughbred breeding, zenyatta
January 21st, 2010 at 11:11 pm
in the yesteryear i remember that KENTUCKY was #1 with VIRGINIA #2 & FLORIDA #3..
someone correct me if i am wrong..i believe KENTUCKY will always be #1 in my liftime
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:35 am
Do you mean that there might be something to having the finest vets and vet clinics; the best farriers, the best grass, the best breeding shed personnel, stallion managers, farm managers and stud farms? You mean to tell me that having the largest and most capable sales companies, one of the greatest racetracks on the planet, and all located within 30 miles of each other, gives Kentucky some sort of advantage? You mean we should take into account that there is no better place to race champion racehorses without having to resort to state sponsored bribes, or having to put a slot machine on every corner?
Surely one jests.
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:37 am
I meant to say “raise champion racehorses” not “race” but perhaps my typographical error was really a Freudian slip.
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Virginia has some good grass but in many places the vets are some of the worst excuses for animal doctors in the US and the Board Of Veterinary Medicine does nothing to keep them from getting licenses and does not suspend or revoke licenses when people complain. The VA Horse Journal has sometimes had letters from people about this sad situation like the woman who could not get a vet when her horse broke a leg and had to get the horse on a trailer to the vet school in NC 2 hours away where they euthanized the horse. Or the woman whose vet told her her mare was not pregnant and had a hay belly and before long the mare gave birth to a foal. Or me who had a vet kill a mare. He was supposed to help deliver foal and instead of getting the dead foal completely out cut off the front half and shoved the rear half back into the mare. He made a nasty comment about a sofa not fitting through a doorway and said she was not a good mare(which was a lie). Last year I had a problem with another mare and tried to get help but could not find one competent vet. One said she could not do a c section in the field because it would be “unethical” but did not have an operating table for a horse and could not do a fetotomy because the mare would be swollen inside. Another said he did not have the right equipment for a foal and could only help a cow. Another said about the same. A fetotomy on a dairy calf is the same as on a foal since both have similar conformation at birth. A dairy calf is almost all legs with a tiny body like a foal. With the help of neighbors we got the foal out and the mare got up but she died the night after. I cut into the foals belly after we got it out to the hips and took out the insides and got the hips reduced and then let them pull and it popped out. There was no danger of cutting the mare that way since the size was reduced from the inside with the foals skin next to the mare remaining intact.
January 22nd, 2010 at 11:04 pm
RE: VIRGINIA…. I DONT KNOW ABOUT NOW> I WAS TALKING ABOUT THE 1950′S & 1960′S…OUTSIDE OF KENTUCKY…VIRGINIA WAS THE PLACE TO BE.