EXPERIMENTAL CUP?

by | 11.17.2010 | 12:46am
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Jess Jackson seemed to dismiss a repeat attempt by Curlin in the Breeders’ Cup Classic as if he was flicking a piece of lint off the lapel of his tweed jacket.

“Been there, done that,” Jackson said to reporters the other day in a teleconference to announce future plans for the reigning Horse of the Year.

Instead, Jackson seems bent on some exotic mission that he hopes will prove more satisfying, like the Hong Kong Cup or Japan Cup in Asia.

So that’s how far the Breeders’ Cup Classic has fallen. The majority owner of the best horse America has seen, perhaps since Cigar more than a decade ago, is seeking new worlds to conquer rather than go for a repeat in the richest and what should be the most important race run on American soil – the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Did I say run on American “soil”? Right now, no one is sure exactly what the Classic will be run on when the Breeders’ Cup comes to Santa Anita Park for its two-day race meeting on Oct. 24-25. As I write this, 80 days before the self-proclaimed “world championships,” an Australian company is sifting a variety of materials onto the oval that that has hosted some of the greatest races this sport has seen. The company, Pro-Ride, has some experience in installing and maintaining training tracks and materials for lunging rings et al, but Santa Anita will be the first major meeting that uses Pro-Ride for racing.

Instead of world championships, perhaps this year’s Breeders’ Cup (and next year’s since Breeders’ Cup management and its board decided to go back-to-back at Santa Anita in 2009) should be called the grand experiment. Jackson (and who can really blame him?) doesn’t feel he should use Curlin as a guinea pig on such a surface.

Once Breeders’ Cup (and the industry) determines whether or not these man-made tracks are better for the horses and for the sport, there will remain the serious question of how to keep a Breeders’ Cup champion like Curlin interested in going for a repeat.

Tiznow is the only horse to have won the Classic twice (2000 and ’01), and only a handful have even tried it.  For many winners, it’s been the final stop on the road to the breeding shed. Jess Jackson decided to keep Curlin in training for another year, and you can select from one of the following reasons: a) he’s a sportsman who doesn’t need the money; b) there were legal entanglements involving his ownership that might have made a stud deal difficult; c) all of the above.

Say, for example, trainer Rick Dutrow is able to hold Big Brown together through the end of the year and win the Classic with the same verve with which the colt won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. He’ll go from there to Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky to get ready for the 2009 breeding season. The economic reality is that a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner can earn more money by breeding than he can by racing.

 Does it have to be that way?

Has Breeders’ Cup looked into the possibility of offering a bonus for a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner that repeats the following year? Has it considered enhancing the Classic purse for winners of Triple Crown races to keep them in training for another year? Even if Big Brown lost this year’s Breeders’ Cup, dangling an extra few million dollars in his direction for the 2009 Classic might be enough of an incentive to keep him in training. Well, perhaps not Big Brown, but you get the idea.

The international competition to attract the world’s best horses is getting tougher. Many of these international events pay all shipping fees for horses and expenses for their connections, something the Breeders’ Cup has not done. Organizations like the Japan Racing Association have included bonuses in the already-rich purses for their international races to attract good horses.

The Breeders’ Cup is in competition with those international organizations. If it wants to keep America’s best horses here and attract others from around the globe, it’s going to have start thinking like a business and offer incentives that will help justify its claim to be a true world championship. Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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  • Pattie Benedix

    As much as I would love to see Curlin race again in the Breeders’ Cup, I don’t blame Jess Jackson for not entering Curlin. I would be hesitant to race on an new “Pro-Ride” surface until it had been installed, tested and proven safe. The Breeders’ Cup is such an important race, especially for horses preparing to retire. There come a time when a Horse Owner needs to take a stand to protect his horse from a possible injury that could affect their future either in racing or breeding. If Curlin continues to race, I pray Curlin stays in America. He is MUCH too Wonderful, to risk traveling overseas. Besides, we already know, CURLIN IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD!!

  • Tiznowbaby

    The numbers seem to bear out that artificial surfaces reduce the incidence of catastropic injuries. That’s great. What about career-ending soft-tissue injuries? That’s not clear. You save the horse, but he/she never runs again.
    My real question is, what was the incidence of catastropic injuries on tracks 20-30 and more years ago. If it’s lower, why?
    I think it comes back to breeding unsound horses, and I think artifical surfaces will encourage that practice to continue.
    On topic, if Santa Anita was not changing to an unproven surface, I would say all the dirt runners need to put up and shut up. And, all the bonuses in the world won’t keep some owners from hustling off to the breeding shed with their colts because the money is bigger.

  • GETALIFE.com

    $5,000,000 – They’ll show up. BB and Curlin and Casino Drive and Henrythenavigator and Well Armed and maybe, if we’re lucky, Zenyatta too. What’s good for the game is for these horses to run in the Classic on national TV. Curlin running against 3 horses in the Woodward with no tv coverage does nothing. See you at the Great Race Place.

  • Muggs

    Getalife must be smokin some good stuff. The original tracks in So Cal were brickyards but nobody can say the synthetic era has went smoothly. Pray the Hialeah deal goes thru.

  • Indulto

    I have to believe that if Curlin and Big Brown are both entered for the Woodward, it will be televised. Unlike the Man o’ War, it is a race people really want to see – the best running against the best over a surface on which the contestants have already demonstrated their ability — but I would be surprised if BB actually runs.

    Despite being desperate to avoid inclement weather for what has now become a two-day fundraiser, the decision to “award” the Breeders’ Cup to Santa Anita for two successive years at a time when that track’s surface was already known to have problems other synthetics did not, is questionable at best. Deciding to actually run on synthetic amidst the continuing controversy regarding these surfaces indicates a lack of input from horsemen as well as fans and players.

    You’d think the planners would be more surface-sensitive considering that the Monsoon at Monmouth in 2007 and the “golden rail” at Churchill Downs in 2006 may both have compromised the chances of some of the contestants, but then the Breeder’s Cup Brain Trust showed they aren’t tradition-sensitive, either, by triggering a fan and media uproar over the repositioning of Cup events,

    These missteps by the misguided might actually strengthen racing by allowing what used to be traditional championship events, e.g., the Jockey Club Gold Cup, to reclaim their status. If Curlin and BB were to meet in the JCGC, then the Classic would be of little import unless neither won. The Clark Handicap, the Cigar Mile, and the Remsen are just a few of the post-BC graded stakes on dirt that figure to be very competitive this year. Too bad we’ve just lost the De Francis Dash.

  • http://none Garrett Redmond

    Is it any wonder the Breeders’ Cup “Brain” Trust is not tradition sensitive. The current administration, which calls the shots and runs the show, are all refugess from other forms of entertainment. Not one among them has actually been close enough to a horse to recognize the smell of manure.

    The “Board” has abdicated it’s proper role. It should be making policy decisions and telling the administrators to execute. That is the kind of influence a man such as Richard Santulli would have brought to the Board. That is why Avioli did not want to continue NetJets as a sponsor. Part of his plan to make certain Santulli would not be elected.

    BC is making a new blunder in proposed restrictions on photographers. References to other sports as the guiding light are childish. Our sport is is starving to death for racing fans. BC Admin has not heard, “Any publicity is good publicity” (Sam Goldwyn ??) . It does not matter who shows a photo or when it is shown, if it brings more people to the races.

  • http://www.paulickreport.com/blog/the-week-that-was-aug-3-9/ Paulick Report » Blog Archive » THE WEEK THAT WAS: AUG. 3-9

    [...] prep.   WHERE CURLIN GOES AFTER THE WOODWARD is still anyone’s guess. Majority owner Jess Jackson doesn’t seem interested in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, in part because he already won that race last year and seems bent on an international mission [...]

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