Breeders’ Cup Getting Track Flak Back-To-Back
Hosting the Breeders’ Cup for the second year in a row, Santa Anita is not a favorite among owners.
A year after the first Breeders’ Cup over a synthetic surface, the controversy has not subsided, but it has changed.When the races head back to Santa Anita for an unprecedented second straight year Friday and Saturday, the condition of the Pro-Ride surface will not be an issue as it was in 2008, when it had been installed just weeks beforehand because of problems with the prior surface.
Last year’s eight main-track Cup events went off with no major injuries to horses, in contrast to equine fatalities in 2007 and 2006. But many Eastern owners and trainers are unhappy that the Breeders’ Cup is returning anywhere in consecutive years, especially over a surface they believe is unfair to dirt horses.
Their Exhibit A is the fact that European horses, who at the top level race almost exclusively on grass, finished 1-2 in the $5 million Classic.
The synthetic surface cost the Cup getting Horse of the Year front-runner Rachel Alexandra and other top horses.
“I don’t think I’d be alone to say it was not a great idea to hold it at one place two years in a row, period, much less on a synthetic surface,” trainer Todd Pletcher said this fall. “It creates a huge edge for the guys who are in California all the time and a big edge for the guys from Europe. So we’re going to take the worst of it in that regard.”
But Pletcher pre-entered 12 horses, eight in races on Pro-Ride. Those include his star 3-year-old Quality Road, who will make his synthetic debut in the Classic.
“Certainly the juvenile races, you need to do well in the Breeders’ Cup to have any chance at year-end honors,” Pletcher said. “And most of our owners want to participate in the big races on the big days. … If you don’t experiment for $5 million, where are you going to experiment?”
Owner Ken Ramsey is not a fan of synthetic surfaces, but he pre-entered seven horses, two for Pro-Ride races. Five of his horses are by his homebred stallion Kitten’s Joy, the 2004 turf champion and Breeders’ Cup Turf runner-up. A win in any race would be a huge endorsement.
“Although I don’t like the fact it’s going to go back to any track two years in a row, I’m fortunate because my Kitten’s Joys run big on” synthetics, he said.
However, Graham Motion, whose Cup contingent includes Whitney winner Bullsbay in either the Classic or Dirt Mile, calls having the synthetic races “a good thing” — even though he says such surfaces are closer to grass than dirt and he doesn’t know how Bullsbay will run on it.
“Look, I know people aren’t going to want to have it be there every year,” he said. “But from an international point of view, it makes it a whole lot more interesting and really levels the playing field.”
Vosburgh winner Kodiak Kowboy and King’s Bishop winner Capt. Candyman Can appear to be better on dirt. But both are in the Sprint to try to become champion sprinter.
Tom Ludt, general manager of Vinery, Kodiak Kowboy’s co-owner, is on the Breeders’ Cup board but says he was under no pressure to run.
“We’re trying to rebuild our game, and we’re not going to do it by sitting around doing what we did other years,” he said, adding with a laugh, “ … Interview the trainers that won Saturday night and see how many of them say they hate synthetic surfaces. Interview the ones that ran second to last and last, and you’ve already got your article: It was the surface, stupid.”
Some Eastern horses are competing because it isn’t on dirt, including Mushka, in the Ladies Classic after capturing Keeneland’s Spinster via disqualification. “I don’t think you’re taking the worst of it if you take the right horse,” trainer Bill Mott said.
Breeders’ Cup president Greg Avioli said the organization went back to Greater Los Angeles two straight years in part to use the world’s entertainment capital to expand the event’s awareness.
“Before you give thumbs up or thumbs down on an event, see how it goes,” he said. “People who say, ‘Well, it’s on synthetics so I don’t want anything to do with it,’ they’re being close-minded. They’re also not taking into account the way other sports work in this world. For example, the French Open. There are many tennis players who do not like playing on the red clay at Roland Garros. … But they go year after year because it’s part of the sport.”
This article appears as it was reported on courier -journal.com
