It takes very little to criticize an idea, and a lot more to praise it.
The fact is that the Pegasus World Cup has been quite successful. The quality of the fields have overall been quite strong. Certainly, there are no superstars this year in the race, but it is a stronger field than the 2020 and 2021 fields.
One multiple G1 winner.
5 G1 winners.
Numerous multiple graded stakes winners.
This is a strong G1 field.
And because there are no superstars, the race is wide open which is great for horseplayers.
Frank Stronach had a great idea to get people to buy places in the Pegasus World Cup. It saved the track money and served as the world's richest race. It also revived the former Donn Handicap.
The race has featured numerous Breeders Cup winners, sometimes facing each other, three defending Horse of the Years, four champion older males, and two champion three year olds.
In the inaugural race, the top two finishers in the Breeders Cup Classic met in Arrogate and California Chrome.
Then the first and third runners in the Breeders Cup Classic.
Then the Breeders Cup Classic winner and Breeders Cup Dirt Mile winner.
In 2022, the Breeders Cup Classic winner and the Breeders Cup Dirt Mile winner.
Gulfstream Park deserves a lot of credit, especially after expanding it to include turf horses.
True the funding mechanism has changed and with it the purse, but it still works.
Appreciate the reply but you seem to have missed the point.
What happened 6 years is immaterial to the people who paid $125 to walk in the gate today. This isn’t a championship of anything and moving forward there will be less and less stallion prospects that will utilize the PWC because it won’t make financial sense to do so. As stated, changing market forces have already drastically changed the makeup and structure of the program. You can rest assured that that same market will continue to see changes and this series of races will suffer without changing as well.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but you are very much in the minority of those that thought these were strong fields. They weren’t by practically any realistic measurement. A horse that happens to win an extraordinarily weak grade 1 race isn’t better because they have that designation on their otherwise weak resume. Todays races were decent groups of mostly fair graded stakes horses. The winner of the PWCT won his first stakes today…as a 6 year old.
There were no stars on display and the point is that without star horses and without anything of substance really being on the line…is an event really worth it for racing people (not the celebrities and ‘come to the races once a year to wear fancy clothes’ people) to spend major event money to attend?
This entire industry is often aghast when anyone dares to mention that something may not be quite what it is being billed as and perhaps it could be done better and that means that your response is a lot more typical than anything else (at least you had the gumption to respond). Defending what really doesn’t need defending is often a symptom of racing’s collective self-esteem issue. “OMG you are so negative,” is a constant refrain from those who prefer the ostrich pose with their head buried directly in the sand as sportswagering (the enemy) continues to spread its golden wings, direct competition for our dwindling supply of customers or as many will self-proclaim, suckers.
Negative is often confused for truth and so many racing industry types continue to believe that credibility is being a bigger shill than the person who last held their position.
As I said in the piece, the initial concept had merit and has actually been successfully copied elsewhere (far different markets of course) and praise was given for the excellent wagering card that the racing department put together. That said, virtually the only voice that is willing to tell the hard truths, that isn’t muzzled by industry overseers that crave transparency like most of us crave STD’s, is us. We try to be the voice for the real customers who are supporting the game, day in and day out as a great deal of those types don’t speak up, they walk away.
If you are ok with racing continuing to dwindle away to irrelevance then by all means keep buying the racing establishment company lines and keep spending a grand to eat marginal buffet food and watch Atone.
One of the best if not the best writing in racing right now. Thanks Chuck! Love your honesty. You never have spelling errors too!!!
It takes very little to criticize an idea, and a lot more to praise it.
The fact is that the Pegasus World Cup has been quite successful. The quality of the fields have overall been quite strong. Certainly, there are no superstars this year in the race, but it is a stronger field than the 2020 and 2021 fields.
One multiple G1 winner.
5 G1 winners.
Numerous multiple graded stakes winners.
This is a strong G1 field.
And because there are no superstars, the race is wide open which is great for horseplayers.
Frank Stronach had a great idea to get people to buy places in the Pegasus World Cup. It saved the track money and served as the world's richest race. It also revived the former Donn Handicap.
The race has featured numerous Breeders Cup winners, sometimes facing each other, three defending Horse of the Years, four champion older males, and two champion three year olds.
In the inaugural race, the top two finishers in the Breeders Cup Classic met in Arrogate and California Chrome.
Then the first and third runners in the Breeders Cup Classic.
Then the Breeders Cup Classic winner and Breeders Cup Dirt Mile winner.
In 2022, the Breeders Cup Classic winner and the Breeders Cup Dirt Mile winner.
Gulfstream Park deserves a lot of credit, especially after expanding it to include turf horses.
True the funding mechanism has changed and with it the purse, but it still works.
Appreciate the reply but you seem to have missed the point.
What happened 6 years is immaterial to the people who paid $125 to walk in the gate today. This isn’t a championship of anything and moving forward there will be less and less stallion prospects that will utilize the PWC because it won’t make financial sense to do so. As stated, changing market forces have already drastically changed the makeup and structure of the program. You can rest assured that that same market will continue to see changes and this series of races will suffer without changing as well.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but you are very much in the minority of those that thought these were strong fields. They weren’t by practically any realistic measurement. A horse that happens to win an extraordinarily weak grade 1 race isn’t better because they have that designation on their otherwise weak resume. Todays races were decent groups of mostly fair graded stakes horses. The winner of the PWCT won his first stakes today…as a 6 year old.
There were no stars on display and the point is that without star horses and without anything of substance really being on the line…is an event really worth it for racing people (not the celebrities and ‘come to the races once a year to wear fancy clothes’ people) to spend major event money to attend?
This entire industry is often aghast when anyone dares to mention that something may not be quite what it is being billed as and perhaps it could be done better and that means that your response is a lot more typical than anything else (at least you had the gumption to respond). Defending what really doesn’t need defending is often a symptom of racing’s collective self-esteem issue. “OMG you are so negative,” is a constant refrain from those who prefer the ostrich pose with their head buried directly in the sand as sportswagering (the enemy) continues to spread its golden wings, direct competition for our dwindling supply of customers or as many will self-proclaim, suckers.
Negative is often confused for truth and so many racing industry types continue to believe that credibility is being a bigger shill than the person who last held their position.
As I said in the piece, the initial concept had merit and has actually been successfully copied elsewhere (far different markets of course) and praise was given for the excellent wagering card that the racing department put together. That said, virtually the only voice that is willing to tell the hard truths, that isn’t muzzled by industry overseers that crave transparency like most of us crave STD’s, is us. We try to be the voice for the real customers who are supporting the game, day in and day out as a great deal of those types don’t speak up, they walk away.
If you are ok with racing continuing to dwindle away to irrelevance then by all means keep buying the racing establishment company lines and keep spending a grand to eat marginal buffet food and watch Atone.