I am getting a little tired of the disrespect shown to American racing by blokes on the other side of the pond. Timeform, out of England, creates their own Global Ranking while The International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, based in France, puts out the World Thoroughbred Ranking. Both lists are an insult to the very best of the American horses. Too much emphasis is placed on the Breeder’s Cup and the Dubai World Cup and not enough is placed on all of our other races. If an American horse doesn’t compete in the BC or Dubai, than they are barely a blip on the world radar. Also, they place far too great an importance on the results of last year’s Breeder’s Cup where European horses had some solid success.
As far as their world rankings, here are some notable examples causing my displeasure:
Rachel Alexandra, the greatest 3-year-old filly we have seen for many years, is rated behind Rip Van Winkle on the Timeform rankings. Rip Van Winkle is clearly a nice Irish 3-year-old, but to rate this horse, who has won once out of four tries this year, a whopping five pounds ahead of Rachel Alexandra is insulting. Meanwhile, the World Thoroughbred Ranking lists her in a tie for ninth globally and six pounds below Rip. I guess the International Federation people have not seen her last eight races!
Gio Ponti, winner of four consecutive Grade 1 turf races, is judged to be below at least 15 other turf horses on these respective European rankings, or excuse me, World rankings. 15 or more turf horse are better than Gio Ponti??? This is nothing less than a slap in the face to American race horses. Reminds me of the lack of respect given to Manila, the year he thrashed Europe’s star Dancing Brave.
Our consistent success in the Dubai World Cup proves our dominance on our best surface, dirt. America has won five of the last six runnings of the world’s richest race. While on our secondary surface, turf, sure the Europeans are tough to beat, but we hold our own as evidenced by winning the Breeder’s Cup Turf 12 times out of 25 runnings. Europeans are quick to point out their win in the BC Classic last year. OK, you got that one, but on our third surface, synthetics, and it was the first European win in the Classic for 15 years. This gives them two Classic wins in total. I am confident that if we sent a few horses every year to the Arc, the Americans could also claim a victory every 15 years or so.
With the chip that is currently on their shoulder, I am sure the Euros will expect to come over here and sweep our Breeder’s Cup this year. Sorry blokes, it is not going to happen. Bring your superhorse, Sea the Stars, bring all your best Europe. You are going to need it to compete with the USA in 2009. |
2 comments:
Good call, I remember thinking something similar last year. The rankings are totally Euro biased.
I agree, i think last year made them a bit cocky. They were lucky that BC made the dumb mistake of running on synthetics, because had it be run on dirt there is no way you'd see the same dominance. I too think it is a slap in the face to rate RA ninth, she is right up there with Sea the Stars, if not better. Gio Ponti isn't chopped liver either. I believe he beat some nice Euro's last out. Heck what about Rail Trip, the horse wen unbeaten for five starts finishes second in his next two then whips a feild of really nice horses in the Hollywood Gold Cup. We also hav CJ, setting a record in his first start on grass after a layoff. If Euro's think they can just walk off with our races this year they've got another thing coming.
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