Delaware Handicap downgraded
Race’s recent winners stacked up well compared to Gr. 1 Santa Margarita
The Delaware Handicap’s second stint as a Grade 1 — the first lasted from 1973 through 1989 — came to an end Friday after just five years when the American Graded Stakes Committee announced that the $750,000 race for older fillies and mares would be downgraded to Grade 2 for 2018. The Delaware Handicap is (or was) the last Grade 1 for females of any age run at a mile and a quarter on dirt.
Most observers agree that there are too many Grade 1s for the number and quality of horses available today. And, given the small fields that the nine Grade 1 two-turn races for older females have been drawing — an average of 5.98 starters per race since 2013 — nine is probably at least one too many.
By at least one measure, though, the Delaware Handicap has not been the weakest of these nine races. A comparison of the Delaware and Santa Margarita handicaps finds that their fields over the past five years have included a similar number of graded-stakes winners (21 versus 23), with nine Grade 1 winners each. But while the last five winners of the Delaware Handicap (Songbird, I’m a Chatterbox, Sheer Drama, Belle Gallantey and Royal Delta) all won additional Grade 1s, for the last five winners of the Santa Margarita (Vale Dori, Tara’s Tango, Warren’s Veneda, Let Faith Arise and Joyful Victory) that race was their only Grade 1 score. In other words, while recent winners of the Delaware Handicap include five multiple Grade 1 winners, recent winners of the Santa Margarita do not include any.
And then there’s geography. With the Delaware Handicap having been demoted, four of the eight remaining divisional Grade 1s are run in California: the Santa Margarita, Beholder (formerly the Vanity), Clement Hirsch and Zenyatta. Two are run in the New York (Personal Ensign and Bel-
dame), with one each in Arkansas (Apple Blossom) and Kentucky (Spinster).
According to the Graded Stakes Committee, “geographical distribution” is not a factor in grading decisions. When half of a division’s most significant races are run in one state, however — even one as important as California — things seem a bit out of whack. For this reason too, then, downgrading the Santa Margarita instead of the Delaware Handicap would have been a better idea.
Sharp Azteca cruises in Cigar Mile
If the main reason behind moving the Cigar Mile back a week was to attract more horses from the Breeders’ Cup, it appears to have worked. Last year, when there were still four weeks between the two events, only one Breeders’ Cup starter ran back in the Cigar. This year, with five weeks between the two races, three Cup starters showed up for the Cigar: Sharp Azteca and Practical Joke, the 2-4 finishers in the Dirt Mile, and Mind Your Biscuits, third in the Sprint.
As it turned out, the three Breeders’ Cup starters filled out the trifecta. Sharp Azteca, the 3-2 favorite, took over from longshot pacesetter Americanize at the quarter-pole and cruised to a 5 ¼-length victory, with Mind Your Biscuits second and Practical Joke another 2 ¾ back in third. It was the fifth graded win and first Grade 1 for Sharp Azteca, who this year has placed in three other major onemile events: Dubai’s Godolphin Mile, the Met Mile and Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. The four-year-old son of Freud has earned more than $1.7 million. Jeff Scott writes about horse racing Tuesday in the Saratogian and The Record. He may be reached at utahpine1@aol.com.