Going long at Belmont Park
With the addition of three new stakes announced last Wednesday, the New York Racing Association has created more opportunities for distance horses at the Belmont spring meet. The races include two for older fillies and mares, the $200,000 Belmont Coronation Invitational at 1 15/16 miles on turf and the $150,000 Rags to Riches Invitational at 1½ miles on dirt. A third new race, the $100,000 Flat Out Stakes for older males, will be run at 1 3/8 miles on dirt.
The new dirt races are especially welcome. While the number of distance events on that surface has increased in recent years, in 2015 there were only six graded stakes beyond 1¼ miles: the Belmont Stakes and Brooklyn Invitational at Bel-
mont Park; the Tokyo City Cup at Santa Anita and Cougar II Stakes at Del Mar; the Greenwood Cup at Philadelphia Park; and the two-mile Marathon Stakes, a supporting race on Keeneland’s Breeders’ Cup program. The Rags to Riches and Flat Out should bring this year’s total to seven or eight, depending on whether Santa Anita offers a version of the Marathon Stakes at the Breeders’ Cup. [The
Breeders’ Cup Marathon was discontinued in 2014.]
Staying races are important because they help identify horses with uncommon ability at longer distances, information that might be of value to anyone interested in breeding for such races as the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic – which ought to include almost everyone. Staying events also provide a welcome change of pace on American racing cards that are increasingly topheavy with races at sprint distances. While NYRA is to be commended for cre-
ating these new stakes, in particular the two on dirt, no one is under the illusion that these races by themselves will have much of an impact. In order for that to happen, at least three things would need to occur more or less simultaneously.
First, there would need to be a lot more races like the Rags to Riches and Flat Out offered at tracks across the country. This would require the kind of organized, collective effort in which American racing, with its dozens of individual fiefdoms, has shown limited interest.
Second, these races would need to be well funded. With purses no higher than those for state-bred and overnight stakes, the Rags to Riches and Flat Out are going to have serious trouble attracting good horses. They’re also going to have trouble achieving graded status. Larger purses would indicate that tracks consider these races significant additions to their calendars.
Third, and most im-
portant in the long run, the breeding industry would need to be brought on board. Stud farms would have to consent to stand more stallions who have been successful in staying races; breeders would have to be willing to support them with decent mares; and buyers would have to be willing to pay decent money for the resulting foals.
The odds may be against them, but one still hopes these new Bel-
mont races will become established parts of the spring schedule. This would more likely happen if their purses were substantially higher than they are now, even if money had to be shifted from such over-funded races as the Woody Stephens ($500,000) and Dwyer Stakes ($500,000).