Sc mile

[Tiff Severson]

Has anyone else been bothered by the fact that for aw milers there is one sc for milers 3 n up. I would not have been bothered by it until I went and entered my colt for the mile and it had 15 entries ( one has now dropped out), primarily 3 yr olds. There are separate sc races for aw juvenile milers, also for 3 n up dirt and turf milers. Is this in the works for change in the future?

[Leigh Ann Anderson]

My first thought is that the aw miler program is still developing, so maybe that's why all of the 3 and ups are lumped together?

My frustration with the SC involves no dirt mile for juvies and no turf routes for the 2 YO's. So, I guess all of the surfaces have a race (or two) they'd love to add.

[Nena Olson]

I doubt that the 3yos would get their own SC race. There isn't a SC race restricted for 3yos of any type. All the races are for 2yos or 3yo+ so I doubt that it will change. It's like the regular SC races that fall on Friday... not ALL horses are Steward's Cup worthy, so not every horse under the sun should be entered. Unfortunately, people are going to still enter every horse under the sun until the division develops even more and people are aware that not every horse is Steward's Cup worthy. If anything, it will be a SC AW Mile for 3yo and Older F&M but not anything other than that. It's largely based off of the real life Breeder's Cup.

-- ETA --

I realize now after I re-read your post, Tiff, that a gender separate F&M AW Mile may be what you meant, instead of a 3yo AW Mile. Sorry, I have a killer headache and I think it's getting me to the point of not thinking properly. Yay for headaches

[Marzy Dotes]

My favorite divisions tend to be the ones without SC races for two years olds, i.e. dirt miler, AW router and even turf routing. I might be in the minority but I don't mind not having a SC for any of these divisions and sometimes I wonder if that makes them more appealing. It's a different kind of challenge to try to develop a SC horse over two seasons rather than in the first season of competition. And I think for some like turf and AW routing it's an interesting challenge as well to do that.

For one thing the SC is already a lot larger and encompasses more breeds and types of racers than in the past. I admit I'm not affected b/c I don't have many SC entries except mixers now and then but I'm fine using the two year old period to develop my racers and seeing some divisions wait a little longer to get to the SC as like someone said, mirroring the BC. It's nice to have a horse that's good enough to be in the SC but for me, perfectly fine not to have one and have other goals. I'm happy enough now to see the progress that's been made in divisions like AW routing for example with expanded racing including stakes competition. That will have an impact on breeding AW horses with more studs and more bloodlines represented in the shed.

Sometimes entries make it in that might not be as competitive but the field size keeps the races themselves still quite competitive. The best horses still dominate those races.

Of all of the races mentioned, I think the one that might be the most frustrating might be not having an open and female AW mile for 3 and up as mentioned. That's worked out as being tougher for both male and female racers depending on which gender is stronger or more dominant any season but I think that division is still very much in development still. Hopefully in the future there might be a female one added when the division's developed.

[Talia Ichinari]

If the milers need anything they need a F&M mile, we've been hoping for years maybe it'll happen eventually when the boys work harder.

[Marzy Dotes]

I like what some of the boys have been doing lately in AW miler but yeah, the females still set the bar and quite well.

[Talia Ichinari]

We had one of the few male winners of the Mile last year. Usually the females dominate. Lately they've been doing better.

[Tiff Severson]

I ended up sponsoring a stakes for that week. While I have confidence in my boy I don't want to toss him into that mix. I may retire Quitting Time this season after week 16. While he may not hit the magic 350 he does bring in a little bit different bloodline since there are no aw miler sons of Astonishing at stud currently. It's still up in the air.

[Madelene Gilbert]

I'm late to the party, but I wanted to point out a few things:

As far as I can tell, the SC all weather races have only been carded for 5 years (starting Y29). These races have been open to 12 entries every year. However, we've only managed a full field in the mile one of those years (last year), and I'd argue that only half of those horses were real contenders. Considering the SC races are still drawing in "filler" horses, I don't believe the race schedule needs to be altered. When there's a year with 12+ real contenders and multiple stakes winners on the also-eligible list, then might be the time to consider a F/M equivalent. If it makes you feel better Tiff, the SC Sprint is the same way, and we don't even have SC races for juveniles!

If anything, I'd rather see the Juvenile run at 1 1/16 miles, rather than a mile, like the other surfaces. Then maybe more router trainers will be willing to enter and the fields won't be half full.