The Corner with Garry Chittick

Well, I got a bit behind last week, with Friday slipping by without realising it; hence no Corner. I have said on too many occasions that negative messages are of no help to anyone, and yet there seems so often a reason to be concerned. Clearly, this week the well-constructed Guerin Report on the threatened downgrade of our Group 1 races demands our attention.

The ‘Graded Stake’ was initiated by the sales companies as a method of easily identifying quality races, adding easy identification in catalogue pages. The importance of these gradings has justifiably grown in stature and importance as a supposed uniform measure of racing performance around the world. Our respective Graded Stakes Committees have determined the required ratings of starters per race to maintain the Group rating. Various handicappers rate the horses, and so the amalgamation of rated horses and numbers of rated horses per race confirm, or otherwise, the Group status.

There was, and still may be, an acceptance that 5% of all races run in the various jurisdictions which in turn are divided with the pinnacle of a small number of Group 1 races.

There are, however, many variations, usually tweaked to suit the commercial needs of different regions. Many years ago when excited by the ranking of a sire prospect from the USA only to discover his grading was recognised in the state he raced.

Ireland, world-class marketers, have a significantly higher percentage of graded races, and so, despite the best intentions, the integrity and purity of this measure is not to be treated lightly, but we need to keep our feet firmly planted, making sure we do what is best for ourselves.

I was a privileged member of our Graded Stakes Committee 25 years ago; the debates are the same, at the time, our 2000 Guineas was under threat – it still is, it seems we are guilty of insufficient numbers of rated competitors, regardless of the quality of the winner. I recommend you Google the history of the winners who have left our shores and performed at the highest level in Australia, you will be pleasantly surprised. So how do we overcome this issue, with such a high percentage of our young horses exported both as yearlings and, more importantly, up-and-coming racehorses, retaining sufficient rated horses seems unlikely to change.

One member of our group during my tenure suggested why were we saddling (excuse the pun) ourselves with a criteria determined by jurisdictions whose racing is distinctly different from ours. After all,  if the measure is about marketing, we predominantly sell to Australia, so why not our own Australasian Group criteria. Oh, what about Hong Kong. Well, our own benchmark would still allow them to measure the performance they require.

We apparently have seven of our 18 Group 1s on the watch list. Good luck to those negotiating on our behalf, I know how important this is. We all love a Group 1 win, however, if the 2000 Guineas was downgraded, I would still love to win the race. Would it affect a sale price – clearly no, after all there can only be one winner.

Regretfully I won’t win this year; Mary and I share two three-year-olds that won’t be affected by any Group 1 status, but we have been lucky enough to have had seven starters for the year, six of those are winners with the seventh succumbing by only half a head. Every year is different – this is certainly a change from last year, long may it last.

A remarkable spell of spring weather is resulting in healthy horses doing the right thing. The yearlings look outstanding, mares are conceiving. It is a major concern the decline in numbers bred. This is international, Mark asked this morning how do we turn this trend around. Honestly, I don’t know. I do know this is not the time to be stuffing around with our more important races.

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