The Los Alamitos Derby deserves to be downgraded but the problem is that it shouldn't have been downgraded previously (in 2017).
When it was downgraded the last time, the previous 3 winners were Shared Belief who subsequently won the Pacific Classic, Malibu, Big Cap, etc., Gimme Da Lute who won 2 stakes at the subsequent Del Mar meet before injury stopped his career, and Accelerate who was 3rd in the BC Undercard Mile next out and later 2018 HOY.
To add insult to injury, the first winner for the newly Grade 3 race in 2017 was West Coast, who took the Travers and Pennsylvania Derby in his next 2 starts.
Of course, I'm sure none of this was lost on the Graded Stakes Committee, who probably sequester themselves and pour over results charts & PPS for a 2 week period ahead of every meeting...
Maybe if last year Flightline had run in the Laz Barrera (7f) month-and-a-half after his debut and then the Los Al Derby a month later instead of wasting his career in the barn he might have singlehandedly restored each race to at least Grade 2 status...
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