[King Glorious]

When it's held in any place except California, it seems that the weather is almost always a factor or at least a concern. It's too often cold and raining and miserable. Santa Anita has hosted some great BC races in the past. The concern always heard about SA is that it's too hot. That was one time and personally, I'd rather they are racing when it's 95 degrees instead of this stuff we just had at Monmouth. My only concern is that they are racing on fake dirt in Cali and I don't like that and I think it's premature to be even considering awarding them another BC when they don't even know how this one will turn out because of the track. Under normal circumstances though, I wouldn't have any problem at all with it being at Santa Anita every year.

I still think that the BC is a great idea and a great thing for racing. At no other time do we get this kind of participation from horses from other parts of the world. At no other time do we get so many top horses matching up with each other. It's not the BC that has messed the sport up. It's the way horses are bred, trained, and raced now that has done the most damage. Tracks change up their prep distances and dates not because of the BC but because of how trainers train now. I just don't see the sense in blaming the BC when the BC has not changed. It worked fine in the beginning and still works fine now. Blaming the BC is like blaming the Derby because a lot of trainers are starting to go to the two-prep thing. When I first got involved with the game, having four preps was not unusual. Then it went down to three being the norm. With the recent good runs of horses that only prep twice and the way that many trainers like to copycat, I can easily see two becoming the norm. I can easily see more trainers holding out their 2yo's and starting them out as 3yo's because of the success Bernardini and Curlin had. The Derby is not to blame for any of this though because it hasn't changed. Other than adding a few more races, neither has the BC.