Quote:
Originally Posted by RolloTomasi
I wouldn't agree that the Prioress is merely a "prep" for the Test. I don't think, generally speaking, horses, particularly sprinters, are really prepping from one race to the next in midseason. In the realm of strictly 3yo filly sprinters (which is by no means some mother lode of great racing talent) it lays a decent enough claim to its Grade 1 ranking. The last 4 runnings of the Prioress have produced at least one subsequent Grade 1 winner each. In several of the last few runnings, there has been at least one previous Grade 1 winner entered in the race. That's no mean feat when you mention that there are only a couple of Grade 1 races for the 3yo sprint division to begin with.
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It's not "merely a prep" for the Test, but when how often do you hear connections say that they are pointing to the Prioress? If you look at horses like Fanny Freud and Dream Rush, their connections had stated that they were pointing to the Test, and the Prioress was the bridge to get them there.
Maybe it's just a matter of how you view "Grade I" racing. To me, Grade I ratings should be reserved solely for "championship" quality races. (There are far too many that have the designation these days, but that's another discussion.) While the Test has generally had deep fields worthy of the designation, the Prioress has often not had fields of similar depth or quality. It's not to say that the Prioress is a "bad" race, I just don't believe it's worthy of a Grade I designation.