Graded Stakes Committee

[Ogygian]

How many people sit on this "committee"? What are their names and what past or present connections do they have to racing? And finally where does one find the reasoning or their analysis on why stakes are downgraded or moved up?

[robfla]

http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=tele&id=36627


Chairman of the American Graded Stakes Committee: Peter Willmott

Secretary of the American Graded Stakes Committee: Andy Schweigardt

there is a a five year window that the committee looks at and that is the five most recent runnings of a race.

And the committee looks at four statistical measurements for each of those years and that's the percentage of graded stakes winners in the race, it has a point system where a horse can earn points for finishing first, second or third in a Grade I, Grade II or Grade III.

And it's a sliding scale starting with most points for winning a Grade I and all the way down to finishing second in an open but ungraded stakes race. The committee has a measurement called quality points, which a horse earns for winning a graded stakes race and again, it's winning a Grade I you get a quality point that's worth more than winning a Grade III.

And then there's what's called a NARC rating, NARC standing for the North American Rating Committee. That is a committee of six racing officials from throughout North America and each week they review all open stakes races with a purse of $75,000 or more and assigned a rating.