Grand Slam Turf Battle
What with all of Swifty’s talk of the multitude of variations that exist in tennis for the Grand Slam, I was surprised to notice that we have our own Grand Slam… the Grand Slam of Grass. And I thought the Triple Tiara was obscure!
The Grand Slam of Grass is relatively new, started in 2005 by Colonial Downs as a way to complete with neighboring Mid-Atlantic tracks with slots money. The series, open to 3 year olds, includes the Colonial Turf Cup, Virginia Derby, Secretariat Stakes (at Arlington) and the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Touted as the richest Grand Slam in sports, anyone sweeping the series would win over $5 million in purse and bonus money.
No one has swept the series yet but maybe Battle of Hastings will be the one to change that.
Grand Slam of Grass Series:
Yellow = repeat winners, Green = 3yo BC Turf winners
The first year of the series came the closest to having a sweep. English Channel, who just moved to Lane’s End (along with Candy Ride, who’s next?) kicked off the series with a bang taking the first two legs and placing in the third. He ran 5th in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, a race he dominated in 2007, and is one of only two horses who ran ITM to run in every leg of the series.
In 2006 Showing Up won the Colonial Turf Cup but skipped the Virginia Derby only to come back and win the Secretariat Stakes. He didn’t run in the BC Turf but Go Between, who won the Virginia Derby and ran 3rd in the Colonial Turf Cup, ran in every race in the series (6th in the Secretariat and 7th in the BC Turf).
Battle of Hastings is the first repeat winner since Showing Up and the first consecutive repeat winner since English Channel. His connections said they would make a decision about the Secretariat in a week or two.
Colonial Turf Cup:
(NTRA)
Virginia Derby:
(RedLemon)
Stretch run footage of the Virginia Derby and connection interview:
(James River News)
For the sake of argument let’s say that he does race AND win the Secretariat… the next step is the Breeders Cup Turf, a race that’s not restricted to 3yos. It’s not that it can’t be done, 7 of the 26 Breeders’ Cup Turf races have been won by 3yos. 27% is not fabulous, but it’s not hideous either. Of those 7 only 2 winners have been trained in the US. Battle of Hastings, while bred in Britain, is trained right here in the U.S of A… and the win percentage drops to 7.6% for U.S. trained 3yos in the BC Turf.
Before we get too down in the mouth about his chances let’s take a look at the 3yos that have won the Breeders Cup Turf.
2008: Conduit - Ireland
(BCWorldChampionships)
2006: Red Rocks - Ireland
(BCWorldChampionships)
2002: High Chaparral - Ireland
(BCWorldChampionships)
1994: Tikkanen - US (trained in France, on stud duties in Ireland)
(partymanners)
1989: Prized - US (born & trained by Neil Drysdale)
(BCWorldChampionships)
1986: Manila - US (born and trained by LeRoy Jolley)
(BCWorldChampionships)
1984: Lashkari - British
(cf1970)
Looking at the US trained 3yos, Florida bred Prized beat the previous year’s winner, Sunshine Forever (who finished 14th)… and it was his first time on turf! Manilla is ranked by Steve Davidowitz as the best long-distance turf horse in American racing history. Not a shabby group.
Can Battle of Hastings do it? Too soon to tell, but it doesn’t hurt that he’s got a fighting spirit to go along with his name… he’ll need it. Here’s hoping he’s the first to sweep the series!
Update: Check out Kennedy’s current top 10 for the BC Turf… and note there’s only one American, 6yo Presious Passion. Tough crowd for an American 3yo!
Posted by dana on Jul 20 2009
Filed Under: 2009, Colonial Downs, Arlington, Grand Slam of Grass, Racing History, English Channel, Breeders' Cup, Turf, Steve Davidowitz, Racing
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Bloodhorse article mentions:
The track has hired a marketing agency to push the series.
_______________________
But no mention if Colonial Downs took out an insurance policy at Lloyds of London. ;-)
I wouldn’t give the Secretariat to him even for the sake of argument. The Euros usually come to invade that race with their B list and I’ll take their B list 3YO over our best on the weeds any day.
Showing Up was some race horse. Rushed into the Derby, came back and dominated the 2006 3YO class on turf. Ran credible to older in the fall against Cacique in the Man o’War. Owns or owned a couple of track records. Never got to strut his stuff in the BC like English Channel did as an older horse. Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda…but he could have mad some noise as an older horse. Stands for 7,500. I’ll keep an eye out for them in 2 years when they start on grass.
TKS - who knows, they could have marketed it aggressively closer to home (is that what you meant?).
o_crunk - I’m just saying that *IF* he does win the Secretariat that there’s a lot to overcome. didn’t wanna get too tripped on that since the post is really about the series and how statistically tough it would be for US trained 3yo to take it.
I think I remember seeing somewhere that Tagg said Showing Up was one of the best he ever trained.
I also wanted to include replays of each year of the series, not many races were available but here’s Showing Up in the Secretariat… pretty incredible, thx for the tip o_crunk.
Ah, Tikkanen–wins the BC in the same year that his hockey-playing namesake wins the Stanley Cup with the Rangers. You can’t make this stuff up…
I was alluding to was that Colonial Downs is poised for a poor handle/attendance figures this meet.
They can ill-afford to sign a check for $5,000,000 to the connections of one horse at this time.
I’m thinking there must be some payment plan that was agreed upon with the inception of The Grand Slam. A plan that does not break the bank for any of the participating parties.
From the 2005 Bloodhorse article:
Jacobs Investments, a company owned by Colonial’s Downs’ chief executive officer Jeff Jacobs, has guaranteed a $5-million payday to a horse that sweeps the series. By offering a bonus estimated to be $2.8 million in addition the winner’s share of the purses of the four races, the $5-million payoff could lure European 3-year-old turf horses to America in advance of Breeders’ Cup day. A $2-million bonus was initially discussed.
Well the plan to attract top quality European three year olds to race in Virginia is not working. Why take the risk by continuing this extremely generous bonus?
ah, gotcha…. my guess is because if no top euros show up there’s only currently just under a 8% chance that an american 3yo can win the BC race IF they win the first three. seems like a reasonable gamble to get more talent to yr track / build a brand.
plus I think the bonus is 2mil, the 5mil includes all the purse money. still, not like 2mil is a tiny amount.
Dana,
since I gave you a bit of a hard time regarding your twitter habit I figured would stop by and visit to check your blog out, least I could do.
And I am quite impressed, bookmark in place, will be following, but not on twitter ;-)
Cranky
why thank you Cranky, and welcome to GbG!
glad you stopped by… although you’ll have to avert your eyes from the upper right hand section of the site :)
i hadn’t realized that davidowitz ranked manila as the best of all time; he won 11 of 14 on turf and was 2d thrice and was an outstanding horse, no doubt, and a favorite of mine, too.
but john henry was more accomplished over a longer period of time, and he actually stayed farther at the highest level, winning the G1 san juan capistrano at 1 3/4 miles, whereas manila’s longest win was at 1 1/2 miles.
it would be a nice debate, and there are others, too.
It was in his Best and Worst of… I just read those passages again and he mentions John Henry’s accomplishments at length but never compares the two or makes a direct argument for specifically putting Manilla above him.
He does say that in his opinion the 1986 BC Turf was the strongest grass race in BC history and “Frankly, there are no American turf horses in my lifetime that I would have favored to beat this outstanding performer at a classic distance.”
This was all before my time (as a horse player at any rate!) so I can’t really chime in with an opinion one way or another… interesting though. And in particular, it’s always interesting to know the criteria someone uses for their ranking… that’s almost more interesting to me than the ranking itself!