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.
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.
Looking at the US trained 3yos, Florida bredPrized 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!
This morning I, probably along with other bloggers, received an email from someone named Robert Gately politely informing me that he had recently converted some super 8 footage of Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed in their Triple Crown stretch runs in the Belmont and that I could feel free to share the clip if I wanted.
My access to almost anything at work is extremely limited so I had to wait until I got home to have a look…
Thank you Robert Gately! How great is it to have a close up, clear look at these immortals in the parade? They all look fantastic too although I have to say that I think Alydar looked a little a better, good thing I wasn’t wagering. Enjoy!
This year I may cut down on the number of signs, or tulle (Colin’s Ghost)
Ok, not really… but just in case you too are a procrastinator, here are some worthwhile endeavors when you’re not looking over the excellent Belmont under card.
I still have yet to receive my Belmont tickets, allegedly mailed on Monday… if only they had that new fangled online ticket purchasing! There’s still time to get in on the “one day only” the Breeders’ Cup ticket pre-sale available to those who follow the Breeders’ Cup on twitter… or who know who to get to their twitter page.
Raceday360 is back, and hopefully Blinkers Off will be lurking around Belmont!
Here’s a new source for information… Horse Racing Nation recently launched is planning on building a database of horse profiles, among other things. Check out their Belmont contenders page, you can click on the name of each entrant to get to the profile, which include race replays. I’ll be watching some of those tonight! The Futures Stakes tracker is helpful too.
And if you’re looking for something to do offline, you can always read a book… such as Off to a Flying Start, a look at horse racing lingo in everyday language. Pick up a copy at the NYRA bookstore on Saturday!
Update: in the time it took to write this post, Swifty called to inform me that our tickets have arrived. I suddenly feel as though I’ve accomplished something, thanks Swifty!
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