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POST PARADE OCTOBER 15, 2013 Doing what's best by Vance Hanson The mantra of "doing what's best for the horse," often used by horsemen as a riposte to criticisms that their champion steed is engaged in an ambitiously-challenged campaign, is, at its core, an argument hard to refute. Who else but those personally involved with the day-to-day care and well-being of the animal in question is better to judge where its long-term interests lie? The irony is that its usage is almost entirely limited to explaining why horses are not running in a specific race or races. In nearly three decades of following the game, I don't think I've ever heard the phrase used as a bottom-line justification for running. This observation has been triggered by the news that the connections of Princess of Sylmar, the nation's leading three-year-old filly, have not completely ruled out a trip to California for the Breeders' Cup Distaff, reversing an earlier claim in the wake of her victory over dual champion mare Royal Delta in the September 28 Beldame that her season was done. A trip to the Breeders' Cup would normally be a no-brainer but for the fact Princess of Sylmar would have to be nominated to the tune of $100,000 in order to compete. The filly has earned more than $1.5 million in prize money this year, but the fee can hardly be considered chump change, even for owners with relatively deep pockets. There would certainly be some things to gain by running, both tangible and intangible. The Distaff's $2-million purse is easily the richest on offer for fillies and mares in this country, and Princess of Sylmar is currently in the form to have a good shot at winning the largest share. The prestige of the race also can't be denied, with an honor roll overflowing with Hall of Fame names and those of future inductees. On the flip side, there is an incredible amount to lose. With consecutive wins in the Kentucky Oaks, Coaching Club American Oaks, Alabama, and Beldame, the latter over the nation's top older mare, Princess of Sylmar virtually sewed up champion three-year-old filly honors weeks ago. One might dispute how important championships are in the grand scheme of things, but they do give racing some semblance of being an actual sport, nor do they look so bad on a catalog page. Over an unfamiliar track that has a history of being kind to horses with a particular running style on Breeders' Cup day, Princess of Sylmar's secure hold on a championship could be stripped in a matter of strides, and there are two serious contenders to the throne hoping to overthrow its present occupant. The speed-crazy Beholder, who is undefeated in four starts around two turns at Santa Anita, is an obvious threat. Princess of Sylmar beat her by a half-length in the Kentucky Oaks, but the title could easily be won by the Richard Mandella trainee if given the opportunity to avenge that loss. Close Hatches is a bit of a longshot, but would certainly be worthy of a championship if she were to upset the Distaff. She is the only horse to have beaten Princess of Sylmar this year (by 3 1/4 lengths in the April 6 Gazelle at Aqueduct), and though she was a well-beaten seventh in the Kentucky Oaks, she would have a 2-1 edge over that rival if she were to beat her again in the Distaff, a race she enters off back-to-back wins in the Mother Goose and the Cotillion. The Breeders' Cup is undoubtedly great theater when the very best in training face each other and divisional championships are decided. However, history shows the series is not the be all and end all, and titles can and have been won long before the big day's arrival. If the connections of Princess of Sylmar ultimately decide to run her in the Breeders' Cup Distaff, I hope they do so only because it is what's best for the horse. *** Hall of Fame baseball player Roger Maris was long perturbed at the suggestion that his single-season record of 61 home runs, set in 1961, required an asterisk in the record books as he needed 162 games to surpass the mark set by Babe Ruth, who hit 60 home runs in just 154 games in 1927. While that matter is best left for baseball fans and historians to argue about, there are some records in Thoroughbred racing, particularly associated with dollars earned, that should require an asterisk if not total revision. On Sunday, jockey John Velazquez officially surpassed the retired Pat Day's all-time money-earning record. Velazquez's mounts have now earned the tidy sum of $297,922,320. Ballooning purses over the past three decades -- really since the advent of the Breeders' Cup -- have made such gaudy figures possible. However, inflation over a much longer period has diminished the real value of each and every one of those dollars. Several years ago in this space, I wrote that Kelso would still be among the country's all-time leading money winner if his earnings, accumulated in the first half of the 1960s, were adjusted for inflation. If it was possible for me to mathematically fine tune the earnings records of several past champions using the Consumer Price Index tables, surely it is possible for the sport's record keepers to do the same. This is surely no indictment on the career of Velazquez, a worthy member of the Hall of Fame who presumably has many great years of riding left. But for this particular record to have any meaning requires the adjustment of earnings by horses, trainers, and jockeys in the past better to reflect how much those greenbacks would buy today.
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