HANDICAPPING INSIGHTS
JANUARY 4, 2013
by Dick Powell
New Year’s Eve saw a terrific trainer’s battle come down to the last race at
Aqueduct for most wins on the New York Racing Association (NYRA) circuit. David
Jacobson began the day one win behind Rick Dutrow but he was loaded on the day.
In the 5TH race, Driven by Solar went gate-to-wire to tie things up for
Jacobson, who came right back in the 6TH race to win with odds-on favorite
Perimele and draw ahead by one.
Dutrow wasted no time in reducing that margin, sending out Gallant Fields in
the 7TH race to beat Jacobson’s Big Business by two lengths to tie it back up.
Neither trainer had a starter in the 8TH race and only Dutrow had starters in
the 9TH race.
When his Point Taken drew in from the also-eligible list, it looked like
Dutrow had a big chance to get a hit in the ninth inning but the best he could
do was a third-place finish with Induce and finish in a tie with Jacobson as
they each had 110 winners in 2012.
For Jacobson — whose father, the late Howard “Buddy” Jacobson, was a
five-time leading trainer in New York in the 1960s — it was his first NYRA
title and it was the fourth for Dutrow.
Since coming back from a brief injury/rest, Ramon Dominguez has been getting
most of the Jacobson business, going seven for 10 together. Dominguez just
finished 2012 as the leading rider in New York for the fourth straight year. He
finished the year with 322 wins and wound up leading the country in purses with
more than $25 million.
What I find ironic about Dominguez’s connection with Jacobson is how it used
to be David Cohen picking up the vast majority of the Jacobson business. But all
that changed when Golden Ticket dead-heated with Alpha in the Grade 1 Travers
Stakes. Ken McPeek offered to ride Cohen first call in Kentucky and Cohen walked
away from a steady business in New York marked by high purses and his
long-standing connection to Jacobson.
Since leaving New York, Cohen has gone zero for 17 at Kentucky Downs, three
for 48 at Keeneland, eight for 69 at Churchill Downs and is currently two for 39
at Gulfstream Park. That’s a total of 13 wins in 173 rides for a win percentage
of 7.5 percent. Considering the purse levels that he left behind, there better
be more Grade 1 dead-heats in his future to make this move work.
The graded stakes allocation to races has been a joke for many years. This
past year, the historic Grade 2 Hopeful Stakes was still on the same plane as
the Grade 2 With Anticipation Stakes at Saratoga. Enough said.
On Saturday, the Grade 2 Jerome Stakes will be run at a mile and 70 yards for
newly-turned three-year-olds on the Aqueduct inner dirt track. Formerly run in
the fall at one mile, it was moved to the winter to give horses a chance to run
for valuable graded stakes points and gain eligibility to the Kentucky Derby.
But why would it retain its graded stakes status if it is run at a time of
the year when there are no Grade 2 stakes run at Aqueduct? Despite Grade 2
stakes points being available, only eight horses are entered for this year’s
Jerome and only one, Vegas No Show, is even graded stakes placed.
Not a prep race for the Grade 1 Wood Memorial in April, just what is the
Jerome? If it stays in this spot on the first Saturday of January and
continually attracts fields like this year’s renewal, it will be downgraded. But
for now, some horse is going to be designated as a Grade 2 stakes winner for no
apparent reason.
What is amusing about this is that the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders
Association (TOBA), the group that runs the American Graded Stakes Committee (AGSC)
which determines which races are graded, has been using graded stakes status as
a hammer to remove Lasix from being allowed on raceday.
They originally passed a rule that would have taken away the graded stakes
status of any juvenile race that allows raceday Lasix. When none of the state’s
racing commissions cooperated, or refused to be dictated to, they rescinded the
rule temporarily. Their goal is to remove the graded stakes status of any race
that is run where raceday Lasix is permitted.
So here we have TOBA and its AGSC dictating policy based on the premise that
graded stakes status is so important it will drive through the policy to remove
Lasix and they go and undermine the importance of graded stakes status by
allowing Saturday’s Jerome Stakes to retain its Grade 2 status. Go figure.