John Pricci

There are too many stakes races run in America, and the situation is getting worse every year.

And how do we know when too much of a good thing is enough? When more equals less, and that’s the case at the highest levels of thoroughbred racing.

Followers of the sport in recent years weren’t surprised last week when the American Graded Stakes Committee increased the number of graded stakes races to be run next year.

While there will be two fewer Grade 2s run in 2008, there will be three more Grade 1s and six newly installed G3s.

I can’t argue with the elevation of the Pilgrim, Miss Grillo, Southwest and Florida Oaks to graded status. The first two are natural preps for the new Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, the Southwest begins the road to the Arkansas Derby and the Florida Oaks has gained prestige with the addition of South Florida shippers into Tampa Bay Downs.

The proportion of graded stakes, and their delineation in relation to each other, makes sense, too. Over 22 percent are G1, almost 32 percent G2, and 45 percent are G3.

However, 718 open stakes is too many, as are the number of Grade 1s, set at 110 in 2008. Grade 1 racing represents the sport’s highest level and often defines championships. But to suggest that all G1s are created equal is folly.

The increase in the number of stakes in the modern era began in the mid-1970s after the great Secretariat was syndicated for a then unheard of $6-million. That stunning sum was the beginning of how the breeding industry — and not the sport of racing one man’s horse against another — ultimately would determine success in the thoroughbred business.

With fewer racing dates, no simulcasting, and three Triple Crown winners within six years —Secretariat, undefeated Seattle Slew, and the Affirmed/Alydar show — going to the races was a very popular alternative to mainstream sports.

Breeding syndicates began to replace family owned nurseries and that portion of the industry was beginning to be fueled by Japanese and European buyers purchasing our best bloodlines for racing and future breeding considerations.

Racing was becoming very big international business, and tracks began competing with each other in an era when star racehorses still attracted media attention and large live crowds.

Fueled by an increase in betting handle, more money was poured into newly created stakes with allowance and weight-for-age conditions becoming more prevalent. Resultantly, racing secretaries would either keep the highweight assignments of top handicap horses on the feathery side or go back to walking hots. New York even imposed a highweight rule, not to exceed 126 pounds.

Slideshow   The Week in Sports Pictures A kayaker flips out, a racehorse eyes the Triple Crown and more. more photos

With field size in stakes shrinking from opportunities to win and earn big purses elsewhere, horsemen, motivated by loyalty to owners and their own pocketbooks, began ducking "the big horse" with their own "big horse," even if you still had to ship to Belmont Park in the fall to win a title.

Parenthetically, it is no wonder it crossed John Gaines’s mind to come up with a series of championship defining races on one day, a Super Bowl for racing, paid by the proceeds of all those valuable stud horses and their toney progeny.

Given monetary success at the sport’s highest levels and with simulcasting about to enter its infancy, new tracks began to sprout up everywhere. This necessitated that graded events be created to engender a big time atmosphere at these new venues, forcing powerhouse tracks to begin lobbying for an upgrade of their own traditional races.