A New Way of Looking at the Derby Field?

Graded Earnings as a way to make the Derby is part of the sport, however, several race watchers and fans - like Mike Watchmaker - wants something new. "Indulto" penned his thoughts in a two part series at HorseRace Insider recently, and expounds on that here.

A Comparison of Current and Proposed Derby 2012 Eligibility Rankings

Total earnings in Graded Stakes versus cumulative points assigned to

finishes at various grade levels in the same races.

By Indulto

In a point system (PtBC) used by the Breeders' Cup, the place and show points

at each grade level match the win and place points at the next lower level.

PtBC	W	P	S
G1	10	6	4
G2	6	4	2
G3	4	2	1

In a point system (PtTR) defined at the “Thoroughbred Report” blog, finishing

2nd is also worth more than finishing 1st at the next lower grade level.

PtTR	W	P	S
G1	10	8	6
G2	7	5	3
G3	4	2	1

Cumulative earnings and finish point totals in Graded stakes as 2YO and 3YO

through this past weekend are reflected in the chart below. The top 24

earnings–qualified horses and the top 24 points-qualified horses are distributed

across the following 4 sections:

1) The top 24 earnings-qualified males of which 9 would not qualify on points.

2) The next 9 earnings-ranked males with highest point totals.

3) The top 10 earnings-qualified females of which 3 would not qualify on points.

4) The next 3 earnings-ranked females who would qualify on points.

----	Top 20 KY Derby Elig.	plus  4	A.E.	thru	03/	18/	2012	----
Earn	Horse	Earning	PtBC	PtTR	#GS	PtBC	PtTR	PtTR
Rank	Name	Total	Tot	Top	WPS	Rank	Tot	Rank
1	Hansen	1400000	16	10	3	8	16	10
3	Union Rags	1070000	28	10	4	2	32	2
5	Creative Cause	686000	34	10	6	1	41	1
6	Sabercat	601429	4	4	1	76*	4	78
8	Wrote(IRE)	556630	10	10	1	16	10	25
10	Secret Circle	470000	12	7	3	14	13	17
11	Dullahan	405000	12	10	2	12	13	14
12	Liaison	393000	10	10	1	17	10	26
13	Prospective	365452	8	7	2	28*	9	31
14	Drill	300000	22	10	3	5	25	5
19	Excaper	240736	6	8	1	32*	8	32
20	Algorithms	240000	4	4	1	78*	4	80
22	Basmati	220000	2	2	1	125*	2	125
23	El Padrino	200000	8	7	2	29*	10	29
25	Optimizer	181375	12	6	3	15	16	11
26	Alpha	180000	10	8	2	21	12	19
27	Trinniberg	174500	10	8	2	23	13	16
28	Majestic City	170000	14	8	3	10	18	7
29	Rousing Sermon	170000	8	8	2	27*	11	23
31	Finale	153345	----	----	----	----	----	----
32	I'll Have Another	151000	10	7	2	24	12	20
33	Castaway	150000	4	4	1	80*	4	82
34	Currency Swap	150000	10	10	1	18	10	27
36	Daddy Nose Best	145558	4	4	1	81*	4	83
44	Brother Francis	120000	6	6	2	46*	8	37
45	O'Prado Again	120000	6	7	1	40*	7	41
53	Jack's in the Deck	105000	8	7	2	30*	10	30
54	Gemologist	103855	6	7	1	41*	7	42
59	Vexor	91000	6	7	1	45*	7	46
61	Overdriven	90000	6	7	1	42*	7	43
62	State of Play	90000	6	7	1	43*	7	44
63	Thunder Moccasin	90000	6	7	1	44*	7	45
85	Power World	61354	6	5	2	47*	7	48
2	My Miss Aurelia(f)	1350000	26	10	3	3	27	3
4	Stephanie's Kitten(f)	800446	16	10	2	7	17	9
7	Grace Hall(f)	560000	20	10	3	6	23	6
9	Weemissfrankie(f)	522120	24	10	3	4	26	4
15	Now I Know(f)	300000	4	4	1	77*	4	79
16	On Fire Baby(f)	286729	16	7	3	9	18	8
17	Killer Graces(f)	266200	12	10	2	11	12	18
18	Yara(f)	260000	6	7	1	37*	7	38
21	Stopshoppingmaria(f)	240000	10	8	2	20	13	15
24	Self Preservation(f)	183040	6	8	1	36*	8	36
35	Eden's Moon(f)	150000	10	10	1	19	10	28
37	Reneesgotzip(f)	140000	12	8	2	13	15	12
50	Charm the Maker(f)	116400	10	8	2	22	14	13

Note that a) Horses that would not currently qualify on points are indicated by an

asterisk following their rank, and b) Canadian G3 winner, Finale, was not ranked

due to its absence from the schedule/results data base at thoroughbredreport.com.

Further information about the chart, its data sources, and the motivation for this

analysis may be found at:

http://www.horseraceinsider.com/The-HRI-Readers-Blog/02292012-the-kentucky-derby-grading-the-road-ahead

http://www.horseraceinsider.com/The-HRI-Readers-Blog/the-kentucky-derby-grading-the-road-ahead-part-2