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Dear Sirs,

The undersigned below believe that AGSC should rework the graded stakes to foster competition and to describe in more detail a horse's accomplishments.

Today, once a horse wins a Gr 1 there is a greater incentive to avoid defeat than there is to go on and add to their accomplishments. From the owners perspective they risk not only injury to their horse but also the reputation. Consequently the quality of prestigious races often thins as the year progresses.; more horses get their respective Gr I wins and decide to avoid serious competition until the Breeder's Cup. This has created an unfortunate result: The Breeder's Cup has become the championship race and not the culmination of a championship season.

The AGSC has vast resources at its disposal to compare races from different tracks and categories using an enormous range of qualifiers. We find it a shame that once acutely cut and dissected the resultant apriori "race quality" is then bluntly separated into only 3 categories.

We the below would like to see a more specific value given to the races and to the finishers within the race. A building of wins and placings values would be beneficial not only to the fan, but the breeder. A value based approach would encourage trainers and owners to race more as accumulation of points is needed to separate their charge from the rest. Finally it would bring the AGSC back to the prominence it once held as the catalogue page would once again show true value and wrest control away from the Breeder's Cup 2 day event.

Sincerely,
The undersigned