Significant upgrading of races, over the next several months.

[Primevil]

FOUR jumps races were upgraded from Grade 2 to Grade 1 status on Tuesday, including the Jewson Novices' Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. The Mildmay Novices' Steeple Chase and the Mersey Novices' Hurdle, both at Aintree's Grand National meeting, and the bet365.com Celebration Chase at Sandown in April were the other upgraded races. A further four races were upgraded to Grade 3 status and five were boosted to Listed status, including first black type jumps races for Carlisle and Musselburgh. The submissions for upgrade were discussed by the BHA's jump racing committee at a meeting on July 3. Ruth Quinn, director of racing at the BHA, said: "The jump racing committee recently considered a number of applications for upgrade and we’re really pleased to be able to support four races being promoted to Grade 1." The upgrades bring the total of Grade 1 races at the Cheltenham Festival to 13, while the Grand National meeting can boast of 10. Simon Claisse, clerk of the course at Cheltenham and the Jockey Club's regional head of racing for the South West, said the Jewson upgrade reflected "the depth of strength in the race". Aintree also had two races upgraded from Listed to Grade 3 status: a 2m4f handicap hurdle at the National meeting in April and the early-season Grand National trial the Betfred Becher Steeple Chase. The other races upgraded to Grade 3 status were the Paddy Power Imperial Cup at Sandown in March and the Ladbroke at Ascot in December, both 2m handicap hurdle races. The John Oaksey National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival was granted Listed status along with the Shloer Chase (Cheltenham, November), the Colin Parker Memorial Intermediate Chase (Carlisle, October), the William Hill Hurdle (Kempton, October) and the John Smith's Scottish Triumph Hurdle (Musselburgh, February).

[erhaab1965]

Re: Significant upgrading of races, over the next several months. I think in recent years they have elevated the status of too many races. There are enough Gr1s at the moment, maybe one or two too many. Because of this there is a plethora of options for the genuine top class horses. A side effect is that some top races have lost their gloss. Take this weekends King George, in years gone by it was probably the biggest race of the summer with many weeks of hype and anticipation. This year it's just another big race with limited media interest. I remember in the past when it was a great race when we had the likes of Mtoto, Opera House , Dancing Brave etc... This year will we see another vintage renewal? Also some of the Gr1s for novices are only Gr1s in name as some of the performers can be Gr3 performers or sometimes not even that. Take the Triumph Hurdle or the Champion Bumper, how many of the horses who turn up in these races end up regular Gr1 performers? Even the Derby often refered to as "...the greatest race in the world..." ,how many who turn up end up as cabbages? I'd prefer top horses to turn up for Gr1s ,if you take the average OR of a Lockinge and the OR of the Arc' it is vastly different yet both Gr1s.