Several longtime Grade 1 stakes downgraded for 2019

Three stakes races have been upgraded to Grade 1 status and six races were downgraded from Grade 1 to Grade 2 as a result of the annual review conducted by the American Graded Stakes Committee, the organization announced Friday.

The three races upgraded to Grade 1 for their 2019 runnings are the Jaipur and Woody Stephens stakes at Belmont Park and the Churchill Downs Stakes at Churchill Downs. All three are sprint races, with the Jaipur contested on turf.

The six races downgraded to Grade 2 from Grade 1 are the Beldame Stakes at Belmont, the Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill, the CashCall Futurity at Los Alamitos, and three stakes held at Santa Anita – the Santa Margarita, the Triple Bend, and the Zenyatta.

In all, the American Graded Stakes Committee, which is administered by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, awarded grades to 450 stakes, five fewer than for the 2018 racing season. Ten stakes held at U.S. tracks in 2018 were no longer eligible for graded status, the committee said.

The committee has been under pressure to reduce the number of graded stakes in the United States due to the sharp contraction in races run at U.S. tracks over the past decade. From 2008-17, the number of races at U.S. tracks declined 24.9 percent, from 50,120 in 2008 to 37,628 last year, according to statistics from The Jockey Club.

The annual review is conducted by a panel of racing secretaries and racing officials who evaluate the fields of races eligible for grades. The grades are used to provide a shorthand for the quality of races that a horse raced in, principally for use in sales catalogs, but they also are used by racetracks to market the quality of their racing programs.

While the Grade 1 category lost three races, to 103, the committee assigned Grade 2 status to two more races than in 2018, to 131. Four fewer races were assigned Grade 3 status, to 216. Races eligible for grades are those stakes races that are non-restricted (other than by sex) with a minimum purse of $75,000.

The five races upgraded to Grade 2 status are the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, held this year for the first time as part of the 14-race Breeders’ Cup event; the Twin Spires Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs; the Gallant Bob Stakes at Parx Racing; the Eddie D Stakes at Santa Anita; and the Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga.

The six races downgraded to Grade 3 from Grade 2 were the Chilukki Stakes at Churchill Downs, the Barbara Fritchie Stakes at Laurel Park, the Bayakoa Stakes at Los Alamitos, and three stakes at Santa Anita – the Honeymoon, La Canada, and Santa Ana stakes.