BY their nature Group 1 races are the gold standard when it comes to flat racing and deservedly so as a victory or a placing in these races is rather hard to come by in the vast majority of cases.

The ability that allows a horse to win or be placed in such races deservedly confers upon them an elite status and a level of prestige which is held above all other levels of competition.

As a whole the programme of Group 1 races in Europe works well but there are times when this array of top-level races and their structure requires examination. Such a time was last weekend when there were due to be three Group 1 events for two-year-olds staged in England and France.

That the Vertem Futurity was cancelled and rearranged for Newcastle last night isn’t important for the purpose of this discussion. Last year the scheduling of the Vertem Futurity, the Criterium International and the Criterium de Saint-Cloud with 24 hours of each other was brought up in this column.

Baffling

Now that another year has passed it yet again warrants a mention because of the baffling decision to have these races taking place on top of one another. Had the Futurity been run at Doncaster it would have attracted six runners and five of them hailed from Ballydoyle. The same afternoon’s Criterium de Saint-Cloud attracted what looked a competitive field and was won by the home-trained Mkfancy.

Then we moved on to the bizarre spectacle that was Sunday’s Criterium International at Longchamp. Where an initial field of four was due to line up, featuring two Ballydoyle colts, the Joseph O’Brien-trained Lady Penelope and the German raider Alson – not a home-trained runner among them!

On the day of the race Wichita was scratched and Lady Penelope had to be withdrawn after getting upset in the stalls which left the promising Alson to post a wide-margin success over Armory.

Under difference circumstances four horses would have lined up at Longchamp which would have made the race a good deal more interesting but a chance to reflect on events from last weekend makes it glaringly obvious that this Group 1 extravaganza for two-year-olds at the very end of the season does not make much sense.

The three races are run over seven furlongs, a mile and 10 furlongs so the various disciplines aren’t poles apart and have the potential for a reasonable degree of crossover even allowing for the fact that they take place in two different countries. How such scheduling has come to pass is hard to fathom and surely some remedial action is required as this is not how Group 1s should be structured.

Moved

One of these races ought to be at least moved. As outlined here last year, the Criterium International was created to replace the Prix de la Salamandre which boasted a roll of honour which will still have notable resonance 20 or 30 years from now.

There is limited evidence to suggest the abolition of the Salamandre been a beneficial one and maybe events like last weekend might indicate that the Criterium International should be moved elsewhere in the calendar and back into the slot of the race it replaced as there is something quite illogical about the scheduling of last weekend’s races.

It emerged last year from the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities that in 2017 49% of Group/Grade 1 races run globally did not meet the criteria for that standard.

Quite a few of these races took place in South America but a fall in standards wasn’t just confined to that continent and European racing would do well to consider what needs to be required to keep its Group 1 races at the standard expected of them.

Schedule

It is points like this that would make one consider the wisdom surrounding last weekend’s schedule. Furthermore, are we reaching a stage where the Group 1 programme in Europe needs to be at least maintained where it is or tightened up rather than expanded?

This calls to mind an item which surfaced lately where York Racecourse expressed the hope that the track’s City Of York Stakes could be upgraded to Group 1 level in due course. A seven-furlong three-year-old and upwards event, the race was run at listed level for almost 30 years but in the last four years has progressed to the stage where it was run at Group 2 level in 2019.

In 2018 the race was won by the subsequent Breeders’ Cup Mile hero Expert Eye and the previous year the third-placed Suedois went to win that year’s Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland.

That pair have been two fine recent standard bearers for the City Of York but beyond them the race’s recent past doesn’t quite convey the impression that this race is a Group 1 race in waiting.

Each and every racecourse is entitled to want the very best for its flagship events but it requires a quantum leap in thinking for a race that was run at listed level for so long to suddenly be considered a candidate for a Group 1 upgrade.

A top-heavy programme is not one that will serve European flat racing well, instead a less is more approach is what is required. The continent’s Group 1 racing needs to be maintained at a standard which makes a victory or a placing at this level as revered as it was 20 years ago. At the moment that doesn’t seem to be the prevailing state of mind.