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Article: GRADE I STAKES: THE PRO TOUR OF HORSE RACING
- Article from:
- THE JOURNAL RECORD
- Article date:
- October 6, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) The Journal Record. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Golf, tennis and bowling all have their professional tours, long
strings of major events that wind across the country and through the
calendar.
Fans keep close count of the leaders in tour victories, an
imperfect but useful way to measure consistency and achievement.
Thoroughbred racing also has its version of the pro tour, though
no one seems to know it.
Of the more than 80,000 races that will be run this year in
North America, about 2,700 are stakes races, events with names and
extra purse money to draw top horses.
Each year, a committee of breeders and racing officials meets in
Kentucky to consider which 500 or so of those 2,700 races deserves
to be ``graded,'' listed as ...