The Breeders’ Cup made news Thursday, right smack dab in the middle of the Triple Crown, with an announcement of the reconfiguration of the race schedules for the Friday and Saturday World Championship days. In case you missed it, the Breeders’ Cup said it has bundled all five of its 2-year-old races – the Juvenile, the Juvenile Fillies, the Juvenile Turf, the Juvenile Fillies Turf, and the new Juvenile Turf Sprint – and will run them on Breeders’ Cup Friday. In its release, the Breeders’ Cup said, “This year, and in the future,” the five Breeders’ Cup 2-year-old races to be run on Friday will be branded “Future Stars Friday.” This change is intended to be a solution to what appears from this vantage point to be the Breeders’ Cup’s struggle to find the right mix for Friday’s races since the Cup expanded to a two-day event in 2007. That first year, at Monmouth, Breeders’ Cup Friday consisted of only the three new Breeders’ Cup events – the Filly & Mare Sprint, the Juvenile Turf, and the Dirt Mile. In 2008, at Santa Anita, Breeders’ Cup Friday became an all-female affair. The Filly & Mare Sprint was joined by the new Juvenile Fillies Turf, as well as such Breeders’ Cup Saturday mainstays as the Juvenile Fillies, the Filly & Mare Turf, and the unfortunately named Ladies Classic, which a few years ago was mercifully returned to its original name of Breeders’ Cup Distaff. This “Female Friday” format actually lasted all of one year. In 2009, at Santa Anita, the ill-conceived Marathon was introduced on Breeders’ Cup Friday. In 2011, at Churchill Downs, the equally ill-conceived Juvenile Sprint took the Marathon’s place on the Breeders’ Cup Friday card. For the record, the Juvenile Sprint lasted all of two years. At least the Marathon made it through its 2013 running before having its official Breeders’ Cup status yanked. That the Breeders’ Cup has seen the need to tinker with its Friday format is, I think, revealing. This is probably a good spot for me to note that I have been on record (several times) stating that while I was a fan of a two-day Breeders’ Cup format at the outset, I have come to firmly believe that the Cup would be at its best, and have its greatest impact, if it reverted to a one-day event. Yes, I know. Good luck putting that genie back in the bottle. :: Visit DRF's one-stop shop for Black-Eyed Susan and Preakness PPs, guides, and more! Not coincidentally, I am also on record with the belief that there are too many Breeders’ Cup races, and that overflow risks diluting a brand that is critical to this sport. I strongly believe having official Breeders’ Cup races for turf sprinters is a mistake. Turf sprinters are a niche sub-division where, as handicappers well know, the margin of difference between the best and an average claimer is much smaller than it is for more traditional divisions. Besides, no one breeds or buys a young horse with the express intention of having a top turf sprinter. Turf sprinters are, by definition, horses who failed at other things, like racing on dirt, or over a distance of ground. Rewarding horses with Breeders’ Cup glory who are doing something (sprinting on turf, in this case) only because they couldn’t do other things with any real success makes no sense to me. But the Dirt Mile is the “new” Breeders’ Cup race with which I have the biggest problem. At its inception, I thought the Dirt Mile could be good if it were the catalyst for the creation of a coherent series of races for dirt milers over the course of the racing season. But the Dirt Mile has failed to achieve that, and at this point it is clear it never will. Instead, the Dirt Mile has actually caused damage by siphoning horses away from the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The Dirt Mile has morphed into a soft consolation prize, which, in my view, runs counter to what the Breeders’ Cup is supposed to be all about. So, will “Future Stars Friday” work? Right here, let me stress that despite the (correctable) flaws I see in it, the Breeders’ Cup will always be a great event that no one could ever truly mess up beyond repair. But “Future Stars Friday” smacks of gimmickry, a lot like “Female Friday” did. The Breeders’ Cup commands immense respect, and it is – or should be – much too good to resort to gimmickry. I do feel one sense of loss with this new Breeders’ Cup event schedule, and it involves the transfer of the Juvenile from Saturday to Friday. I loved having the Juvenile as the last Breeders’ Cup race on dirt before the Classic. There was an unspoken link there that seemed to say, “Here are your potential future stars of tomorrow in the Juvenile, and here, in the Classic, the very next dirt race, is what they might become.” That had a certain synergy I found extremely appealing. And now, it’s gone. Saturday notes: ** Saturday’s big card at Belmont got off to a delayed start due to a jockey’s action that resulted in a 37-minute delay of first post time. Even if the jockeys had a long list of legitimate grievances – I believe the scale of weights they must adhere to is inhumane, but that is an issue that has lacked a satisfactory conclusion for decades – there is little doubt the timing of this action was planned for maximum effect. And the most tangible result was a display of utter disregard for the fan - you know, the person whose betting dollars fund the entire show, the person whose betting dollars every other faction in the industry claws at to get their share. As unfortunate as this episode was, the New York Racing Association compounded the insult after the delay with its adjusted schedule of Saturday post times. Sure, 37 minutes is a lot to make up for during the course of an afternoon, but with an interminable 32 minutes scheduled between races at Belmont on Saturday’s 11-race card, there was ample opportunity to at least significantly close the gap. Instead, the NYRA essentially pushed everything down the road, and the last race of the day – the Grade 1 Man o’ War – which was originally slated to go off at 6:50 pm, had an adjusted post time of an unacceptable 7:22 p.m. Let’s just say that concluding an afternoon race card that isn’t related to the Triple Crown or Breeders’ Cup at 7:22 p.m. is not my idea of customer friendly. At all. Maybe you disagree. But thank goodness simulcasting affords other options, and allows the customer to begin and end his or her racing day when he or she wants to, not when a race track tells you. ** Hi Happy proved by winning the Man o’ War that he doesn’t need the hard footing he ran so well on at Gulfstream, where he won the Pan American. He’s legit. ** A Raving Beauty didn’t beat a strong field in Belmont’s Beaugay in her U.S. debut, but visually she was very impressive and she might match up well against tougher company. ** As if you didn’t already know that California 3-year-olds were having a big year again this season, the California-based Blended Citizen and Core Beliefs ran one-two in Belmont’s Peter Pan, well ahead of the rest of the field. ** Beyer Figures illustrate the big gap between the haves and the have-nots in this 3-year-old division. The Peter Pan got a preliminary winning Beyer of 90, while Santa Anita’s Laz Barrera, won by Kanthaka off the suitable cutback to a sprint, received an 88. That’s well short of what Justify, Good Magic, and, among others, an on-his-game Bolt d’Oro can do.