Very few substantive changes have been made in the listing of graded stakes for 2021, officials with the American Graded Stakes Committee announced Friday.Only one race, the Saratoga Derby, has been upgraded to a Grade 1 for next year, while no Grade 1 race contested in 2020 has been downgraded. The Saratoga Derby, which was won this year by Domestic Spending, subsequent winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby, was run in 2020 as an ungraded, $500,000 race.A press release from the committee overseen by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association said the ongoing pandemic was a factor in their decisions. The committee, which met Tuesday and Wednesday, “evaluated races conducted after the 2019 Breeders’ Cup through March 15 as normal,” said the release, “and races after March 15 were evaluated as normal, as well, but took care to consider any pandemic-related circumstances that may have affected, positively or negatively, the 2020 renewal.”The committee reviewed 849 U.S. stakes races with a purse of at least $75,000, and assigned graded status to 445 of them, three fewer than were graded in 2020.Three races, all on turf, were upgraded to Grade 2 – the Red Smith at Aqueduct, and two Kentucky Downs races, the Franklin-Simpson and Kentucky Turf Cup.Three races were downgraded from Grade 2 to Grade 3 – the Knickerbocker at Belmont, and the Palos Verdes and Las Virgenes at Santa Anita.Four races were upgraded to Grade 3 – the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint, the Tourist Mile at Kentucky Downs, and the Caress and Saratoga Oaks at Saratoga.Five races were downgraded from Grade 3 to Listed status – the Discovery at Aqueduct; the Palm Beach and Rampart at Gulfstream Park; the Red Bank at Monmouth Park; and the Sen. Ken Maddy at Santa Anita.