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STAKES RACES OLDER HORSES

Until the fall, three-year-olds do not mix well with older stakes horses. Most three-year-olds that brave these races get banged around badly.

An exception is the restricted stakes for 3up that bars former stakes winners, a soft spot for impressively improving three-year-olds. Restricted stakes limited to state-breds can be easy pickings as well for better three-year-olds previously preoccupied with Kentucky-breds and Florida-breds in the allowances and open stakes. In both situations, the latest numerical ratings earned by the three-year-olds will be clearly superior to anything in the field.

Obvious exceptions are the season's handful of super deluxe three-year-olds, distinguished already by their performances in the spring classics. By late summer or early fall, the truly outstanding three-year-olds will be challenging the stars of the older division in selected graded stakes. Their fate from season to season depends upon the quality of the older handicap division.

Under normal conditions, when the older handicap division is led by champions, near-champions, and classic winners of its own, a three-year-old must be genuinely supreme to defeat them. If the leaders of the older handicap division are talented but forgettable, ranking three-year-olds figure to upset.

But the bottom line for unexceptional three-year-olds in the stakes is harsh. Prefer older horses to three-year-olds in open, listed, and graded stakes of spring, summer, and fall.