Charles Town Classic turns spotlight toward worthy older horses

Isn’t it ironic that older handicap horses run for a lot less purse money than the 3-year-old colts and geldings? These star horses that exemplify class, talent and durability are not rewarded on a par with their Triple Crown brethren.

If you don’t think it’s true, look at a spring sampling of purse differentials between a track’s marquee handicap race versus its 3-year-old counterpart: Gulfstream Park’s $500,000 Donn and $750,000 Florida Derby, Oaklawn Park’s $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap and $1 million Arkansas Derby, Belmont Park’s $600,000 Met Mile and $1 million Belmont Stakes, Churchill Downs’ $600,000 Stephen Foster and $2 million Kentucky Derby. And Pimlico no longer offers the Pimlico Special, having only the $1 million Preakness.

That’s what makes Saturday’s $1 million Charles Town Classic a real throwback race. The West Virginia track with purses subsidized by mountains of slot-machine profits does not offer a Kentucky Derby prep. It put its gold eggs into a feature race for older horses.

I became interested in racing while following the lengthy careers of the great geldings Kelso, Forego and John Henry. There seemed to be more geldings then because the sport was racing first, breeding second. Remember that the mantra of racing is to improve the breed. One can only do that by measuring performance on the racetrack.

I will enjoy seeing older geldings such as Awesome Gem and Researcher facing off in the Charles Town Classic. Awesome Gem is a 7-year-old who has earned more than $1.7 million. He has done it the hard way too because he has won only six races lifetime.

Researcher is definitely a horse for the course. In 13 starts at Charles Town, he has won nine and has three seconds. The most intriguing horse in the race is Gone Astray, who is owned by Ogden Phipps and trained by Shug McGaughey. When was the last time a Phipps horse ran at Charles Town?

■ DERBY PREPS — It would be easy to dismiss Saturday’s long-shot winners of the Arkansas Derby and Toyota Blue Grass.

Line of David beat Super Saver and Dublin in a head-butting rumble at Oaklawn. It was the type of finish that could take a lot out of those horses.

The same can’t be said for Stately Victor at Keeneland. He was the only horse running at the end. His Beyer speed figure was a modest 94 rating. But Derby horses improve dramatically in the spring, so keep an eye on this one.

Rich Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.