{"id":102538,"date":"2025-12-20T11:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T11:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/102538\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T11:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T11:40:10","slug":"another-brutal-blow-for-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/102538\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Brutal Blow for California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, December 19, 2025 at 4:20 pm |
\n Back to: Top News<\/a> <\/p>\n

Updated: December 19, 2025 at 5:12 pm<\/p>\n

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Tom and Nolan Ryan | SF Bloodstock<\/p>\n

By Tom Ryan<\/p>\n

California racing just got dealt another brutal blow. In a year when this sport should be doing everything possible to stabilize a fragile circuit, the loss of Grade I status<\/a> for the Frank E. Kilroe Mile and multiple downgrades at Santa Anita and Del Mar is very concerning.<\/p>\n

When you strip premier events in the middle of a wagering and field-size crisis, you’re not \u201cprotecting the integrity of the pattern,\u201d you’re accelerating the decline of one of the game’s few remaining flagship jurisdictions. This outcome might look neat on a spreadsheet, but on the ground in California it means fewer top-class opportunities, weaker cards, and less incentive for owners to keep investing in this circuit.<\/p>\n

Hard to talk about \u201cnational balance\u201d when Kentucky adds a Grade I turf sprint and fresh upgrades at Churchill and Kentucky Downs, while California absorbs a net loss in graded quality. At a time when the industry says it wants West Coast stability, this grading slate feels like the exact opposite of leadership.<\/p>\n


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\n This story was posted in Top News<\/a> and tagged American Graded Stakes Comimittee<\/a>, california racing<\/a>, downgrade<\/a>, Frank E. Kilroe Mile<\/a>, Grade I races<\/a>, Graded Stakes Committee<\/a>, Letter to the Editor<\/a>, SF Bloodstock<\/a>, TOBA<\/a>, Tom Ryan<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday, December 19, 2025 at 4:20 pm | Back to: Top News Updated: December 19, 2025 at 5:12…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[55686,7,9,8,29108,55687,55688,55689,55690,41264,55691,55692,55693],"class_list":["post-102538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-american-graded-stakes-comimittee","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-racing","tag-downgrade","tag-frank-e-kilroe-mile","tag-grade-i-races","tag-graded-stakes-committee","tag-letter-to-the-editor","tag-sf-bloodstock","tag-toba","tag-tom-ryan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}