THE POWER SPRINTERS

Until 1990, the Breeders' Cup Sprint aside, only one sprint stakes in the United States came adorned with the Grade 1 label. It's the Vosburgh Handicap, contested at Belmont Park during fall. All other sprint stakes were Grade 2 or below, an inducement to horsemen to run their fastest horses over ground.

Any horse that has won a Grade 2 sprint qualifies as an elite sprinter. If that horse has also won Grade 1 or Grade 2 events at middle distances, it deserves marquee billing as a sprinter whenever it runs the shorter distances. The stamina it has displayed in routes means it can repulse any sprinter that depends ultimately on brilliance alone.

Remember this: the very best sprinters are the brilliant types that can carry the brilliance at middle distances versus graded stakes stars. The pure sprinters of the thoroughbred world cannot do that. Few horses can.

My education here began early. When I started as a handicapper in 1971, the great Ack Ack was king of the land. Ack Ack that year carried 134 pounds and won the 11/4 mile Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup wire to wire, without tiring. Months later Ack Ack set the still-standing track record at Del Mar for 51/2 furlongs (1:02.1). Horse of the Year for his feats of brilliance on the front of classic routes, when Ack Ack sprinted, no horse stood a chance against him. Ack Ack was also voted best sprinter that year. He devastated the fastest sprinters on the grounds like flicking insects away.