The significance of the White Robe Lodge Handicap to South Island racing was not enough to stop the New Zealand Pattern Committee from downgrading the race from group 3 to listed status.
The committee on Friday released its annual report which analyses the country's black-type races and decides whether each event's status should change depending on the strength on its recent fields.
The report confirmed this year's White Robe would be downgraded to listed level because it had failed to meet its rating target in the past three seasons.
The Otago Racing Club appealed that decision after it was notified of the change.
The quality of last season's field meant the event was rated at 100.75 points, below its bare minimum target of 102.
The race was ideally meant to rate above 105 points, though that was allowed to drop below to 102 as the Pattern Committee allowed a tolerance level of three points on group 3 events.
That has been changed recently to a two point tolerance level, meaning last year's White Robe has dropped further from its minimum required rating in this year's report.
In an accompanying media release, it was explained the committee considered holding the race at its group 3 status considering its importance to southern racing, but it considered the race's failure to meet its rating targets, was not enough to enable it to keep its group 3 tag.
''The White Robe's importance in the calendar, as a key target for South Island horses, was examined at length by the NZPC but the committee considered that the weak race ratings outweighed this factor.''
The last three runnings of the White Robe Lodge Handicap rated from 100.75 to 101.58 points.
Although the Auckland Cup failed to meet its ratings target by a bigger margin, it will keep its group 1 status for the next
three years.
The New Zealand Pattern Committee followed the lead of the European racing jurisdictions, in taking an opportunity to place a moratorium on the downgrading of staying races, allowed by international racing authorities.
The past three runnings of the Auckland Cup have rated from 105.83 to 108, well below its target rating of 115.
The only other race to be downgraded by the pattern committee was the Taumarunui Cup, which lost its listed status.
