Is it just me or does it seem very few runners can close on the Keeneland surface? Either surface?
If you are just talking about a sample space from over the weekend, there were very strong winds (30MPH) starting Friday that lasted thru Sunday. They were strongest and most sustained Friday, but were still gusting upwards of 25-30 on Sunday. This discouraged closers as the headwind was in the homestretch (and made it pretty easy to cash some nice pick4s if you realized it!)
speed has been deadly going short. routes playing fair. not a ton of turf races to go on, but the ground has been pretty firm for the most part. both tracks have been great to handicap imo. let\'s hope the breakdown #\'s stay low with the firmer poly surface. I did notice an ugly breakdown on Saturday.
this Kee racing has been outstanding. a bunch of good looking young horses on the grounds (like GP). it\'s not the HANA #1 rated track in the nation for nothin. mile and a quarter allowance races that fill? when is the last time you saw mile and a quarter allowance races fill on dirt? 10? 20 years? a great sequence of races on Thursday. the 4th is a 10 deep two-year old turf allowance, 5th a very interesting 7f two-year old maiden, 6th a solid 9f allowance, 7th a 12 horse 10f allowance, and the grade 3 Sycamore in the 8 slot. don\'t like the 9th, but at least it\'s a 12 horse field going 1 1/16. and if the weather is crappy we lose just about nothing, as opposed to NY were bad weather has ruined a significant fraction of all the good racing days over the past few years. (now, I probably just jinxed the place, and we\'ll see 5 horse fields over the next 10 days. sorry)
when they first went to poly, nothing won on the front end...everyone was complaining.....and now we get this string. I have been a fan of this place ever since I first stepped on the grounds. They know how to treat their patrons well too, also voted the best simulcast facility in the country as well.
Keeneland is a special place. Enjoy it while you can!
Main track appears much tighter than usual this season. I unequivocally think they have scraped some of the cushion off and the windy, brisk days don\'t hurt the speedy slant either, esp. in sprints.
Speed and the rail on the main have been very good on numerous days this meet but its still advantageous to have a turf/synth background. Still maintain that an E/P type on the KEE turf is concurrently an auto toss (Summer Soiree) and a definite CD turf playback where the speed holds much better (Summer Soiree in Mrs. Revere).
They broke three track records yesterday alone (1-5/8mi, 1-1/16mi, and Beard course ~7F) and five all together this meet (Newsdad 1-1/4mi. on wednesday, & that 2yoF last wk @6F).