TO JERRY RE:TRACK SURFACES

[high roller]

As many breeders change their strategies to appeal to the sales market, it should follow that this would put the traditional breeders at an advantage. The farms that keep their stock for racing, and still breed for soundness rather than speed, should be able to win big races while the fragile, speed types fall by the wayside. However, this is not the case. Two of the reasons are track surfaces and medications.

Within the last 20 years, there has been a major change in the way racetracks manage their racing surfaces. In the mid-80s tracks, in general, were deep, safe, and slower. But now, in order to draw the high-priced, speed-slanted three-year-olds, track managements will accommodate them by making their surfaces as fast as possible. Two examples that come to mind from this year\'s Triple Crown prep races are Bellamy Road\'s (Concerto) wire-to-wire victory in the Wood Memorial (G1), where he earned a 115 BRIS figure, and High Limit\'s (Maria\'s Mon) front-running domination of the Louisiana Derby (G2).

hi jerry, this was on bris tonight, you always say secreteriat would be a slow horse today, maybe he and forego would have kicked ass on today\'s surfaces and gotten negative numbers?

[miff]

High Roller,

No Way!! Secretariat would not even be competitive with todays runners, just ask Jerry.Also tracks are much slower today and the cushion is deeper, blah, blah, blah and horses are ten lenghts faster.Don\'t you see it everyday at every racetrack? No? Pssst, no one else does either, except Jerry.

A lot of tracks are considering switching to polytrack surfaces. Woodbine is the latest. Many handicappers seem to believe that turf runners like the polytrack surface better than a more standard dirt surface.

If polytrack becomes widely popular over the next decade and a lot of major stakes races start getting run over it, I wonder if there will be a slight shift in the breed over the very long haul if more turf pedigrees and turf horses begin winning major non-turf stakes.

I also wonder if the Europeans will eventually start dominating our non-turf races too.

[basket777]

On saturday I will buy the entire set of sheets. The thnig the farthest from my mind will be if horses are faster today than even yesterday. I will try to turn as much profit as i can. You think anout the past as we use the numbers for the present.

Thank you

[HP]

Yeah Basket, but when we die and go to the racetrack in heaven, who\'re you gonna bet on THEN, huh?  I think they have Secretariat going against Forego practically every day up there (equal weights).  HP

[TGJB]

High Roller-- People have said here several times some variation of, slow times are because of the horses, fast times are because of the track. If you go to the archives section of this site, you will see \"Are Racehorses Getting Faster\". If you read parts 1 and 1A, you will see that tracks are getting deeper, with the idea of making them safer, and sandier, with the idea of getting them to dry out quicker, which makes them slower when dry than those with higher clay content, and slower overall than those with less of a cushion.

Since there are no machines to tell us how fast tracks were and are, the best way to do it is exactly the way we do it-- as was pointed out by one of the scientists who has studied the surfaces themselves, see the quote in the DRF Expo presentation, also in the archives.

[basket777]

Wow if they do the trainer must be ocar B. and his tounge ties. But really sometimes in a classic race its just fun to watch. I do still think its a sport.

[Easy Goer]

Ah, yes. Point us back to that infamous novel entitled
\"The World According to Graph\".

[TGJB]

Uneasy-- no, I\'m pointing you back to research and analysis. You are welcome to supply some of your own.