If horses are getting better .....?

[pgsheets]

Why aren\'t there any track records falling anywhere, except at Los Al and 5f grass sprints at GP.....

Yeah, yeah, the track surfaces are all changing.

\"Smarty Jones has left Secretariat in his wake. Big Red is still moving like a tremendous machine but no match for the great Smarty Jones...\"

Please.

[kev]

So I guess when on a very fast track, say a 40,000 clm breaks a track record, that means hes one of the great ones???

[pgsheets]

The question is a general one may have already been discussed.  These figs keep getting faster and faster of TG and yet no records fall.
How ?
Are they all 6w6w carrying 126 ?

It really doesn\'t matter since it\'s all about cashing tickets and beating the \"that\'s my number\" guy sitting next to you, but can you honestly see a scenario where Secretariats move in the Preakness or Belmont leaves him second best.

Again,

Please.

[HP]

PGSHEETS,

You have to be kidding! Maybe you should actually look up the track records...

Belmont

7 furlongs Left Bank 1.20 7/4/02
1 Mile Najran 1.32.1 5/7/03

Churchill Downs

Every track record up to and including a mile has been set in the last five years.

Pimlico

1-1/8 Turf Mr. O\'Brien 1.46.1 Preakness Day

Arlington

1-3/16 Tenpins 1.55 9/22/02

This is what I came up with in five minutes in the DRF and I left out a few. Come on. HP

[pgsheets]

Well done.

what were those figs ?

[HP]

I know Left Bank got like a -4. I bet Najran when he broke the record (at 4-1 it was stealing) and I\'m not sure what he got, but his previous top was a -1 and change (I think). He threw an off race in there which is why he was 4-1 for the record setter. As for the others I don\'t remember them...

The records are going down and the horses probably are getting a little faster (it seems to be the trend in every sport). Most of the facts support this proposition, and is it really worth arguing about? Matisse was great and so was Jackson Pollock. The end.

None of this will bring Big Red down in my eyes! In William Nack\'s \"Secretariat\", he has a chapter in there about the Triple Crown and Secretariat ran PROGRESSIVELY FASTER fractions throughout the Kentucky Derby. No horse has done that before or since. And five weeks later he ran the MONSTER TWELVE FURLONGS OF ALL TIME! We\'ll see soon enough... They don\'t give you a statue for winning the first two legs.

Smarty Jones\' fans may end up singing Meat Loaf.

\"So don\'t be sad.
Cause two out of three ain\'t bad.\"

HP

[pgsheets]

HP,

The off race Najran ran was as odds on at Keeneland.  I think the whole field beat him.
I remember the dominating win at Belmont, which may have actually been a classic 0-x-2 in terms of both figures and the betting pattern by the public.  That is the part of the 0-x-2 that is frequently overlooked or not understood by users. Big  price - short price - bigger price.

Thanks for the info and the wake-up call.

[HP]

I didn\'t mean to be so abrupt. I\'m typing something else at the same time I\'m doing this. All I remember is, given the field he was facing at Belmont when Najran broke the record I just tossed the Keeneland race.

Regards and good luck. HP

[pgsheets]

Bombasm deserves abruptness.

[Michael D.]

why were so many route records set years ago, while nearly all of the sprint records set just recently? ...my guess is that horses are bred more towards speed than they used to be. i guess you can say that times are not the best indications of ability, but TRENDS IN TIME are. somebody has to explain why most of the route records were set years ago, while just about every major sprint track record was set recently. somebody has to prove that EVERY MAJOR TRACK IN THE COUNTRY has gotten a lot slower, otherwise i will stick with my view that the secretariats, spectacular bids, easy goers, seattle slews and countless others ran routes just as fast as today horses.

[HP]

This is a fair point. I\'m not sure I agree that the older heroes ran just as fast, but it would seem that distance (especially OVER 9 furlongs) is a bit of an equalizer. HP