Poly speed disaster at keeneland

If you are a trainer or an owner who owns or trains a horse who has speed(the trademark characteristic of good tbreds) then Keenelands new poly track is definitely not the place for you.

4 racing days so far, 29 "poly races" have yielded ONE wire to wire winner.
Sounds like a great deal to me!!! LOL!!!

Originally Posted by oracle80

If you are a trainer or an owner who owns or trains a horse who has speed(the trademark characteristic of good tbreds) then Keenelands new poly track is definitely not the place for you.

4 racing days so far, 29 "poly races" have yielded ONE wire to wire winner.
Sounds like a great deal to me!!! LOL!!!

Yeah speed is sucking bad. They did a little better today with a coulpe of seconds but still only 1 winner.

[TitanSooner]

makes it easier for me to handicap.. chuck the speed. wow

Originally Posted by TitanSooner

makes it easier for me to handicap.. chuck the speed. wow

As soon as I do that then speed will win.

[TitanSooner]

lol.. me too!

[randallscott35]

The only disaster today is this crazy Cory Lidle story. I don't know the attraction these guys have to these little planes that are death traps. Very sad.

[Gander]

I bet Spanish Chestnut on Saturday. He looked very strong halfway through the race. I thought I had a winner, but he stopped very badly in the stretch.

[alysheba4]

Originally Posted by oracle80

If you are a trainer or an owner who owns or trains a horse who has speed(the trademark characteristic of good tbreds) then Keenelands new poly track is definitely not the place for you.

4 racing days so far, 29 "poly races" have yielded ONE wire to wire winner.
Sounds like a great deal to me!!! LOL!!!

.......glad you brought this up oracle, last sunday i had win plays on 2 horses.....cant remember the races, both horse looked home free gate to wire.......then both made a weird shift / stagger towards the rail its like they hit quicksand at the same point. hell with that stuff my friend...... i was home clear on an easy lead deep stretch both times and lose

Originally Posted by alysheba4

.......glad you brought this up oracle, last sunday i had win plays on 2 horses.....cant remember the races, both horse looked home free gate to wire.......then both made a weird shift / stagger towards the rail its like they hit quicksand at the same point. hell with that stuff my friend...... i was home clear on an easy lead deep stretch both times and lose

The only wire to wire winner was a heavily favored huge dropdown in class horse who himself struggled to get home first.
In my life, I don't think I've ever seen a racetrack, at any level, under any circumstances where 29 dirt races were run over 4 days and onely one horse wired the field. Its unheard of.
So much for the "fair, honest, surface".

[SniperSB23]

Originally Posted by oracle80

The only wire to wire winner was a heavily favored huge dropdown in class horse who himself struggled to get home first.
In my life, I don't think I've ever seen a racetrack, at any level, under any circumstances where 29 dirt races were run over 4 days and onely one horse wired the field. Its unheard of.
So much for the "fair, honest, surface".

What do the numbers look like in BC races? I don't doubt that 1 in 29 seems low but with big fields it greatly decreases the number of wire to wire winners you'll see. It may need a little tweaking or it might just be that the frontrunning horses aren't that great and are getting more pace pressure because of the bigger fields.

Originally Posted by SniperSB23

What do the numbers look like in BC races? I don't doubt that 1 in 29 seems low but with big fields it greatly decreases the number of wire to wire winners you'll see. It may need a little tweaking or it might just be that the frontrunning horses aren't that great and are getting more pace pressure because of the bigger fields.

I'll pull up the last 5 Bc's and see ok? I havent checked yet and will only look at the dirt races from the last 5 years.

[SniperSB23]

Originally Posted by oracle80

I'll pull up the last 5 Bc's and see ok? I havent checked yet and will only look at the dirt races from the last 5 years.

Of course Keeneland hasn't had Ghostzapper yet!

One of the supposed advantages to this surface according to its website is that "it maintains unifomity in all conditions".
I guess its just a uniformly speed killing surface.
I only bring this up because most great thoroughbreds in history had great speed.
I don't think Affirmed, Spectacular Bid, or Seattle Slew would be in the hall offame had they been raced on it. They may have ended up as claimers.

[The Bid]

They would have been mediocre racehorses, but sound claimers. What a great invention this polytrack is. It will kill all the history of this fantastic game.

Originally Posted by The Bid

They would have been mediocre racehorses, but sound claimers. What a great invention this polytrack is. It will kill all the history of this fantastic game.

I don't think it will Bid. Imagine being a trainer of a really fast racehorse and being asked to run on that stuff? I'd say find someone else to train him then.

Cali racing is in trouble. And they aren't gonna be helping matters a whole lot with this stuff.
If you are an owner whose spent big money on horses who are bred for speed, and you watch them stagger home, those puppies are gonna be on the next plane out of town pronto. People who are "sportsman" don't tend to act so sporting when millions of dollars worth of horses are running up the track. What good is keeping them "extra sound" if they can't run fast or do what they are bred to do?

[The Bid]

Its very sad for me to see countless tracks switching to poly. When Keeneland decided to switch to poly my heart sunk. It was probably the worst feeling I have ever had. I would equate it to walking in on a wife sleeping with your best friend. Just sickening.

Originally Posted by oracle80

I don't think it will Bid. Imagine being a trainer of a really fast racehorse and being asked to run on that stuff? I'd say find someone else to train him then.

Cali racing is in trouble. And they aren't gonna be helping matters a whole lot with this stuff.
If you are an owner whose spent big money on horses who are bred for speed, and you watch them stagger home, those puppies are gonna be on the next plane out of town pronto. People who are "sportsman" don't tend to act so sporting when millions of dollars worth of horses are running up the track. What good is keeping them "extra sound" if they can't run fast or do what they are bred to do?

Bertrando and In Excess babies should do well at Hollywood. Can't wait to see how the speedsters take to cushiontrack.

[alysheba4]

yeah, playing lone speed is the oldest most reliable stratagey around........ so you throw out all speed??? f@#k that bro...... i would rather play los al.

Originally Posted by alysheba4

yeah, playing lone speed is the oldest most reliable stratagey around........ so you throw out all speed??? f@#k that bro...... i would rather play los al.

As would I. I bet it once, on the big day at Turfway back in march, and that was enough for me.

Even on turf, speed wins a decent percentage of races.

Its really common sense that most good horses have speed, hence they run fast. This isn't advanced quantum physics here.
So basically if you are fast, you can't win. Gee, that sounds like a game I wanna play!!!!

[Revolution]

Originally Posted by oracle80

If you are a trainer or an owner who owns or trains a horse who has speed(the trademark characteristic of good tbreds) then Keenelands new poly track is definitely not the place for you.

4 racing days so far, 29 "poly races" have yielded ONE wire to wire winner.
Sounds like a great deal to me!!! LOL!!!

Your act with the poly comments is getting old. If you don't like it, don't bet it. Not their problem.

Here is a question for you. How many horses have broken down so far? None.