More Poly Banter

[pmayjr]

Based on the other threads about the positives and negatives of polytrack, I decided to ask a girl I know from mysapce about it. She's currently an excerise rider/asst cronie/pt employee for Keeneland. She's trying to cactch on with Amoss or Dallas Stewart for the winter season. But she's in tune with the every day nitty gritty of horse racing... Especially since she works in KY.

I aksed her her thoughts on Poly Track, and how certain top-end dirt horses are adjusting to it. Here was my exact message to her. Her answer is consistent with a lot of opinions on here.

Sup? I post messages over at derbytrail.com. It's where a bunch of us horse racing fans talk about about racing in general. A lot really aren't liking the Poly-Track too much. They're beginning to claim from watching Turfway, that some horses that are $$$ on the dirt, hate the PolyTrack. Almost like it's a dirt horse switching to turf. Have you noticed or heard from anyone else that some horses don't seem to be taking to the stuff as much? Good luck with Dallas Stewart BTW. Will he be running at Fairgrounds or Oaklawn this winter or both? Maybe you can follow him all the way to Lone Star? No luck with Amoss?

And her answer-
Oh yeah - very much so, actually. There are a good number of horses that won't run for **** on the poly. It's mainly good dirt runners that are having trouble with it, from what I've seen... turf horses seem to do stellar on the stuff. Wonderful for them, but a real pain in the ass for those people with dirt horses. That said, some dirt ponies do just fine on the stuff. Some develop over it, "learn to like it"...

It's kind of an interesting situation. It'd be nice if some tracks had the means to maintain a third dirt track in addition to poly and turf... but I don't see that happening. It'll certainly be interesting to see how it affects sires here in the states... some dirt sires are probably going to have some trouble in the next few years - turf boys will probably have a bit of an ups... being that so many turf-loving horses can easily switch onto the poly... hmmmmmmmm...

Thanks for the luck. I don't know where Stewart is sending his string(s) this winter... I'd love to hook with the stable though and head on south a bit. LOL. Nice weather! WOO! It'd rock to go with him to Fairgrounds... a friend of mine is taking a string down there too! lol

As of the last morning I was at keeneland... Amoss hadn't moved his string on in yet. So I haven't bothered him yet. I'll see how things go with Stewart tomorrow... frankly I'd be a lot happier getting in with his group than McPeek (who was another I'd been wrangling towards)... he's got much better horses. So we'll see what works itself out.Anyway gotta' head off to sleep... gotta' be up at like four to get out to the track. LOL. Talk to ya latah!!

♥ Emily

So yeah... just a lil FYI from someone really plugged into the daily activities at the track... not that you guys aren't "plugged in". Just a lil insight from someone who deals with this stuff everyday. It seems to be poretty consistent with what some of ya'll think. Just a lil FYI (Side-note to Steve Byk: Eventhough her real name isn't revealed, I did ask her first before posting her answer to my message on here).