Not in my mind. But perhaps that played into the decions of others to vote to cancel the card for the weekend. Believe me, Turfway has a long way to go to make the surface better--but I strongly believe what they have now is better than dirt with all the problems they are experiencing. People make not like a synthetic surface, but the numbers are better than it was when there was dirt.

Tell that to the 18 guys who put horses down in the worst December on record. Tell that to the 3 guys who vanned off last night.

How about the guys at Woodbine? BRUTAL

How about my babies that breezed up there and came back to CDT limping around. Get real man, stop pimping that ****. Its far from being the surface you guys want it to be.

Ive heard a steady retraction.....instead of being a great surface, its "better than what they had" Listen, you could run them out on 71 and it would have been better than what they had. Its hardly held up to what it is supposed to be, not even close.

Yeah and us 9-5 locals were hot about that becuase we missed seeing a nice race.

We have always bitched that their best cards top to bottom are on Tuesday, good business decision for them, but the fans that can only be on track Sat-Sun lose out....again.

Well I am one who have had 2 break down on the surface. And I have spoken to the ones that have had ones breakdown too. I hear your frustration and I hear theirs and mine. But again, compared to the dirt Turfway did have, Poly is better.

but is poly better than a good dirt surface?

depends on who you ask.

i really think the tracks with turf went to poly so they would keep full fields, and not lose handle. how much of the increased handle is because turfers didn't scratch at those tracks when it was wet????

Polytrack has never been about the horses. If it were about the horses they would have tested it extensively before installing it. That track was never tested in extreme cold, it was never tested period. Just because it handles some rain in England, doesnt make it "all weather" Of course as soon as Keeneland got involved it had credibility. Before that there were a lot of questions, but with an industry leader involved it was the greatest thing ever.

Any buffoon can see that track hasnt lived up to expectations. Whether you are pro poly, or anti poly, or really dont give a rats ass, you can tell the track isnt as advertised.

They need to address the issues instead of doing a song and dance. Its cold in Kentucky in February, apparnelty too cold to run through the weekend.

i am, and have been, anti poly. don't see a valid reason to change my mind at this time.

No I do not believe Poly is better than a good dirt track. But there is nothing wrong in trying something different. Turfway had 20 plus years to perfect the dirt surface and they couldnt. Why not give Poly 20 years????

If you want to try something different sell hotdogs for a buck

dirts been tried and true for how many years now? if dirt won't work in winter weather, they shouldn't have winter racing there. poly certainly hasn't stood up to the strain of the cold. sure hasn't made things warmer, or the weather milder.
i can see keeneland making the switch, it assures full fields when turf isn't usable.

NEWYORK RUNNING 25 degrees currently

Feels Like: 14°
Barometer: 29.96 in and falling
Humidity: 37%
Visibility: 10 mi
Dewpoint: 6°
Wind: W 12 mph
Sunrise: 7:04 am
Sunset: 5:16 pm

KENTUCKY NOT RUNNING 25 degrees currently

Partly Cloudy
Feels Like: 14°
Barometer: 29.98 in and steady
Humidity: 37%
Visibility: 10 mi
Dewpoint: 6°
Wind: WSW 14 mph
Sunrise: 7:44 am
Sunset: 6:02 pm

Guess the difference

hmmmm...

now isn't that interesting?

Yeah it really is isnt it?

Maybe we just care more about our jockeys in Kentucky.....

Bid you made some very good points in this thread. The same things I've been saying here. It's interesting too that Beulah Park ran today and if anything it was colder in Columbus than it was in Cincinnati.

The sad part is that Keeneland and company are running around hard selling the poly to other tracks while they know it has problems. Unscrupulous to say the least. Anything for a $.

there's a link on equidaily about turfway and poly. very interesting, and not quite the rah rah, cheerleading stuff i've seen before.

well i was supposed be at turfway running a horse today but luckily i was notified that races for the weekend were gonna be cancelled last night..........did suck tho cuz we had the m/l fav and a huge shot@winning

It really wasnt bad here today, it wasnt warm, but they have ran in a lot colder weather. NY ran, Beulah ran, Oaklawn wishes they woulda ran. Cold yes, cold enough to cancel, not a chance. The carpet was frozen and balling up in the horses feet, 3 were vanned off, and rather than have 5 or 6 vanned off through the weekend TWP made the right decision.

it said in the article i read that they are spraying wd-40 or cooking spray on the horses hooves to keep the track from balling up!
well, says on the can that there are many uses for that stuff...

Its balling up in their feet badly. The stuff is just a mess Danzig. If you watched the races yesterday there were multiple occasions when a horse took its self out of the running due to meteor sized, frozen poly, hitting them in the face.

here's a link to the article if anyone is interested:

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...422/1077/COL02


didn't the poly company already come back once, after last years season, and re-work all of it? wonder if they have an extended warranty...