I was (and to some extent still am) indifferent about the great poly debate. But by any reasonable measure, the decision to go to polytrack at Arlington was a good one. As ArlJim pointed out, the track was very fair. It was certainly a lot more fair than Hawthorne. How biased was Hawthorne this spring? Just ask those people who bet on Cowtown Cat in the Kentucky Derby.
But in addition to the fairness of the track:
Fatal in-race breakdowns declined from 24 to 12.
Attendance was up.
Handle was up.
Field-size was up.
I have said it before, but I guess for some people it bears repeating. I don't think it makes sense any longer to be 100% pro-synthetic or 100% against synthetic. In some places it is working well, and in other places it is not. Each surface is a little different (just like dirt). There are tracks that I think have bad synthetic surfaces (Del Mar) and there are ones with good ones (Arlington), just like there were and are bad dirt tracks (old Keeneland and Hawthorne) and good ones.
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