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Originally Posted by SentToStud
They ran a 16f dirt race at Calder a couple months ago. The Umphrey Stakes. The purse was $200k.
It was on that "Extreme" Racing Day and it was supposed to be 2 miles turf, going the wrong way.
It wound up in the slop going the right way. I was there and it was fairly awful seeing what wound up as a 6 horse field of mostly $25,000 optional claimers running for a fifth of a million dollars.
It was more interesting watching the jockeys race 1/16 of a mile on foot. Always bet on Freddie Camacho going .5f in the slop. He won by 20 feet, running barefoot.
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Actually the "wrong way stakes" and long distance race were two different ones, i'm pretty sure. Since there was a deluge, everything came off the turf... and the whole point of a Euro style "wrong way" race was defeated if not on grass.
But it was really weird watching them race 2 mi on dirt!