What's with the Small fields at KEE??

[Left Bank]

And even smaller today with all the scratches.

[Benny]

Seems as if the longer GP meet is keeping more down there, and trainers are using the time to freshen horses instead of running at keeneland too, aiming for belmont and pimlico. just my guess.

[ghartman02]

I don't think this has been a stellar meet for Keeneland. Weather hasn't been that good, small fields, looks like attendance (though great Saturday) and handle are off a bit. With Polytrack, if the turf was moved, you wouldn't get that many scratches as well. Agreed, trainers are hanging at Gulfstream and Tampa Bay before heading north to Belmont.

[Benny]

If i recall, poly took a while to catch on and then trainers with turfers would aim for keeneland because even if turf races were rained off, they could still run them on poly. now they can't and dont aim for keeneland, it will take a few meets t reestablish their place in the order. Motion for one is aiming for pimlico,where he used to relish keeneland.

[Danzig]

isn't part of this due to unhappiness with kentucky racing in general? and with smaller foal crops, etc, small fields will continue to be an issue.

[Benny]

Originally Posted by Danzig

isn't part of this due to unhappiness with kentucky racing in general? and with smaller foal crops, etc, small fields will continue to be an issue.

yes, of course. competition by tracks for horses and in the midlantic too many choices for trainers to place their stock, which means alotof cross entered horses and scratches. On saturday at pimilicos last race on turf, there were 6 scratches and the race remained on the turf, but you donot know til very late to see late scratches,so hard to handicap and know which track to play.

[pointman]

Clearly Keeneland knew when they changed to dirt that they were likely to get smaller fields since they were getting a lot of turf oriented horses in the poly races which made for bigger fields there.

The decision they had to make was whether to go to dirt and have smaller fields as a negative and have their premiere race relevant again or stay on poly and destroy their premiere race of the meet. I would not be surprised if they knew that the Bluegrass may have been on the verge of losing its Grade I status with a future possibility of having little to zero impact on the trail to the Derby.

Also, I think the poly was having an impact on handle since many people felt it was very unpredictable and were taking the betting dollars they would put in the windows at Keeneland and betting it elsewhere. Personally, I began to embrace the polytrack there after admittedly criticizing it as it took me a while but I was doing very well with it. But I certainly understand if they felt they could have smaller fields on dirt but have bettors feel the races were playable and bring their betting dollars back to Keeneland's pools, so I have to think that factored in their decision as well. While it may not hapeen right away, people who were taking their dollar's elsewhere are likely to come back, it just may take a few meets.

The fact that they could get Breeder's Cup's there as well certainly factored into the decision and clearly they felt that the positives of installing a sound dirt course outweighed continuing to have a synthetic racetrack.