Del Mar - Initial thoughts?

[westcoastinvader]

Originally Posted by philcski

Looks like Keeneland all over again. Total JUNK.

Too bad because I truly love wagering on Del Mar, and will be making my first trip ever there on Saturday...

My recommendation for a first trip to Del Mar is to not take the wagering too seriously. Just soak up the atmosphere, and play the races without getting too serious on the cash invested.

Del Mar is too special of an experience to have "marred" by regretted lost wagers. That was my tactic in my days there last August.....played fun and light. Last day I opened the wallet a little wider after I had already chalked the trip up to "great."

http://www.bullysdelmar.com/

I truly have no vested interest in this place, but if one likes to have tasty dinners and appetizers in an ultra casual atmosphere up until midnight, I highly recommend. Hungry one night about 11PM, my wife and I ventured in. With a glass of Napa cabernet, the sauteed mushrooms and onion soup really hit the spot. My wife raved about her very reasonably priced steak. Besides the good food, there is a very appropriate amount of "horsey stuff" in the decor.

Makes me wanna go back down there!

[philcski]

Originally Posted by westcoastinvader

My recommendation for a first trip to Del Mar is to not take the wagering too seriously. Just soak up the atmosphere, and play the races without getting too serious on the cash invested.

Del Mar is too special of an experience to have "marred" by regretted lost wagers. That was my tactic in my days there last August.....played fun and light. Last day I opened the wallet a little wider after I had already chalked the trip up to "great."

http://www.bullysdelmar.com/

I truly have no vested interest in this place, but if one likes to have tasty dinners and appetizers in an ultra casual atmosphere up until midnight, I highly recommend. Hungry one night about 11PM, my wife and I ventured in. With a glass of Napa cabernet, the sauteed mushrooms and onion soup really hit the spot. My wife raved about her very reasonably priced steak. Besides the good food, there is a very appropriate amount of "horsey stuff" in the decor.

Makes me wanna go back down there!

Great advice, thanks. I'm leaning towards that approach anyways, probably never a good idea to go full bore into a new track anyways and with the Poly it's completely foreign.

[Riot]

I'd like to hear your position on pace....and how to judge it.

DrugS, I'm not avoiding your question, just trying to get back to the generality of, "Are synthetic surfaces the work of the devil incarnate, or not?"

... The fillies division (Race #1) was won by Zee Topper, who came from 13 lengths off the pace after a half mile, to win going away by almost five lengths. The half mile fraction was 47 1/5, a genuine fraction to indicate it was a truly run horse race.

* In the second race, a 7/1 shot is allowed an uncontested 3.5 length lead, through very comfortable fractions of 48 for the half mile. Over a natural dirt surface, this would be your protypical "once in a lifetime dream trip." Said horse is run down late, through a soft 26.70 final 1/4 mile fraction.

(Pause it) - Jockeys and trainers observe these races...and a light bulb goes on. You can envision them all collectively thinking "must go as slow as possible, much save as much horse as possible."

I see it slightly differently: yes, if one has a horse entered over their head, that has to be carried and nursed to the finish line

How fast did Zee Topper run her final three furlongs over the artificial surface, closing to win? One can obtain speed on artificial surfaces, if one truely has a turn of foot. That horse stood out over the rest of her field on ability, and demonstrated it.

The male division didn't apparently have any horses with equal dominant ability. On some dirt tracks, the 7-1 shot could have indeed hung on to win - the "dream trip", as described.

But I think the description of "dream trip" says it all. Does this horse deserve to win at this class and distance?

The polytrack exposed it for what it was - a horse that can't gallop 12's and hold on for the distance it was entered at. It collapsed to a canter in the final two furlongs, and was readily passed by other horses that weren't very speedy, either.

Maybe the horses in this race truely belong in a lesser class?

Speed - true natural turn of foot - has wired and won at Keeneland, Arlington, Turfway, Woodbine, Hollywood, in even in Europe. The jocks riding truely good horses will use their horses speed and style of running to their advantage, and figure it out. The jocks on horses of lesser ability will have a harder time covering that up, no matter how slow they go.

Look at Sumwon's last race at Arlington - a duel between a front-runner running good fractions and accelerating at the end, and a mid-pack closer, coming down to an exciting stretch duel and ending a neck apart. Good races happen on artificial surfaces - if the horses are truely good.

Some horses, it turns out, have been carried by their tracks. They have speed in their pedigree, but no stamina (and I'm not talking route distance). Look at horses that won on the lead on Keeneland's rock-hard dirt rail, that couldn't repeat that performance elsewhere.

There are horses we thought had a certain amount of speed or class that are now being exposed, on synthetic surfaces, as not quite what we thought they were. And it appears it may be a rather significant segment of the breed.

That's my opinion on synthetic - your actual mileage may vary