Could poly bring back the 12 furlong "dirt" race?

[Swap Fliparoo]

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.

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!