My theory and feelings on Polytrack

[1st_Saturday_in_May]

Very good post Joel and 100% accurate. Nothing is worse than the people who simply mill around with this stuff saying 'too bad, its the future'. What a load of bull****. Its as simple as having an inner and outer turf course at these tracks. If they were to run the turf races on this ****, there would be no difference in the results. Its a joke, a real laugher. Shame something so stupid has to tarnish a good track like Keeneland...

Originally Posted by 1st_Saturday_in_May

Very good post Joel and 100% accurate. Nothing is worse than the people who simply mill around with this stuff saying 'too bad, its the future'. What a load of bull****. Its as simple as having an inner and outer turf course at these tracks. If they were to run the turf races on this ****, there would be no difference in the results. Its a joke, a real laugher. Shame something so stupid has to tarnish a good track like Keeneland...

Or those guys who own crippled claimers who explan we have to have it so their horses who shouldnt be racing in the first place can run every two weeks.
As if thats "for the good of the whole game".

Originally Posted by oracle80

Or those guys who own crippled claimers who explan we have to have it so their horses who shouldnt be racing in the first place can run every two weeks.
As if thats "for the good of the whole game".

Yeo, this sport should only be for those who can afford $1mm horse flesh. Yep, that is good for the sport.

[SentToStud]

The way I see it is there are two perspectives.

If you earn a living buying or selling horses, you have a right to be feeling squirrely about the stuff. Uncertainty brings about anxiety. No doubt.

If you're a horseplayer and a fan, you really could care less whether Keeneland Sales revenue goes down or not. You merely decide if the meet is worth playing and, if so, you try to be smarter about it than the next person.

Joel's dad owning $600k worth of horses and the effect of Polytrack on their value is not a lot different than owning $600k worth of anything when the factors effecting value -- seen and unforseen -- change. That's just the way it goes, especially for such a speculative-type investment as race horses are.

Personally, I don't care for the stuff, but I'm not a Keeneland or Turfway or Cali bettor so it has, at least for now, less impact on me than on others. I do agree it's sad that we'll soon open our Racing Forms and see on Page 2 the fastest Artificial Surface Beyers for the year.

When the industry people come out against Polytrack as a cause for slowing the sport's growth, that's true. But, like any mature industry, the successful folks will adapt and prosper. Those who have either ridden along or have just gotten by will find something else to do.

I'll be interested to see the meet's handle figures vs prior meets.

[Honu]

Im going to hold out judgement on the whole synthetic track debate.
I can see everyone's point of view the breeders, the handicappers and the bloodstock agents.
We can all debate horses were made to run on this and that and if you think about it they werent created with shoes on either so they should all run barefoot right ?