Del Mar... NO MORE POLYTRACK

[pmayjr]

Originally Posted by randallscott35

Actually poly was small potatoes for me, I think it was a very silly foray by racing but you are right you vote with your wagering dollars. Rarely bet Del Mar. Do like to bet Keeneland and Woodbine but more for its randomness which is not exactly what handicapping is supposed to be....so yes, being fair I do bet poly but over the course of a year, I doubt it's more than 20% of my action.

Thing about those tracks with "randomness" is most of the horses that races at those tracks have established form over the surface. Woodbine horses at least the past few years don't need to ship away from their track much because they had such awesome purses before the ONT government yanked that away. Will be interesting to see if it's the same now. The major randomness at Woodbine with with those ONT state-bred maidens and allowances. If you don't know much about their local sires you don't have much to go on, but that's not a surface issue. Those races would be just as random on dirt.

As for Keeneland. The awesome thing with that place is it's always been random. Big wide-open fields. When they replaced dirt there, they actually leveled off the stretch and got rid of the speed bias. The stretch went slightly downhill when it was dirt. Now horses with established synthetic form will ship in to race there because they have solid form over a similar surface (a big part being from your favorite, Presque Isle).

Is it as much randomness as it is full competitive fields? Hmmm.... I think that same level of competition continued to happen at Del Mar after they installed their synthetic surface.