Poly Runners At Churchill Downs......

[jballscalls]

the good thing with Churchill is that most of the horses do have some dirt pp's to go off of. because on the kentucky circuit, 2 of the 4 places (ellis as well) are dirt tracks. I tend to look at the pace of the races on the Poly. The races where they routed and went 25/50/117 i try and throw out, because those kind of trips dont happen hardly ever at CD. Not to mention Keeneland is one of the only places where a horse can win going 7 wide, and it really doesnt impress me.

[Danzig]

i read yesterday that gayego had a gallop every so often over the dirt training course at hollywood (and we know how his dirt debut went)....i wonder if any of the others in the field, that haven't run a race over dirt, have done the same? anyone know?

[2Hot4TV]

Originally Posted by Danzig

i read yesterday that gayego had a gallop every so often over the dirt training course at hollywood (and we know how his dirt debut went)....i wonder if any of the others in the field, that haven't run a race over dirt, have done the same? anyone know?

Most of the horses that were training at Santa Anita, the begining of the year spent alot of training time on the inner dirt track because of the Cushion track drainage. Not the same as having dirt in your face though.

[Thunder Gulch]

Bottom line is every horse is different and you can't make generalizations if you are backing short priced horses. You want to try to translate poly form to the dirt surface then demand the price to compensate for the unknown.

Just watch what happens with
preps and training if the syn. horses run well.

This should set up very interesting
for next year's preps. If the syn. horses
flop, giant declarations will be made.

Either way, I can see conclusions
drawn off of too little evidence.
Lots of races have been run,
but the stuff just has not been
around long enough for the solid
conclusions that will inevitably be
drawn.

Maybe Big Brown just cleans up
and no one will care.

[SCUDSBROTHER]

Originally Posted by Danzig

i read yesterday that gayego had a gallop every so often over the dirt training course at hollywood (and we know how his dirt debut went)....i wonder if any of the others in the field, that haven't run a race over dirt, have done the same? anyone know?

I think Colonel John was working well on some kind of dirt training track at HWD.