Churchill Downs did an awful job with a dirt running surface that has a serious inside bias on racings biggest day.
Maybe the casual day tripping fan won't notice but closers have no shot on this track.Did Churchill intentionally speed things up to make things easier for the current darling of the sport Bernadini to provide an attention getting performance that would give the sport a publicity boost?
Some horses did close sure but Street Sense,Thors Echo,and Round Pond all got rail rides for most of their trips.No horse could gain any ground making a late move going around horses,or down the center of the track,they were all in a scramble for the pieces.
1 dirt race the Classic to go lets see how it's run...
From various articles on drf.com regarding BC dirt races:
The races were run over a main track that will undoubtedly receive criticism in upcoming days...The rail was clearly the place to be for most of the day.
Street Sense got a dream run.Borel never left the rail and the rail opened gloriously for him.
Trainer Doug O'Neil[Thors Echo]said"at first he was really down about drawing the rail but after watching the earlier races we really started to get excited because it was obvious the rail was the place to be".Thors Echo rider Corey Nakatani said he wanted to stay on the rail as long as he could.
Round Pond-Prado bided his time and waited for an opening along the inside and was able to come up the rail enroute to the surprisingly easy victory.
Did Castellano have to work harder in the Classic to just keep Bernadini in a good spot?"Yeah I did Castellano conceded."The Track is a little funny and I did have to ask him"
This message has been edited by DejaVuView on Nov 4, 2006 8:14 PM
Golden rail indeed. Perhaps Churchill wanted to remind the local players one last time what Keeneland pre-Polytrack was like!?!
Golden rail and all, looks like a few had great scores from the picks I've seen posted here and no absolute shockers in the winners as in hind-sight of course, a case can certainly be made for each. Just wish the bias would have aided Premium Tap a bit more in the Classic. After his ride on Round Pond in the Distaff, I was absolutely certain Prado would pull the same and get the job done here. How big was the run by Invasor though!!! And what a bizarre ride and race from Circular Quay. Guess the break did more than I originaly thought.
It will be interesting to see what happens with those horses that won their races from the rail. The rail must have been like a paved highway, so it was likely harder than a rock all of the way around the track. I wonder if Street Sense, Thor's Echo, Dreaming of Anna, and Round Pond will suffer any type of injury from their efforts today?
I hope this golden rail did not contribute to the demise of Pine Island.
The surface seemed to be tipping that way late in the day on Friday and that was also the impression a friend at the track had when I spoke to him in the morning, so I was looking for it and used it to catch Street Snese, but didn't extend it to Thor's Echo.
Churchill's tyring to position itself as a semi-permanent home of the BC, so I doubt there was any intent, but tell that to the owners of horses with wide draws.
Hey--CD played like it always does.
Like your typical dirt inside speed-favoring surface. Just like Belmont, Aqueduct,Gulfstream and the west coast tracks.
Too many people had their handicapping skewed by that month of Keeneland polytrack. The main handicapping focus centered around the realization that the trends for the BC races would return to dirt track trends(specifically those trends long associated with CD).
The races ran like they run every Derby week-end. Anyone who expected differently made a serious mistake that would prove VERY costly. This return to dirt surface and CD dirt form was a major focus of a Fri.handicapping session I was fortunate to attend.
Now the hard part comes for the player, as we will have a much larger % of poly at the main venues. Sorting out the differences in how the poly surfaces play, and judging how the dirt runners will fare will be extremely challenging.
Outside of Thanksgiving week-end, it might be a good time to take a wagering break, and to just watch how form changes for a while. Plenty of opportunities with new track-by-track strategies should be possible by late February.
Good luck everyone!
Let's keep working together to dissect the running surface changes.
There was a clear rail bias which we noticed on thurs and friday. I'm sorry that I had no computer access to share the info It was very different from the CD which I have observed first hand since 1975 over 3 days each May. I liked Street Sense to begin with but would not otherwise have used either Dreaming of Anna or Thor's Echo. I had the 3-4-5 and 4-5-6 pick 3's and was live to 5 horses in the 5-6-7 but alas it was not to be
PS Dell I mentioned upinclass to several people I met this year, hopefully some will join in. Friday we were fortunate to sit next to a most charming mother and daughter combo who breed and show "paint" horses. They took the info down and hopefully will join our forum.