A little foggy, early, but the new tote board and HDTV are absolutely unbelievably crystal clear. Also the new rail is nice. They removed the stepped apron and levelled the apron with the track.
The polytrack. Up close it has every color of the rainbow yet it doesn't look too bad from a distance. The horses hooves racing by are muffled a bit (the difference between a group of kids running in the house on carpeted floors versus wood floors for example). No wonder it is safer since that is a very good indication of the pounding the horses legs are taking. Also, there is of course no "cloud of dust" but more a "misty spray of carpet" being kicked up so not sure how inhaling that stuff will be on the lungs of horses and jockeys but good old dust is not all that healthy either. A couple of other notes on the polytrack, of course closers fared very well which is unusual at Keeneland but some of that can be attributed to the reshaping of the final turn which gives closers more room to close. Also, no water trucks between any races and they only harrowed the track twice duirng the 9 race card. I never noticed any "holes" or bad spots develop as you would often see on the dirt. Also, no falls, spills, missteps or breakdowns and most of the cards had 10+ entries.
2 comments:
Nice post Joe!
Hey Joe-
I like your commentary- you obviously have a deep love for the sport. I've been wanting to go in on a race horse but I'm getting scared away by all the lawsuits being filed against bloodstock agents and farms for "dual agency". I wish they had regulations to govern this kind of thing. Any advice???
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