Parx racing surface

[tlinetrader]

Hey all. I've been playing PARX for the last 9 months or so and have noticed a substantial decrease in my speed figures since mid November pretty much across the board. Is this a seasonal winter thing that happens every year or is there something else going on there?

[Ruffian1]

Hey all. I've been playing PARX for the last 9 months or so and have noticed a substantial decrease in my speed figures since mid November pretty much across the board. Is this a seasonal winter thing that happens every year or is there something else going on there?

While never stabling there, at Md. tracks, every late October they start winterizing the track. They import a large quantity of mixed sand. They add cushion so they have more cushion to work with , and chemicals to help slow down the freezing process. They add it slowly over a few weeks . That is almost assuredly what happened there. Same with Aqueduct and C.T.for sure and I assume Penn as well as other cold weather tracks.

This is also prime time with that added cushion and dramatic weather swings , to find biases. Because they can only grade the track at certain times of day and it is extremely difficult to grade in the dark, weather can force the maintenance crews to grade sooner than they otherwise would or later, depending on the situation. Because you can't grade mud, decisions have to be made with regard to anticipating impending weather This usually causes a great rail. if graded too early or a dead rail if graded too late.

The greater the track pitch ( angle out to the highest point, known as the crown,) from the rail, the more the dirt will move downhill towards the rail with each pass of the harrows that takes place. If they have to work the track all night, that's a lot of passes.

Grading typically is at about 10:30 AM the day of the race, or right after the last race while they still have some light.

If you go to the track at these times, you can witness it first hand, document how much is being moved towards the crown, or out away from the rail, and have info others do not have. Or document no grading at all and see if the rail isn't dead that day.

Once you get the hang of documenting the maintenance in the winter, well, trust me, it will be worth the effort.

Hope that helps.

[PaceAdvantage]

It's rather sad how I had to delete almost every reply to this thread except one so far, because every one of them pretty much completely ignored the topic of the original post...

I'm going to put the M back in Moderator around here... :lol:

[Flysofree]

You put the S back in sad for sure.. :confused:

[PaceAdvantage]

You put the S back in sad for sure.. :confused:Why are you sad? And by the way, your reply is set to be deleted as well..

Does anyone wish to keep on topic any longer? Half the people on here take threads off topic...even at the VERY START!!! :lol:

[appistappis]

Of all the tracks I play Parx is the one where you must watch the first couple of races to determine bias. This post is tremendous info but unfortunately for us that play at an otb, we can't see first hand whats going on.

[Grits]

Ruffian1, you're a fine asset, having come to Pace Advantage.

Your posts are good to read. So informative!! Thank you for your knowledge and for sharing it in such clear manner. Great writing.

[EMD4ME]

Ruffian1, you're a fine asset, having come to Pace Advantage.

Your posts are good to read. So informative!! Thank you for your knowledge and for sharing it in such clear manner. Great writing.

:ThmbUp: :ThmbUp: :ThmbUp: :ThmbUp: :ThmbUp:

[Stillriledup]

Ruffian1, you're a fine asset, having come to Pace Advantage.

Your posts are good to read. So informative!! Thank you for your knowledge and for sharing it in such clear manner. Great writing.

+1 :ThmbUp:

[Grits]

Thank you, gentlemen.

[Ruffian1]

Ruffian1, you're a fine asset, having come to Pace Advantage.

Your posts are good to read. So informative!! Thank you for your knowledge and for sharing it in such clear manner. Great writing.

No, thank you!

I have supported the customer since day one in this business and several times early in my career , I paid a price for that. Too me, it was worth it. Others have as well, but not nearly enough. What I try and do is pass along , in this case, something that I learned many many years ago and used to my advantage as a trainer. As of when I left, I could count on one hand with digits to spare, the trainers that knew of and, or took advantage of this.

So I pass this along to you guys in hopes of giving something to you that you might have known or maybe not.

Good luck with it.

[Ruffian1]

Of all the tracks I play Parx is the one where you must watch the first couple of races to determine bias. This post is tremendous info but unfortunately for us that play at an otb, we can't see first hand whats going on.

This is not quite as good, but maybe of some help. You should be able to see the head on shot of the stretch before the 1st race or certainly after it with the head on rerun. Look under the rail where a horses foot cannot reach because of the angle of the rail( something like this: \ )

Look under the rail area because the road grader blade has to start under the fence. If the area is smooth and very clean looking, the have graded. If it has chunks of dirt in the 2-3 foot area , they have not. With constant harrowing, ultimately, some dirt clods will roll under there.

The idea is to know before the 1st or at least have a good idea going in so you can take advantage of it before the 3rd when the whole world knows.

Try that and feel free to follow up if this does not make sense.