Kentucky Bred
02-28-2003, 04:28 PM
This must be my month for rants. But in over 25 years of watching horse racing I saw something today that I've never seen before.
About 15 minutes before the 7th race at the "esteemed" Beulah Park was scheduled to go off at a distance of 1 mile, the track flashed across the screen the following:
"Race 7 will be contested at SIX FURLONGS!!!"(emphasis added)
and then to be considerate, the following:
"We apologize for any inconvenience".
ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!
Now to be fair, we've had a lot of rain here. The track was muddy. I'm sure they had some problems. But I checked every type of horse info site I know of and there was no mention of this rather significant change. I was scoping out a pace play based on a two turn mile race. Where do you think my key horse finished when they decided to run the race at a 6f instead?
Do you think speed handicappers had it any better?
Now I don't know when the announcement was made, obviously earlier than the start of the race for those 12 people who were in attendance. But to the rest of the free world--most people were absolutely SOL.
I've seen a million races carded for the turf and then taken off the turf at relatively the same distance. But never a route to a sprint. Do you think the trainers bring up a horse to a sprint race the same way they do a route?? Ah...no!
If you can't run the race at a distance that's considered to be generally within the ballpark from what was carded and filled then DON'T RUN THE RACE! Let the tracks with win pools over $1000 carry the day.
BTW, the race was won by #8, a 6 furlong speed type who the trainer was trying to stretch out to a mile. Fortunately for the trainer, the horse never had to.
Kentucky Bred
About 15 minutes before the 7th race at the "esteemed" Beulah Park was scheduled to go off at a distance of 1 mile, the track flashed across the screen the following:
"Race 7 will be contested at SIX FURLONGS!!!"(emphasis added)
and then to be considerate, the following:
"We apologize for any inconvenience".
ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!
Now to be fair, we've had a lot of rain here. The track was muddy. I'm sure they had some problems. But I checked every type of horse info site I know of and there was no mention of this rather significant change. I was scoping out a pace play based on a two turn mile race. Where do you think my key horse finished when they decided to run the race at a 6f instead?
Do you think speed handicappers had it any better?
Now I don't know when the announcement was made, obviously earlier than the start of the race for those 12 people who were in attendance. But to the rest of the free world--most people were absolutely SOL.
I've seen a million races carded for the turf and then taken off the turf at relatively the same distance. But never a route to a sprint. Do you think the trainers bring up a horse to a sprint race the same way they do a route?? Ah...no!
If you can't run the race at a distance that's considered to be generally within the ballpark from what was carded and filled then DON'T RUN THE RACE! Let the tracks with win pools over $1000 carry the day.
BTW, the race was won by #8, a 6 furlong speed type who the trainer was trying to stretch out to a mile. Fortunately for the trainer, the horse never had to.
Kentucky Bred