Mountaineer surface "winterized"

[MikeH]

Over the weekend, I heard the track announcer say that the track had been winterized several days ago (probably Wednesday & Thursday, October 22-23), and that we should expect slower times.

[midnight]

They do it every year near the end of October.

Mountaineer gets funnier every year. The jockeys should all put on party hats and carry noisemakers with them during the race. Then when an E-8 wires the field or yet another horse has a sudden form reversal and wins easilly, they can all twirl their noisemakers and holler "Surprise!" as they ride by.

[sq764]

I have found at Mountaineer that there are 2 things you could conceivably ignore;

1) Time

2) Class

$4 claimers, $10 claimers, there's little difference.

Just know that you only need to hit one nice exacta there per night to profit..

[Buddha]

Originally posted by MikeH
Over the weekend, I heard the track announcer say that the track had been winterized several days ago (probably Wednesday & Thursday, October 22-23), and that we should expect slower times. .

Yes, they "winterized" the track. What they do is scrape off all the dirt, and I assume add new dirt that is chemically treated to try and help from freezing. When they do this, they add a bunch of dirt, making the track very deep, and slow. The first night of the new track, there were 1:09 and change, and slower for 5.5 furlongs. It has since gotten slightly faster after we got some rain, but not much. It will stay this way until spring, prolly around April, or until it gets too cold and the track freezes, and then it will be rock hard, and get faster times.

As for sq's comment, yes, for the most part time can be ignored because it varies so much. Unlike other tracks, MNR time can change by seconds on any given day, for apparently no reason at all. Class is somewhat void, but the statement of little difference between 4K claimers and 10k claimers is a little off. There is a fair difference between the two, but it isnt as big as most would make it out to be. In actuality, when talking of open claimers, there are only 2 jumps between 4k and 10k, and that is a 5k and 6.5k. He is right on about hitting on exacta and being able to end the night with a profit from it. It sometimes can be commonplace to get a couple of $100+ exactas in a night.