Dirt tracks

[scarper]

Ive been looking at japanese racing and have a few question you american racing fans may be able to answer as the dirt track over here are made of the same sand/dirt found on most tracks in western USA.

So how does the weather affect the speed of the tracks? How often do the tracks needs watering?

Is it possible for the tracks to speed up during a race meeting?

Any thoughts appreciated.....

[kenwoodallpromos]

Others can give better answers, but the amount of moisture on any dirt or turf track matters- if enough! Claims are western tracks with about 10 to 15% clay are affected more than east coast with almost 100% sand. Check individual websites for the major tracks for conditions a few times.
I rely on knowing the depth of track maintenance for speed, but I am in the tiny minority. I believe overall speed of a track's workouts foretell race depth and speed and sometimes bias. Of course, amount of moisure during workouts means something too!. I believe during the day the water trucks cannot put enough water on the track to purposely change it but natural forces sometimes can change it!

[scarper]

THx ken. that would be inline with what we see here. of course the rain can speed the tracks up and so the does moisture in general. It seems our tracks may speed up by 1-2 sec over 1600m due to the rain.

if the water trucks cant add enough water during a meeting to speed things up have you ever seen tracks slow due to drying out on sunny days? Or do the water trucks manage to balance things out. Maybe water trucks on cloudy humid days can add enough moisture to slow tracks?

[Tom]

Are there professional speed figures (aka Beyers) fro Japanese racing?
If not, you might be in a good postion to make your own. Have you ever read either Beyer or Quirin books on variant/figure making?
Wish I had just one track where there were no Beyers available!

[entropy]

Maybe water trucks on cloudy humid days can add enough moisture to slow tracks?

"slow" -- don't you mean speed up??

[kenwoodallpromos]

Racetrack vehicles do many things. Harrow, seal, water, scrape, add dirt. If enough dirt is added to a 2 1/2" track like GGF, it will be 7" like Calder!! Watch the GGF works and see weekends usually slower track than weekdays. Roll CD all week to 48 3/5. then do not roll for Derby day and the track is 49 2/5 like happened this year. Scrape to the inside like the Saturday prior to opener at DM, then find the error and correct the next day like they did at DM this year.

[entropy]

kenwoodallpromos i don't think you are quite addressing the question which relates to a track speeding up during the meeting.

[bloggs]

Yes. Speeding or slowing during the course of a meeting on dirt seems to be scarpers question.

Other than weather related ie rain do dirt tracks particularly on the West Coast ever show a speeding up during meeting?

[scarper]

Yep guys, i want to know what happens during a meeting. we do see a lot of variation over the year due to variation in the maintance programs. How ever we may also see the track speeding up during a meeting under certain weather conidtions, and definitly speeding up during rain as you would expect.

The question really relates to the amount of moisture it takes to affect a track during a day. IE can the sun dry it out enough to slow a track and can humid weather + the water truck add enough to make the track run faster.

Tom, No there are no Speed figures. We would do our own even if there were as we beleive we can create better ones through greater study of the tracks and factors such as tracks slowing/ or speeding up through a meeting. The grass tracks for example get chopped up and always tend to slow throughout a meeting by as much as .3% per race.

[kenwoodallpromos]

I have read water trucks cannot put enough moisture on to affect the track, but on hot days drying out by sun and wind can speed it up. If the harrows are set deep like at Calder they can probably keep the track deep between races. GGF is harrowed 2 1/2", Calder 7"! Try phoning your nearest track- maintenance crew and ask! That is how I learned about GGF's methods!!

[scarper]

wow. thats deep. ive never come accross that before.

[Seabiscuit@AR]

http://www.paceadvantage.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=6292&highlight=track+bias

Scarper you might want to read the above thread on track bias. In it several posters mention track maintenance crews attending to the track in between races (ie in the middle of the meeting) and so affecting track bias. One would imagine this could also affect final times etc.

I think you were more interested in natural phenomenon possibly affecting the track/times rather than track maintenance crews. I cannot give you a rational explanation as to why this might happen in dry weather without the interference of track maintenance crews. However Beyer in his books explicitly mentions the issue of "split variants" in his books even on dry days. He then goes on to mention the possibility of intervention by the track crew. But leaves open other possibilities.

(Wind of course is a factor but would apply to both dirt and turf).

Your theories on a drying track perhaps leading to slower times could be valid. It is a point I have never researched in any detail. I think it is probably true that if a bit of rain falls the horses can run faster times. However I have seen situations where there is a torrential downpour in the middle of the meeting at a place like Calder in Florida and the track has gone from fast to sloppy. My impression sometimes was that times were getting slower as more rain fell. The track was very waterlogged when this happened though. (And I am not sure if it applies to your question as you asked about western USA tracks and so Calder might be irrelevant to your query).

I have seen some of the racing in Japan and was always of the impression that the dirt used in Japan was of a slightly different texture to that used in the USA. You might be right however that it is the same or similar to western USA tracks. Certainly the dirt racing plays in a similar fashion in both countries (leaders dominate more in dirt than turf and margins tend to be bigger at the finish).

Sorry I don't have any hard information to answer your queries but my "impressions" etc are the best I can do.