Churchill to replace turf course.
 

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-rac...ew-turf-course


I'm amazed it lasted this long with only a three inch topsoil layer.

FWIW i think they actually started turf racing in 1987.

A wider course will make for much more equitable trips.....Just look at Longchamps: as the course straightens for the home stretch, it gets VERY wide to allow late runners ROOM to go by the field's stragglers.

Most INNER turf courses are not wide enough to allow that.

I think mostly they are widening it to be able to use more rail settings, and it is only going to be five feet wider. They can't really move it out as the dirt course is there, so they are likely expanding inward which will mean tighter turns and an even shorter course when the rail is at zero.

Plus shrinking the infield, which would probably reduce capacity on Derby Day.

Isn’t this the course that stays hard as a rock?

I don’t follow as much anymore. But it used to be a runway or is my memory wrong?

That too!

I’ve never had that impression. I feel likes it’s been relatively fine in the Spring, but in the November meet it has been tough for years. Often the inside paths would be problematic really anytime it rained, and of course the recovery period in the Fall is almost non-existent.

The video below shows Churchill Downs as shot from a drone.

Note that the infield appears a little lower in elevation than the turf course.

Expanding inward may result in the new turf course being a degree or two more steeply banked than the current turf course.

If that turns out to be the case, I'd expect horses attempting to wire a field on the turf to be negatively impacted a bit. How much depends on the change in banking.




-jp

.

It also shows what a silly project the 2004 renovations were. Those luxury box towers just dwarf the Twin Spires, the track's trademark.

People don't like tearing anything down and building something new and beautiful anymore for some reason. If you go to any of the grand old racetracks in Europe, they almost all have state of the art new grandstands. Nothing of the "historic character" of Churchill is preserved there anyway- all you see is the gigantic structures they built on top. But where you do still see the "historic character" is when you try to place a bet at a third floor window on a big race day and are stuck in a crowd in a narrow wooden corridor.

So why not start from scratch and build something large and comfortable, to accomodate everyone who comes to the Derby, with a replica of the Twin Spires on top?

Churchill Downs Incorporated has many a time demonstrated being really CHEAP and philistine when in comes to pening anything.

Thanks :ThmbUp:

Plenty of sitting and/or standing place that they will be only too glad to sell for a nice buck or $20 or more.

The big courses in NY Chicago and Florida are good, but nothing beats Woodbine's outer....Now that is a FAIR stretch

How does the CD course compare to Keenland. Is it 7/8 as well?