Pimlico Special
 

OMG!
They are changing the distance to 10 furlongs instead of the time tested historical distance of 9.5.

The morons!

Not only is there no good reason to do this, but having that distance gives, or rather gave a perspective to the Preakness.

Do the idiot who run Pimlico have nothing better to do all day?

I am now 100% to move the Preakness and tear the place to the ground. Just please FIRE the racing secretary.

Please Dear Lord, give Baltimore BIBLICAL rainfall this weekend and wash away those heathens who haunt the once great race track.

:mad::mad::mad:

Also, what's the runup going to be? 3 feet?

Tom:

I couldn't agree more, why on earth change the Special to 10f? You may get your wish about the rain, scattered thunderstorms on Friday and 20% precipitation on Saturday. And they wouldn't need much effort to tear it down to the ground, the place seems to be on the verge of collapse for at least the past 5 years. The only thing that has been maintained is that stupid weathervane.

If fans want nostalgia, go to Delaware Park

If fans want to see neglect, go to Pimlico. Yes it has history.....Barbaro, fan punching horse, rainout after rainout, parking in the badlands, no carry-ins whatsoever, the funeral dirge they call Maryland, My Maryland.......how charming.

Lemme guess: none of you stodgy buzzards are gonna bet Pim this weekend because of this and all their other problems?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Pim Special has a huge competitive field of 14, but that's not important.
The Hilltop, Skipat & Black Eyed Susan also have large competitive fields...
BUT....the Pim Special has been changed to 10f so it's ALL ruined now!!

Good Lord

what was the reason for changing it? Why not make it a 1 1/16? This seems to be the new test of the champion distance in american racing:puke:

Go Wait for it!!

Pimlico USED to be my favorite track, and the Pim Special my favorite race along with the Westchester. I'm just waiting for NYRA to put the WC on the turf and make it 3 miles. :rolleyes:

Progress. *spit*

I agree with you, but am still annoyed that they needlessly changed the distance. Looking at the field, the distance change played no role in the field size, and I liked how it was copacetic with the Preakness. Still, not a big deal, at least to me.

The field is more a function of the dearth of talent in the older horse division, particularly for routers. There are no good horses to scare people away, so connections are willing to take a shot, which is clearly the case with quite a few in there that are over their heads.

Who cares? They didn't trim the distance and had no problem filling the race

Over the past 5 years, the race has avg'd 7.8 horses. The racing sec asked around for ideas to increase the field the size - his feedback was a "classic distance" would attract more entries (please see link in post above this one). It worked, no? Or were past fields scr'd down to the 7.8 average? If not, I think the racing sec deserves praise. Your second paragraph could also explain the large field size, I'm not sure (and I readily concede your opinion is much better on this matter than mine). In any case, the racing sec was trying to provide a better racing product. For that, Tom impetuously calls PIM management "idiots" (singular form) and suggests firing the racing sec. Your post is balanced and reasonable, and I appreciate your thoughts.

Well said Phantom. For the "Oh ain't it awful crowd" every decision made by racing authorities or TVG or whom ever is heresy. And because they are not going to enjoy the day they don't want anyone else to either.

I've lost track of how far the Preakness will be when it's run @ Laurel in 2021...

Hopefully they get it(the Laurel Special?) synced back with the Preakness at that time.

Not something I really care about, but some people do appreciate the comparison, as well as the tradition.


I have to figure out where the starting gate will be for the Pim spcl this year:confused:

What about the toilet runs!

Not that a 1/16th of a mile matters much either way, but not so long ago there were debates about how breeders and tracks were emphasizing speed over stamina too much by shortening all the graded stakes. So maybe this is a small step in the opposite direction with a less important stake (though one that used to be very important).

(of course when I get nailed in the final 70 yards I might have a different opinion)