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[Andy Asaro]

Excerpt:

Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, in discussing the condition of the surface from July 14 opening day through mid-August, described it as being “the deepest Saratoga track I can recall.” The winner of a record seven Eclipse Awards as leading trainer in North America has been working at the iconic upstate New York track for more than three decades.

Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen and Brad Cox, the Eclipse winner the last two years, also said they made their displeasure known.

“It tightened up last weekend, but what took so long?” Asmussen asked. “They were adding clay (Aug. 22). If you were right to do it now, what took so long?”

Cox echoed those comments. “I do prefer a tighter racetrack to what we’ve had,” he said. “Over the last week, it’s definitely tightened up. I like what we’ve seen on the main track at Saratoga the last week. Hopefully, we’ll have the same track over the last couple of weeks until the end of the meet.”

Cox believes a going he found particularly demanding might explain why some of his richly bred 2-year-olds failed to run to lofty expectations.

“I’m a little disappointed with how some of my babies have run that trained awfully well,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the 2-year-olds that didn’t perform quite up to expectations coming back on a tighter track, whether it’s the NYRA circuit or Kentucky or wherever they might land.”

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