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There's been seventeen 8.5 Furlong route races that have been run on the Belmont inner this meet. (discounting maiden and maiden claiming races) The
The slowest race prior to this past thurs was run on May 15th. The track was labeled "good" and the race was a 50K starter allowance for F&M's 3 and up... with the rails out at 9 feet. (Now Yus Cant Leave won) The final time was clocked in at 1:44.48.
The fractions were: 25.36 | 49.91 | 1:14.10 | 1:38.45 | 1:44.48
Thursday's fractions: 26.16 | 52.02 | 1:16.77 | 1:40.07 | 1:45.92
slower: (in seconds) .8 | 2.11 | 2.67 | 1.62 | 1.44
Fast forward to this past thursday when the track was labeled "firm." The 8th race was an 80k Optional claimer n1x... with the rails ALSO out at 9 feet making it a perfect analog for comparison. The bris speed pars happen to be identical to the starter allowance race. As we all saw... the sun was out, and it's been fairly windy here in NY. The ground typically would have dried up and played a bit faster. Only two closers (6 lengths or more at the first Quarter) were able to win on the inner track this meet... the first being Bleeker Street going 10 furlongs. The second was Spirit and Glory at the shorter and more impressive 8.5 furlongs.
At the end of the day... The track just shouldn't be labeled firm. It was playing fairly similar to the track post Man o' War / the Beugay after it rained.
Dollars to doughnuts the inner course was treated with some kind of fertilizer... which made the lawn retain water... sending us into a double carry over.
That's my tin foil hat theory.
I'm personally labeling the track "medium" for the whole weekend and recognizing an outside post bias. A real head scratcher for sure.
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