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Originally Posted by azeri98
Why the in the hell would they try to grow a Bermuda based grass course in Kentucky? It's native to Florida and Gulfstream has abandoned it. IMO they will have to replace the Bermuda with something else. Here'sa though. How about Kentucky Blue grass?
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Last week, Jason Beem's podcast had an interview with Colonial's trackman, Harrison Young, who's been in charge of their well-respected turf courses for a couple of years now. He was talking about them being Bermuda-based, so it's apparently not just a far south thing. Colonial and Churchill are close to the same latitude, although of course the local climates are different - to what extent that would affect Bermuda grass, I can't say.
From the podcast, it did sound like if you can get one growing, the rhizome-based growth structure of Bermuda can lend itself well to turf racing since the grass naturally spreads to fill empty spots (without needing to re-seed) and builds a well developed structure underneath the top surface that's very kind to horses.