A Warning About the Keeneland Turf Course

[SuperPickle]

I've seen a lot of mentions on various about people handicapping for soft turf and talking about soft turf for this weekend.

The Keeneland Turf course is dramatically different than most turf courses. By comparison it's much newer. It's not part of "original Keeneland." It was created in 1985. Here's an article about it.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?n...,3664480&hl=en


So Keeneland didn't have a turf course until 1985 because of the shortness of the meetings and the fact it rains a ton in Kentucky in spring and fall. When they decided to add a turf they want a course that could handle a lot of rain. Hence the course has a drainage system under it that for example NYRA or mid-atlantic tracks don't have.

It would have to rain A LOT for the course to be in the type of shape where soft turf horses would love it and most horses would struggle with it. One of the handicapping errors people make when playing Keeneland in the rain is they don't factor this drainage into their handicapping and judge the amount of rain in line with other tracks courses not Keeneland's.

Remember the course is designed for a ton of rain.

[Spiderman]

That info takes a bit of the edge away from the Euro turfers. Thanks.

[biggestal99]

Golden horn wants it firm, the firmer the better.

Allan

[nearco]

Forecast for Lexington is little chance of rain Thur/Fri/Sat.
If it rains tonight and tomorrow you'd think it would be dried out by post time on Sat.

http://www.weather.com/weather/tenda...+USKY1079:1:US

[Tom]

They were talking turf courses on ATR Tuesday and Byk mentioned there were only 4-5 tracks with a sand based turf course, and I only caught Tampa Bay. Is KEE sand based, and if it is, there might be a horse4course angle in there. (Sorry to grab your name without permission, Horsey!)
Anyone catch the other tracks?

[rastajenk]

I would think Del Mar and Gulfstream would have to be two of them.

[AlBundy33]

Probably the artist formerly known as Calder as well.

[castaway01]

Churchill, Keeneland, Fair Grounds come to mind

[ebcorde]

Steve Byk was moaning and groaning yesterday about the Keeneland bias.
had some clocker guy suggesting an inside bias on turf.

[AndyC]

Originally Posted by Spiderman

That info takes a bit of the edge away from the Euro turfers. Thanks.

I will never forget attending the 1993 Irish Derby and getting a chance to walk on the track after the races were over. The ground was incredibly hard with very little give to it. Somehow the track was listed as "soft" for the day. I learned never to make assumptions about turf conditions after that reality check.

I doubt that a drained turf course will take anything away from the Euro turfers.

[horses4courses]

Originally Posted by Tom

(Sorry to grab your name without permission, Horsey!)

Grab away.

I've always found Keeneland to be one of the fairest,
best conditioned, turf tracks in the US.
Even when firm, there has always been enough cushion
for runners. When it's soft, it seems to play fair to both
speed and closers depending on the pace of the race.

Having shorter meets than most other major tracks helps the surface.
They don't have to resort to moving the rail back and forth as much as others do.

As far as Euro horses are concerned, the turns may be a bit tighter than
they are used to, but the surface is no different to their norm.
It's lush with plenty of give in it much of the time. No excuses for them.

[Tom]

Caught the replay today - the tracks are CD, KEE, TP and TAM.

Johnhannibalsmith.....who ya sending that looks good?

[horses4courses]

John Gosden is concerned about the ground for Golden Horn.
On the soft side right now, lets see how much it drys by Saturday a'noon.

[Spiderman]

Originally Posted by AndyC

I will never forget attending the 1993 Irish Derby and getting a chance to walk on the track after the races were over. The ground was incredibly hard with very little give to it. Somehow the track was listed as "soft" for the day. I learned never to make assumptions about turf conditions after that reality check.

I doubt that a drained turf course will take anything away from the Euro turfers.

My experience stems from a day at Belmont with three graded turf races and raining. Euros galloped in all three.

In all pps that I've seen a Euro turf race is always listed on the soft side. May be somewhat analogous to all SoCal workouts getting an 'h', whether horse breezed or was 'h'ard ridden.

Thanks for comment. I'll stick with elevating a Euro turfers chance on a soft course.

[nearco]

Originally Posted by AndyC

I will never forget attending the 1993 Irish Derby and getting a chance to walk on the track after the races were over. The ground was incredibly hard with very little give to it. Somehow the track was listed as "soft" for the day. I learned never to make assumptions about turf conditions after that reality check.

The official going for the 1993 Irish Derby was "Good to Firm"..... http://www.racingpost.com/horses/res..._tabs=ANALYSIS