Should the 20-horse Gate Become Standard?

[Thomas Roulston]

https://www.kentuckyderby.com/horses...kentucky-derby

Since it's only 65 feet wide, it will fit inside most racetracks.

Of course there would need to be common-sense restrictions governing its use; in specifis, it could be used only in races with a very long run to the first turn, such as 1-mile races (and obviously, 1 1/4-mile races) at Churchill Downs, also 1-mile races at Aqueduct, and 1 1/8-mile races on the dirt at Belmont - and speaking of Belmont, they need to create an auxiliary finish line one furlong past the permanent finish line, so that 1 1/4-mile races on the dirt can be run out of the chute instead of the turn, thus eliminating the huge advantage the 1 1/4-mile start on the turn gives to the horses drawing the inside posts (for the same reason, the 1 1/16-mile start on the Inner Turf Course also needs to become a thing of the past).

The last time that Woodbine hosted the Breeders' Cup, management requested permission to run 20-horse fields in some of the turf races. The request fell on deaf ears.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by Thomas Roulston

https://www.kentuckyderby.com/horses...kentucky-derby

Since it's only 65 feet wide, it will fit inside most racetracks.

Of course there would need to be common-sense restrictions governing its use; in specifis, it could be used only in races with a very long run to the first turn, such as 1-mile races (and obviously, 1 1/4-mile races) at Churchill Downs, also 1-mile races at Aqueduct, and 1 1/8-mile races on the dirt at Belmont - and speaking of Belmont, they need to create an auxiliary finish line one furlong past the permanent finish line, so that 1 1/4-mile races on the dirt can be run out of the chute instead of the turn, thus eliminating the huge advantage the 1 1/4-mile start on the turn gives to the horses drawing the inside posts (for the same reason, the 1 1/16-mile start on the Inner Turf Course also needs to become a thing of the past).

The last time that Woodbine hosted the Breeders' Cup, management requested permission to run 20-horse fields in some of the turf races. The request fell on deaf ears.

Given that Rick's Natural Star ran at Woodbine, that BC demonstrated the wisdom of the 14 horse gate.

[Tom]

Some tracks could run 4 races at the same time!

[Thomas Roulston]

Once a year Canterbury Park does run two races concomitantly - one on dirt and one on turf, at 1 1/16 miles.

[MJC922]

Originally Posted by Tom

Some tracks could run 4 races at the same time!

Don't give them any ideas. I'll never forget the time I was headed to Disney in Orlando with the wife and kids, we were driving down from NY that time and about halfway there at a rest area I decided to check to see if everything was ok with the database processing. I check on things several times per day just in case. Anyway it was sitting there errored out because some track ran two races at the same time, one on the dirt course and one on the turf course, some kind of synchronized twin trifecta thing they tried as a gimmick. That duplicate 'off' time at the same venue caused a problem with some of the code that I had back in those days so I was forced to make code changes remotely using the laptop on the road. Let me just say making code changes on the road while customers are waiting for files to be generated is a nightmare scenario ... Disney with kids is anything but relaxing anyway, you do it to be a good dad is what it amounts to we have the pics of the kids with Mickey, check that checkbox, anyway that vacation probably aged me a bit, thankfully in over 20 years that type of error has only happened once.

[Thomas Roulston]

Imagine, for example, the Cigar Mile at Aqueduct with a 20-horse field.

[castaway01]

Originally Posted by Thomas Roulston

Imagine, for example, the Cigar Mile at Aqueduct with a 20-horse field.

Or Santa Anita could take all of their fields and combine them, maybe fill the gate for a one-race card with a couple AEs.

[wisconsin]

The old version of the Arlington-Washington Futurity sometimes had as many as 17 starters when it was 1 mile. The chute provided ample distance for position. Back then, and for a long time it was the richest tb race in America.