Los Alamitos thoroughbred

[pele polo]

Haven't really seen an overhead shot of new track. Did they simply lengthen the stretches and kept the same turn radius? If so this is going be very interesting. I'm guessing the same configuration as Hoosier except a mile and a little more exaggerated? That's nuts.

What else are we looking forward to at the meet? Can't wait to hear Ed call the thoroughbreds. I think he's great.

Thoroughbred during the day, quarters at night or are they taking a break?

What are the wagering platforms and such? I also haven't seen a thoroughbred condition book.

[johnhannibalsmith]

I hope this doesn't blow up the thread, I have no idea how to re-size.

[alydar]

Thanks for the photo, I have been curious, it reminds me of Sportsman's Park. Any idea how long the stretch is?

[picojim]

Originally Posted by alydar

Thanks for the photo, I have been curious, it reminds me of Sportsman's Park. Any idea how long the stretch is?

The revamped track’s stretch (the distance from the final turn to the finish line) measures 1,350 feet, which track officials say could be the longest in North America.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/t...hollywood.html

[mostpost]

Originally Posted by johnhannibalsmith

I hope this doesn't blow up the thread, I have no idea how to re-size.

Maybe it's an optical illusion, but it appears that the first turn is a very gradual, long turn whereas the far turn and into the stretch is a shorter, much sharper turn. It also appears that all of the extension was done at the far turn end of the track. You can see they are starting to do landscaping between the old and the new far turns.

[wisconsin]

Originally Posted by TVGfan

The revamped track’s stretch (the distance from the final turn to the finish line) measures 1,350 feet, which track officials say could be the longest in North America.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/t...hollywood.html

Laurel's 2nd finish line is over 1400 feet, as is the Woodbine turf course.

[johnhannibalsmith]

Originally Posted by mostpost

Maybe it's an optical illusion, but it appears that the first turn is a very gradual, long turn whereas the far turn and into the stretch is a shorter, much sharper turn. It also appears that all of the extension was done at the far turn end of the track. You can see they are starting to do landscaping between the old and the new far turns.

Yeah, I looked quickly for a photo that was both aerial and showed most of the configuration, but it isn't exactly great for overall perspective.

I should have included this, but was too lazy to gooooooooooooogle:

[YT="Raging With Run"]ery4naQXy2U[/YT]

[dilanesp]

It's an optical illusion caused by perspective (the clubhouse turn is closer to the camera than the far turn). The turns are exactly the same radius and are extremely tight-- almost certainly the tightest in North America in a track larger than 7 furlongs. (Track officials aren't going to advertise THAT, of course.) The first turn also comes up really quick after the finish line, which means that riders have to slam on the brakes after the finish when they pull their horses up.

This whole thing is a really bad idea caused by some horsemen who can't accept the idea that we shouldn't race every single weekend of the year, and a track that desperately wants to get into the thoroughbred game and has for years. This isn't likely to go well.

(BTW, Los Al had thoroughbred cards in the Orange County Fair meet for a few years in the 1980's. That didn't go very well either.)

[Tom]

I am looking forward to the upcoming T Bred meet.
I play there a lot now, the 4.5 furlong races.

BTW, there will 2 track codes - one for T Breds, one for night racing.
They may run both on the same day.

[plainolebill]

Looks like a slot car track. I wonder what kind of biases we'll see, with a stretch like that closers might have a pretty good shot?

[Pensacola Pete]

They're keeping the original far turn for night racing, including the QH 770 and 870 races, their customary cheapie claiming 4-1/2 furlong races, and the mixed breeds (Paints, Arabians, Appaloosa). The new part of the track is strictly for their thoroughbred meets. They widened the clubhouse turn a little, but they're still pretty much bull-ring turns.

It does resemble Sportsmans a little when that track went to a 7-8th track, but Sportsman's did nothing to widen their turns. As a result, the stretch was 1410 feet long (on a 7-8th mile track).

The far turn looks a little cramped, but they may not have had any way to make it wider.

[plainolebill]

It should be interesting and I'll be playing.

[picojim]

Who will be calling the races?

[picojim]

Found the answer , Ed Burgart
http://www.drf.com/news/burgart-will...s-los-alamitos