It isn't just the time, it is the fundamentals of the game. On a very slow dirt track, speed horses still have an advantage. Check the winterized surface at Mnr, or some of the slow days at Crc and a few others. It isn't just about the time.

What has really happened is that 6f races are now like 7f races, 7f races like 1 mile and 1/16 races, and 1 mile 1/4 races are like 1 mile 1/2 on dirt. I don't even care about the betting part. It is certainly possible to figure this stuff and make money.

Imagine though, if you will, a sport where horses like Seattle Slew and Dr. Fager wouldn't have been able to win a route race. Safely Kept and Xtra Heat would have won a few, but hardly been dominant. The list could go on and on. That is what you have at Keeneland and Delmar right now.

There is nothing I like more than seeing a horse go fast and dare the others to try and keep up. The best horses ever could run fast for a long time. Now, that is absolute death. Horses are basically being dragged back and begged not to run until the very end. Why are horses running fast in the first place? It is the survival instict, no? Watch horses in the wild. You won't see a lot of them fighting to be in the back when being chased by a lion.

Again, I'm all for saving a horses. There just has to be a better way than this.

A lot of what you say is very reasonable and true. However in todays "sport" horses like Dr. Fager and Seattle Slew would never run enough to become what they were back in the day. The truth is that polytrack may save the sport by confusing the breeders into making bad stallion choices which may inevitably turn the bloodstock markets downward making it less economically viable to retire horses early. Sound like a crazy theory but the pyrmaid scheme which exists now is going to sap all the talent and eventually interest out of the upper levels of the racing game until the time where it is not so damn profitable to not run and instead just create breeding stock.

I do realize there are some pluses to the fake surfaces, including potentially longer careers for top horses. It could also provide, eventually, some needed stamina being brought back into the breeding shed. At some point, we might actually even have a horse that could compete in a real top class turf race.

I just think there has to be a way to make it perform more like dirt. Imagine Slew trying to sew up the TC going 3 miles, errr, 1 1/2 miles, on a Belmont polytrack, yikes!

The track is slow to be sure. Speed horses are at a big disadvantage to be sure.
BUT, if Seattle Slew in his prime had been in that race yesterday, I am pretty confident that he could have handled that bunch........no matter the surface.

Seeing how not a single horse has won on the lead at over a mile, I suspect you would be tearing up some tickets. We'll never know, but that is my opinion.

Big chicks give good head lol

Yes, and I agree that the surface is ridiculous, but none of those horses on the lead were even REMOTELY in the same ballpark as Seattle Slew. He could do things other horses simply couldn't do. I would say he was a tad better than yesterday's leader AP Xcellent.

Everybody desires a perfect world..

one problem.. what would everybody bitch and moan about?

Interesting

I just don't what to say...

I heard him make that comment, as if to somehow invalidate the result of the race. Truth be told, the Pacific Classic was a very weak race, and no matter who the top three finishers were, with the exception of Lava Man, they would probably be at least 30-1 morning line in the BC Classic whether the Del Mar race was contested over Polytrack or a conventional dirt surface.

Niether one appeal to me.

ok, you want a 385 lb man instead?

It's pretty exciting when you win.

I could care less if they run the mile and a quarter in 2:20.. if I have the winner, then I'm a big fan.

so I'm an idiot you say.. fine..

everybody's in the game for different reasons. What if I don't care about the times, or who's horse of the year, or if so and so gets his grade 1.

What keeps this sport going is gambling.

People are still betting on it.. so bitching and moaning and beating this dead horse is not going to change it.

damn.. deal with it.

yours truly,
great and brilliant.

I contemplated what to do and my decision is to make the stripper watch the race at Del- Mar and i'll atempt to do the striptease and if i make a $1 i'm way ahead.