Golf,

Speed has been holding better and better as the week progressed..

Thanks, Steve.. that's the problem with being a "weekend warrior", you tend to miss some things. Do you think this is a natural occurrence, or did they do something to create this?

I thought Slew's Tizzy was a piece of junk. He broke his maiden at Turfway on a wet day when the track was playing faster than usual. They throw him in over his head for two stakes and he ends up here... I thought he had no chance. Actually looked like a bigger animal with these today.

How many times does a bomb come in with blinkers-off and a strong workout?

Starbase is a Tale of the Cat so he is bred for this track although the early speed was a big turnoff.

Speed was either carrying or nobody good was closing and the horses who weren't held back early had the best trips...

Slews Tizzy ran a nicely paced race that would have given him a chance to win on dirt as well. His fractions were solid but he was able to keep gas in the tank for the stretch when he "dusted" em.

If he goes in the Derby any chance he shows the early speed??? again

steve, your post is right on the money. Very honest fractions and the track played very much like it did on Thurs. As far as Beyer's column about Keeneland, he knows next to nothing about how this surface will play from day to day, just like the rest of us.

The temperatures having been rising as the week has gone on too. It seemed like the Cushion Track at Hollywood was an honest track but the temps were a lot higher than Keeneland was during the fall meet and this years spring meet until the past few days. It will be interesting to see how things play out at Del Mar during the middle of summer with a mile track with a short stretch.

In years past I noticed that Keeneland was much more speed biased in the spring and in the fall the speed and rail bias was much less of a factor. It was also warmer in the spring. This year we've had record low temps in Lexington and maybe that is the reason the Keeneland main track has been so unfriendly to speed.

I do not have a grasp on this track. I'll continue to tread lightly until I do.

according to the jock, belgravia bled in the race.
they may want to keep slew's tizzy on poly, that's his first win since turfway-he likes the stuff!

yeah. belgravia "bled"-----whew--that mule will never run again

DaHoss, my point is that there have been a grand total of 28 days of racing over the Keeneland poly. I just think that it is way too soon to come to what may prove to be unwarrented conclusions about the surface.

RG,

I thought he ran a terrific race... Look at the internal quarters and internal halves.. Outstanding..

:23.4
:24.1 (:48.0)
:24.2 (1:12.2/:48.3)
:24.2 (1:36.2/:48.4)
:06.2 (1:43.1/:30.4)

Rebuffed every challenge and spurted away at will when confronted.. Well prepared by Fox for this... Well ridden by Albarado, whom I roundly criticize regularly but has had a great spring... The question begs where this colt could have been had he not clipped heels in the Risen Star...

Im still shocked. I cant believe this horse ran this well. This is one you can go back and look at past races and say what if... and I still dont get it right now. Thats racing. Of course I have not been with the horse to see the progression, we know these animals change drastically, but this one was a blind-side for me.

All I can conclude is that the poly track was perfectly suited to the way this horse strikes the ground on this day since it apparently changes in its physical characteristics fairly drastically with temperature. I wish I was near some of this stuff so I could run on it myself.

Steve, I agree and bet on him in the La. Derby at even longer odds then he went off at yesterday. When he ran what I felt was a somewhat mediocre race, I got off him. much to my dismay yesterday.

I thought it was terrific too. What I really liked is not only did he run like you stated above, but had to be pulled up by the outrider. Tizzy looked like he wanted to go around for one more! He was bouncing back to the barn after presentations too. Lovely animal.

throwing darts is the best way to cap that joke of a track.........