Crist: Grass Sprints Become Tiring
 

http://www.drf.com/drfNewsArticle.do...2&subs=0&arc=1

What I want to know is who were these people asking for more turf sprints? And why are they still allowed to speak?

Not a big fan of turf sprints; especially when I'm like 2-192 handicapping them.

I think they are ok when I play socal, but NY has overdone them, and the reasons are layed out very well by Crist.

I like them a lot!!!

I guess it was a slow news week because it would seem that NYRA grass sprints are hardly a really important industry topic.

Diversion
 

I guess with Sumwon skipping the race at Monmouth this weekend they had to go with Plan B for a news story. How is our girl doing?

PSH

In the hope of keeping this topic slightly on subject, especially being that there is an entire room dedicated for the previous post, I will tell exactly who is being referenced as the person who asked for more turf sprints.......



.......me.

Better hit the books on them, plenty will be run at the Spa this summer! :D

True, but I'm getting pretty sick of them too. It's gotten to the point where half of the turf races run in NY are at six furlongs. That should never be.

A few years ago they never had turf sprints in NY. I like to see a nice balance of races. You don't get that many 8F dirt races right now.

I like the turf sprint increase at Belmont. It makes the racing a bit more compelling and difficult adding grass stretchouts and cutbacks to the handicapping mix. Anything that makes the racing harder to handicap, I'm in favor of.

I hate turf sprints.

I like 'em. The favorites seem to be a lot more vulnerable, but maybe it's my imagination.

Ya mean the, " ... somewhere, some reclusive genius ... " :p part?

I have to agree, there are way too many in New York. What makes them even worse is when the turf sprints are for NY breds. It's a deadly combination to handicap. There are $5K Clm races around the country that run truer to form.

Not me. I haven't picked a winner at Belmont in about a month.

NYRA used to run turf sprints and about 20 years ago these pretty much came to a halt save a few for 2YOs starting in July. I constantly harangued Mike Lakow about this, to the point where when he would card one or two a meet he would make a point of saying it was his gift to me, but my hopes were for one a week perhaps, and not two or three a day. Be careful what you wish for.

PJ Campo ( the racing secretary ) asked me how I felt about the turf sprints when I saw him at the Preakness. Now obviously he knew I had been asking for them for years as he used to work with Mike, but I told him there were simply too many. He said the problem was that once he started carding them trainers were basically asking for them for every division. I also suggested that he should run more then at 7F, and less at 6F, because at least the milers would have a fairer chance at 7, and speed would perhaps be less of an advantage.....in other words it would make for a fairer race. He said there would be more 7Fs in the next book and I think that seems to be the case. Of course, many races in the book aren't run, and perhaps there is a greater demand among the horsemen for 6F. However, a balance between what the horsemen want and what the public wants needs to be achieved.

Being a racing secretary is a thankless job, and I think all things considered PJ has done a remarkably good job, and the last thing I would do would be to criticize someone for trying to be creative. The upside of more turf sprints is that we get to build a database, so to speak, of horses' performances in these races, and over time they should become easier to decipher. Another thing that is worth noting is these races have increased field size. No, I'm not thrilled by them, but right now I'm not thrilled by much of anything, and it's important to look at as much of the picture as you can before criticizing these races out of hand.

This is a nice area for Formy4. You can find value on the races, and find them easy.

Large, competitive fields, that's all I ask for, I don't care if they are running 5f or 12f on the dirt, grass or artificial surfaces.

amen to that! I don't mind the turf sprints myself.

The 7F's are definitely more interesting than the 6's (as you state, the milers at 6F really don't have much of a shot), and I appreciate you campaigning on behalf of the horseplayer to him. Anyone can see he's doing his best to card interesting races with a depleted population and I guess that's all we can ask for.