Churchill Moving Races to Ellis Park
 

Churchill moving races to Ellis Park

https://www.wevv.com/news/kentucky/c...39b2e05c7.html


https://www.drf.com/news/churchill-m...ing-ellis-park

Can anyone explain why they'd still run today and this weekend?

Logistics?

That's what makes no sense.

Plus, changing surfaces (beginnings of meets) has regularly been cited as a contributing factor in clusters of breakdowns. So this is 2nd surface change (3rd if counting KEE) since April for a significant percentage of the horse population.

I'll take :$: for $100 Alex. Big card today with 4 Graded stakes. Trying to sneak it in and cross their fingers. Move is a show that they are doing something amid public outcry. Just my Opinion.

I think, sadly for racing, Tapeta is coming to a theater near you. What the public will not handle is horses breaking down on the track. They don't break down on Tapeta. I'm not too fond of Tapeta racing. It's boring as hell, there is a randomness about it that is super frustrating to me, and it generally sucks. I hope I am wrong, but it is the simplest solution. I respect the hard work that Alan Forman and others did in NY. I acknowledge the strides made in reducing breakdowns over the last decade. You have horses running every two weeks on Tapeta, and you have horses needing 4-6 weeks on dirt. The whole microfracture thing is interesting, but it is a nonstarter because those same horses have microfractures at TW and PDi and don't break down. Horses are going to get hurt racing. It's a dangerous and brutal game that the public will stomach. They can't handle death.

I hope I am wrong

You have to move like 200 horses fast and get the personnel repositioned seems to me that is a tough chore in 48 hours

So how many workers at Churchill are SOL?

Freddie,

Regarding synthetic. Spend less time thinking about your lack of success and more time thinking it is JAS (Just Another Surface). Think of it as a business problem in need of a solution. I've never met you but those I know that have speak highly of you. You can and will figure it out.

Respectfully, I think this dismisses his concern, if I read him right. One of the joys of handicapping is trying to come up with reasoned opinions and hope you’re right. When you end up wrong, we at least want to be able to look back and understand an outcome. When you start just getting random results that don’t make any logical sense other than “that’s just racing”, I think that will hurt the sport long term.

Freddy is a great guy. Seriously.

He’s very confused politically ;) but he’s aces as a person.

In part, this is true. I expect to lose, we all do, because nobody bats .500 unless they are Frank with a couple of belts in him picking 3/5 shots on Fox. That is must-watch TV.

You know the mile turf races at SPA have an element of randomness, and you adjust for that and use those races as an opportunity to get more creative. Tapeta is more boring than anything else, and I love it for getting horses fit to go on dirt. If they have handled dirt ground in the past and come back to it after "prepping" on tapeta, it seems to be a good angle for me.

I do think Tapeta is an answer for breakdowns. Not so much for the future of great racing

It started in 3rd grade when Mrs. Williams assigned me to defend Richard "E" Nixon vs. George McGovern in a debate. My parents are liberals who had been extremely active in Civil Rights and had to prepare me for the event. You are liberated once you go GOP, which didn't happen to me until 2016. lol

Imagine a 3rd or 4th-grade class where a teacher would have a debate before an election in 2023... Oh, the horror...we can't have that.

I can't help but remember back to the initial days of Polytrack and Cushion Track and Pro-ride stuff. I hated those days, although it did give us Raven's Pass over Henrythenavigator in the Classic.

Kind of like reading 50 years of PP's and putting a futures bet on Zippy Chippy ;)