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Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind
He beat a mighty field in the Hawthorne Gold Cup.
I don't totally disagree with you but the field he beat at Del Mar is better than him on the dirt. And, most that are didn't show up at all.
Frankly, there is no greater example of how ridiculous that surface is than Big Booster. He was running for a quarter on the dirt. Granted, it was John Kimmel, but still.
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All of you said is probably true but the thread was supposedly about how turf races were suffering because of synthetic tracks and that is hardly the case. The race that Frankels horse is skipping Sat is a 10 horse field where Frankel already has 2 other races not to mention it is far from an important race. Perhaps Frankel would have not pointed his horse to the Big Cap on Dirt but he sure may have. I guess i am getting old but I remember lots of "turf" horses trying the big Cap. Of course they would have used this as a prep too. California is far different than everywhere else in regards to scheduling of races due to the distance from the other major races. But I would maintain that the schedule in the summer and fall in the east and midwest where races of all sorts overlap is a bigger detriment to thin stakes races than synthetic surfaces.