One-mile race gets test drive at Keeneland
By Marty McGee
LEXINGTON, Ky. – History of a sort will be made Friday with the running of the seventh race, a $64,000 optional claimer for 3-year-olds and up: It’s the first one-mile race on the Keeneland main track.
The race is essentially a road test prior to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Oct. 30. With the 1 1/16-mile circumference of its main track, Keeneland never has contested races at a mile because of the short run into the first turn.
The reality is that these mile races actually will be “about” a mile since the starting gate will be positioned 70 yards before the regular finish pole; the clocking of the race won’t start until the lead horse triggers the electronic beam on the pole. The secondary finish wire (at the sixteenth pole) will be in use, as is done for all 1 1/16-mile dirt races here.
According to Keeneland racing secretary Ben Huffman: “The run to the first turn will be 463 feet, which actually is longer than what it is at Santa Anita,” where the BC Dirt Mile had been run the last three years. “We’ve actually got another three or four of these races in our condition book before the Breeders’ Cup to give the jockeys and our track crew a feel for them.”
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