Revisiting the Fountain of Youth day figures

[The Indomitable DrugS]

I read this quote in a Haskin column earlier in the week regarding Arch Traveler's alw win...

The track for that race, run as the third, was noticeably slower than later races, and only got faster as they watered it during the course of the afternoon.

In his weekly write-up - Mike Welch made no mention of any unusual maintenance and made no opinion of the track changing speeds like he sometimes will.

So, you have two big questions in play on this day - 1.) was the track really noticeably faster for the Hutcheson and FOY due to maintenance work? 2.) Are the given figures way too low for the routes? I'm just going to focus on question #1.

The first race of the day was a maiden claiming race for 3-year-olds at 7 furlongs - it looked par at best for the class level on paper - and it went in 1:23.95.

The winner of the race was a 2nd time starter who ran a 39 Beyer in it's debut after having a good bit of early trouble.

The 2nd place finisher was a 7th time starter who had been soundly beaten three prior times at the maiden claiming level. Ran a 56 last out.

A Phil Serpe NY bred longshot in for a 45K tag and off a 46 Beyer debut was 3rd beaten 5.25 lengths in that race.


The Grade 2 Hucheson stakes was also run at 7fs - but was much later on in the card - meaning some think it was run over a faster racetrack. The Hucheson winner Flashpoint went 1.92 seconds faster than the Maiden Claimer race.

If the track was consistant in speed - Flashpoint ran 23 points faster than the maiden claiming winner - and Travelin Man ran 7 points faster than the maiden claiming winner. Several stakes winning beaten horses in the Hucheson ran MUCH slower than the maiden claiming race.

Now - if the track really became much faster later in the day - Flashpoint's 23 point edge over the maiden claiming race has to be shaved way down. I guess that was some monster maiden claiming race - and the Serpe NY Bred layoff horse - who wasn't bet - and was in the for the discounted claiming tag - should be shipped to New York ASAP where he will rip right through his NY Bred MSW and ALW conditions.

Quite obviously - it's my opinion that there is no evidence at all that the track was becoming faster as the day progressed.

Even if you disregard the first race - there is still no such evidence from race #3 onward.