Three types of horses?

[todko]

Looking at the first couple races at Churchill today has me wondering again about the future of horse racing. Mainly, will there be three type of horses -- horses that excel on the dirt, horses that thrive on the turf, and horses that are masterful on the poly?

I play Turfway a lot (I live about 45 minutes away)and I've often heard people say that it's a low level track and that's why dirt form doesn't hold on poly. If it was a higher level track then dirt form would hold. Keeneland absolutely proved that this wasn't true. Even the very best horses prefer a certain type of surface -- Keeneland made this more obvious than ever. There is no higher level meet than Keeneland. Sure, Barbaro could excel on both turf and dirt (sloppy or dry) but such horses are clearly the exception.

I'm more convinced than ever that just like we talk about "turf horses" we'll soon be talking about "poly horses".

If you've ever seen poly up close you would see that it's totally different from dirt. It's so much softer that maybe even hoof size would affect how well a horse runs on it. Just like hoof size affects how well horses run on yielding or soft turf.

It may indeed affect the breeding of horses down the road. I feel that racing has really opened Pandora's box at this point.

I made money at the Keeneland meet. Did very well, but I should have from playing Turfway and tracking the Kentucky circuit for years. Now, I'm really leery of going back to the dirt at CD. A lot of people I handicap with won't tough the artificial surfaces. They simply quit playing it.

The last thing racing needs is for changes to drive handicappers away.