Santa Anita to Keep Present Surface

[alysheba4]

curlin can run on broken glass and win........

[pick4]

As a good as Curlin ran in the JCGC, BC Classic and DWC, one could argue that he beat a horse who peaked at Saratoga (Lawyer Ron) and was regrsssing when he ran in the JCGC. Curlin clearly relished the slop at Monmouth but the runner up's only win at 1 1/8 or more was a race on Polytrack at Turfway. The Dubai Classic was weak and he beat a bunch of slow horses in that race.


Is Curlin a very good horse? Yes!! He has proved on the track that he is a good horse. He's the best older horse dirt distance runner still in training. Is he unbeatable? No.

[ArlJim78]

Originally Posted by pick4

As a good as Curlin ran in the JCGC, BC Classic and DWC, one could argue that he beat a horse who peaked at Saratoga (Lawyer Ron) and was regrsssing when he ran in the JCGC. Curlin clearly relished the slop at Monmouth but the runner up's only win at 1 1/8 or more was a race on Polytrack at Turfway. The Dubai Classic was weak and he beat a bunch of slow horses in that race.


Is Curlin a very good horse? Yes!! He has proved on the track that he is a good horse. He's the best older horse dirt distance runner still in training. Is he unbeatable? No.

nice try, but i'm not buying any of it. if he's beatable then let me know who it is that can do it.

[rgustafson]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

No one is holding a gun to their head NOT to run. The funny thing is if BB wins the Belmont, Curlin has almost no chance to be horse of the year anyway.

Maybe Jess Jackson could care less about another eclipse for HOY. Curlin already has a Breeders Cup Classic and a Dubai World Cup win. He may want to prove to people that Curlin is one of the greatest of all time. A victory in The Arc would just about cinch it.

Originally Posted by ArlJim78

nice try, but i'm not buying any of it. if he's beatable then let me know who it is that can do it.

Heatseeker.

That surface is a complete joke.

[ArlJim78]

Originally Posted by Coach Pants

Heatseeker.

That surface is a complete joke.

nfw does heatseeker touch Curlin even at SA.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by rgustafson

Maybe Jess Jackson could care less about another eclipse for HOY. Curlin already has a Breeders Cup Classic and a Dubai World Cup win. He may want to prove to people that Curlin is one of the greatest of all time. A victory in The Arc would just about cinch it.

Maybe so but he needs to win the Arc because winning the BC and Dubai WC hardly qualifies one as one of the all time greats. When I see him training on french soil i will believe he is going to run there. I suppose i would be looking for alternatives for the BC considering Assmussens strangely terrible record on synthetics.

[pick4]

Originally Posted by ArlJim78

nice try, but i'm not buying any of it. if he's beatable then let me know who it is that can do it.

Curlin is a very good horse. He's the best horse in training. That being said he's not unbeatable. Upsets do happen. I just posted a contrarian outlook on his last three major victories. The history books of horse racing and other sports are filled with "unbeatable" competitors who were defeated. I'm not going off the deep end and saying he will lose his next race. It's just that the one thing I've noticed is when the conventional wisdom says something is a sure thing, a lot of times the opposite occurs.

[asudevil]

Originally Posted by theiman

The 2003 BC at SA was in 95 degree heat and fires all around LA area

The 2007 BC @ Monmouth was 55 degrees and rain all around NJ

BC @ Belmont has never been higher than the low 50's, with a northern breeze it always felt colder.

Perhaps a change of time in the year for the BC?..........or just pick your poison for a venue.

Turf Paradise??

[Rupert Pupkin]

It rained at Santa Anita the last couple of days and the track did not drain well. I wonder if this will make them reconsider. I don't know how they can keep the current surface if it's not draining properly. What if it rains in October right before the BC? I know they are going to do some more tests in the next week or two. If the track doesn't drain properly when they do these tests, I would think they would have to reconsider. I would think that alot will depend on what advice Ian Pierce gives them. He is supposed to supervise the tests.

[deltagulf]

art. just a couple of hours ago.
to test the whole track and just see where there is a problem.




http://sports.yahoo.com/rah/news?slu...v=ap&type=lgns

[theiman]

Only 5 horses worked on Friday at SA

DRF article

http://www.drf.com/news/article/94840.html

Drainage problems reappear at Santa Anita
By STEVE ANDERSEN
ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita's synthetic main track failed to completely drain after a surprise storm dropped nearly two inches of rain on Thursday evening and early Friday. The rain left small pools of water in some places on the track and prompted some trainers to curtail training Friday morning.

The storm came less than a week before Santa Anita is scheduled to conduct an extensive test to simulate the effects of a three- to four-inch rainstorm on the surface, track president Ron Charles said. The test will be conducted after training concludes next Wednesday, and training will be canceled on Thursday and possibly Friday, Charles said.

"We're looking to see that water gets down to the asphalt and it drains through the asphalt," Charles said. "Getting two inches was a good test. With some additional work, we can have the racetrack in perfect shape for the Oak Tree meeting."

Santa Anita will host the Breeders' Cup on Oct. 24-25 during the Oak Tree meeting and again in the fall of 2009.

Santa Anita's synthetic track is a mix of Cushion Track material installed in August 2007 and Pro-Ride material that was added in early February after the track lost 11 days of racing when the surface failed to drain. Following the renovation to add polymers and fibers from Pro-Ride, Santa Anita had no further cancellations. The track had encountered only minimal rain until Thursday.

"We're still in the process of trying to get the kinks out of it," track superintendent Richard Tedesco said. "It's not 100 percent and we know that."

Tedesco estimated the track received 1 3/4 inches of rain in an 18-hour period ending at 9 a.m. on Friday, with more rain expected throughout the day. Hollywood Park, where racing was being conducted approximately 35 miles to the southwest, received virtually no rain.

There were small pools of standing water on the outside of the track near the quarter pole in hoof prints on Friday morning.

Horses exercised on the main track on Friday morning, though there were only five recorded workouts. Some trainers chose not to work horses.

Jack Carava sent out two horses for workouts. "I breezed a few on it and they went okay," Carava said. "It seems to be holding water on the outside. This feels like January. Other than holding a little water, it seems safe."

Trainer Ted West said "none of my exercise riders have complained about it."

Mike Machowsky canceled one workout and limited the 2-year-olds in his barn to tack-walking.

Other trainers were not as satisfied.

"It's got soft spots and it's really inconsistent," Jeff Mullins said.

Charles said Ian Pearse, the founder of Pro-Ride, will be present at Santa Anita for the water test next week. He said water will be applied "over a short period of time, which is kind of what we just got."



I still say best place for BC is Woodbine.

[King Glorious]

I can't tell you how happy I was to read this article. SA officials had acted like this new stuff had solved their problems when in reality, the weather cooperated and they never got a real test. So with their first real one, here's what they got.

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by pick4

As a good as Curlin ran in the JCGC, BC Classic and DWC, one could argue that he beat a horse who peaked at Saratoga (Lawyer Ron) and was regrsssing when he ran in the JCGC. Curlin clearly relished the slop at Monmouth but the runner up's only win at 1 1/8 or more was a race on Polytrack at Turfway. The Dubai Classic was weak and he beat a bunch of slow horses in that race.


Is Curlin a very good horse? Yes!! He has proved on the track that he is a good horse. He's the best older horse dirt distance runner still in training. Is he unbeatable? No.

I think this is absolutely true and very similar to Big Brown this year. Curlin and BB are both helped by the fact that there is no competition out there for them. Both are very good horses but both are probably a little overrated. Curlin might just be unbeatable this year because there is nothing out there but he's not so good that he's an unbeatable horse, if that makes any sense. Remember, this is a horse that ran third in the Derby, won the Preakness by a nose, lost the Belmont, and was third in the Haskell. So obviously, when he faces other good horses, he can be beaten. He's good but he's no superhorse.

[The Bid]

Its solved, ask Sumitas

[10 pnt move up]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

It rained at Santa Anita the last couple of days and the track did not drain well. I wonder if this will make them reconsider. I don't know how they can keep the current surface if it's not draining properly. What if it rains in October right before the BC? I know they are going to do some more tests in the next week or two. If the track doesn't drain properly when they do these tests, I would think they would have to reconsider. I would think that alot will depend on what advice Ian Pierce gives them. He is supposed to supervise the tests.

Hollywood held up very well to a unusually wet winter, I have no clue why santa anita had so many problems if it was the same surface.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by 10 pnt move up

Hollywood held up very well to a unusually wet winter, I have no clue why santa anita had so many problems if it was the same surface.

It's not the same surface. The same company installed both surfaces but at Santa Anita they used a different type of sand and a different type of wax.

[10 pnt move up]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

It's not the same surface. The same company installed both surfaces but at Santa Anita they used a different type of sand and a different type of wax.

that was a painful miscalculation then, I know its warmer at santa anita but someone ****ed up real bad in figuring which wax to use.

I like the Hollywood surface, if all three had that surface I would not have a problem with socal synthetics.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by 10 pnt move up

that was a painful miscalculation then, I know its warmer at santa anita but someone ****ed up real bad in figuring which wax to use.

I like the Hollywood surface, if all three had that surface I would not have a problem with socal synthetics.

It was a huge miscalculation. Cushion Track went out of business because of it.

[Danzig]

well, hollywood seemed ok. but del mar and santa anita didn't go with the same mix...del mar wasn't allowed to use the jelly cable, and the huge variation in morning to afternoon temps caused them all kinds of problems...