Are Race Horses Getting Faster, Part 2,478

[TGJB]

From today\'s Thoroughbred Daily News, quoting Lief Dickinson, chief agronomist (!!) at Del Mar, about the Bermuda grass they installed on the turf course:

\"We want it to hold up, but we want all horses to finish well, THE TIMES TO BE MODERATE and everyone to come back safe\" (emphasis added).

Same guy, Bloodhorse:

\"We don\'t want the horses to run faster. We\'re trying to put on that cushion element\".

[Michael D.]

what do you think he\'s going so say - we want horses that run here to break down?
every super has to say that their course has enough cusion to keep the horses safe. looking at many of the new turf courses put up over the last few years, i\'m not sure there is any trend pointing towards slower courses. but hey, if you can trick your customers into thinking that the horses that ran 12f in 2:26 back in the \'50\'s are thirty lengths slower than today\'s horses, more power to you.

.......

and i promise no more post on the subject for now. too much handicapping to do.

[TGJB]

Michael-- the point I was making is that they are INTENTIONALLY keeping the horses from running fast, so it\'s clearly wrong to compare raw times. No matter how fast the horses are, they (at least in this case) won\'t LET them run fast.

And by the way, I had the conversation about turf times here late last year with Frank. If you still have the pp\'s for the B.C., take a look at how many really fast turf times there were-- several 1 1/8ths in 1:45 and change, if I remember correctly, around 2 turns-- which is very,very fast.

[Mall]

I don\'t follow Calif racing regularly, but would be inclined to think that in comparison to my overall & possibly incorrect impression of a somewhat speed favoring turf course at Hol, the additional cushion in the new turf track at Dmr would tend favor off the paces horses to a certain degree. Perhaps those that follow the racing there more carefully have an opinion.

I remember a Dave L. column from two or three(or maybe more) yrs ago where he explained how & why he kept records of sealed tracks in NY, but that\'s the extent of my recollection. Now that the designation is available, does anybody remember the column and/or have an opinion on how to handle sealed tracks?