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PEDIGREE HANDICAPPING FEBRUARY 14, 2009 Turf racing suffering through all-weather surfaces by Tim Holland One of the most exciting facets of Thoroughbred racing is watching top-class grass races filled with the best turf horses in the nation. In the last 20 years, several top courses have added or improved their grass courses and turf racing had reached a new height of popularity with owners, trainers and fans. However, with the introduction of all-weather surfaces, there seems to be an alarming trend of top, or potentially top, class turf runners opting for more lucrative and prestigious races on all-weather surfaces. While this is relatively new happening, one has to wonder how it is going to affect grass racing long-term. Synthetic surfaces were first introduced at Turfway Park in September of 2005. It's hard to contend that it was a bad idea. Nearly every winter, the Northern Kentucky track would lose many racing days due to the track freezing and thawing in changeable winter climate common to the region. That first winter, the new Polytrack surface proved itself as a safer and more reliable surface, barring a few rare hiccups. Few programs were canceled, breakdowns declined and average field sizes grew bigger. In late August 2006, Woodbine Racecourse unveiled their Polytrack surface, which also made sense to a point with the harsh winter climate. However, Keeneland's decision to switch to Polytrack incited more questioning. The Lexington, Kentucky, track did experience a few years with higher than acceptable breakdowns and owned a "golden," speed-biased rail for many years. The catastrophic breakdowns were reduced quickly using the new surface, although instances of non life-threatening soft tissue injuries reportedly rose, and the track bias changed, though not necessarily to every horseplayer's approval. Keeneland's turf course was installed in 1985, and the track prided itself on only losing one turf race prior to Polytrack. While it must be mentioned that it was indeed a rainy fall the first year of Polytrack, no less than eight races, including one graded and three non-graded stakes, were taken off the grass and run on the new artificial surface. While no trainer is happy with races being taken off the turf, they do need to run their horses and most of the horses entered ran on Polytrack as field sizes suffered little. In November 2006, Hollywood Park started using their Cushion track, and the following year Arlington Park (Polytrack), Del Mar (Polytrack), Santa Anita (Cushion) and Golden Gates (Tapeta) all went to synthetic surfaces. A new all-weather track, Presque Isle Downs, was built with a Tapeta surface. Until last fall, few top turf horses had been lured away from grass races to run on synthetics. Horses that won Grade 1 races last year over the synthetic tracks at Hollywood, Santa Anita and Del Mar included Heatseeker, Go Between and Mast Track (Mizzen Mast). All showed good ability on turf, but they weren't considered top-class. Santa Anita's Cushion track was beset with problems from the start and was replaced with its current Pro-Ride surface that was used for the first time during the Oak Tree meeting last fall. The meet concluded with the Breeders' Cup, and several top-class turf horses performed well in races over the artificial surfaces. The list included Ventura (Chester House), winner of the Filly and Mare Sprint; Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) hero Raven's Pass; and Classic runner-up Henrythenavigator. The participation of this pair in the Classic possibly robbed the Mile, usually the most contentious event of the Breeders' Cup races, of at least one contestant, and one has to wonder if their performances paved the way for more connections to consider running their turf horses on this surface. In five graded races last weekend over the Pro-Ride at Santa Anita, from 46 starters, no less than 10 horses were graded/group winners on the turf. Six more were turf stakes winners. The biggest race, Saturday's Strub S. (G2), has been won in the past by the likes of Affirmed, Spectacular Bid and Alysheba. This year's event didn't draw any names of that caliber, but it was a very competitive field of 13. And the first three betting interests in the Strub, Gio Ponti (Tale of the Cat), Cowboy Cal (Giant's Causeway) and Nownownow (Whywhywhy), are three of the best four-year-old turf runners in 2009. In a blanket finish with three lengths covering the first eight home, Cowboy Cal held on to win by three-quarters of a length after racing close to the pace throughout. He will go on now to the $1 million Santa Anita H. (G1) on the Pro-Ride on March 1, and the second- and fourth-place finishers in the Strub, turf stakes winners Blue Exit (Pulpit) and Dixie Chatter (Dixie Union), will reportedly renew the rivalry. Other possible contenders include Court Vision (Gulch), the leading turf four-year-old in America; French Group 1 winner Zambesi Sun (GB) [Dansili (GB]), who is now in training with Bobby Frankel; and Matto Mondo (Chi) (Sir Cat), who won the off-the-turf Thunder Road H. (G3) two races prior to the Strub. When interviewed after his victory with Matto Mondo, trainer Richard Mandella was asked what made him decide to run the five-year-old, whose last start resulted in a win in a high-class allowance/optional claimer on the turf, even after the race had been transferred to the Pro-Ride surface. He replied that he believed horses that like soft turf act well on Pro-Ride, and Matto Mondo's past performances showed that he won a Group 1 in his native Chili by 16 lengths over heavy ground. Mandella's comment may lead one to believe that turf horses are more suited to the Pro-Ride than other synthetic surfaces. This was backed up by Bob Baffert, who was asked whether he thought Pioneerof The Nile (Empire Maker), winner of the Robert B. Lewis S. (G2) one race before the Strub, would be effective on dirt. Baffert noted that the colt had won the Cashcall Futurity (G1) at Hollywood where he believes the Cushion Track plays closer to that of the traditional dirt surface. While one can certainly not blame the connections for trying grass horses in important races on the Pro-Ride, it has to noted that the quality of American turf racing is already light. As well as winning the Breeders' Cup Mile and Classic, foreign invaders ran first and second in both the Breeders' Cup Turf (G1) and Juvenile Turf and finished second in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. American turf racing will continue to suffer if more top turf runners are lost to synthetic surfaces.
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