As American racing's synthetic revolution is in a holding pattern, we have a unique opportunity to see what our star horses would look like in parallel universes -- if we stayed with dirt or went all-synthetic, as some are predicting.
There are a lot of factors that should go into a track's decision to go with dirt or synthetic. Overlooked in the current debate is the racing product and star horses the surface creates.
Horse of the Year Curlin's shocking demotion from best non-turf horse in the world to a neck behind Tiago (who is a very nice horse, but not in Curlin's league) in the synthetic Breeders' Cup Classic is the latest example of how a great dirt horse can look rather average on a synthetic track.
But with his only synthetic start coming at the end of a long, globe-trotting campaign, Curlin might not be the best case study.
Street Sense, on the other hand, is a great example of how track surface can completely change our view of a horse. On dirt, Street Sense was a champion two-year-old and historic Kentucky Derby winner, a gifted stretch runner with a quick turn of foot.
On synthetics, Street Sense was winless from three starts, unable to run by horses he left in his wake on a dirt track. In the 2006 Lane's End Breeders' Futurity, run on Keeneland's Polytrack, Street Sense finished third behind Great Hunter and Circular Quay, two horses he beat by 10 and 12 lengths respectively in his following dirt race, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs.
In the 2007 Blue Grass Stakes, again on Keeneland's Polytrack, Street Sense was a nose worse than Dominican and a nose in front of Zanjero. In his next start on dirt, Street Sense won the Kentucky Derby. Dominican and Zanjero were a non-threatening 10th and 11th respectively.
Street Sense's final race on a synthetic surface came at Turfway Park in the Kentucky Cup Classic. Facing Hard Spun, the horse he trailed by double-digit lengths but easily ran by in the Derby and Preakness, Street Sense sat a length off his front-running rival but was unable to gain an inch in the lane.
So who was the real Street Sense? The dirt champion or the synthetic also-ran? And all things considered, which one would racing be better off with, at the track and in the breeding shed?
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Debating Curlin’s place in history
If he has indeed run his last race, 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin retires a treasured horse, somewhat under appreciated by mainstream sports fans and a source of great debate within racing circles.
Certainly he will be elected to the Racing Hall of Fame, but is Curlin an all-time great? Will he win a second consecutive Horse of the Year award, like Cigar, the horse Curlin surpassed for North America’s all-time leading earnings record?
Had Curlin won the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic instead of taking the lead at the top of the stretch and fading to fourth, he would be a unanimous pick for Horse of the Year. Joining Tiznow as the only two-time Classic winner would have cemented his legacy.
Because Breeders Cup held this year’s event on a relatively untested synthetic track instead of old-fashioned dirt, we will never know with certainty if it was the surface that got Curlin beat or if, as some believe, he was a horse in decline over the second half of the year.
That is one of the main questions Eclipse Award voters will be asking themselves when they decide between Curlin and undefeated Zenyatta for Horse of the Year. Having just re-watched most of Curlin’s 16 career races, I lean toward the horse-in-decline argument.
Following Curlin’s second-place finish in the Man O’ War Stakes at 1 3/8 miles on the turf on July 12, he scored narrow, workmanlike victories in the Woodward Stakes and Jockey Club Gold Cup over weak fields at equal weight.
Had a top Grade 1 caliber horse come running at Curlin in either of those races – as the two excellent European three-year-olds Raven’s Pass and Henrythenavigator did in the Breeders’ Cup – he likely would have tasted defeat.
Saying that his late form did not approach his previous, considerable heights is not a slam – 99.9% of horses could not dream of doing what Curlin did. I would consider at least five of his races to be timeless, great efforts (replay links below). Included on the list is his gallant defeat to the filly Rags to Riches in the 2007 Belmont Stakes, when the two champions ran their final quarter in :23.80, an incredible split for a 12-furlong dirt race.
Note the determination Curlin shows in his ’07 Preakness and Jockey Club Gold Cup wins, resolutely running down fellow three-year-old Street Sense and then the excellent older horse Lawyer Ron. Note the amazing ability he shows as he runs away from the field in the ’07 Breeders Cup and ’08 Dubai World Cup.
I would love to see Curlin run one more time, but that appears more unlikely with each passing day. At least we have these great efforts to remember him by. So who am I voting for Horse of the Year? Eclipse ballots haven’t arrived in the mail yet, and this campaign isn’t quite over.
Certainly he will be elected to the Racing Hall of Fame, but is Curlin an all-time great? Will he win a second consecutive Horse of the Year award, like Cigar, the horse Curlin surpassed for North America’s all-time leading earnings record?
Had Curlin won the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic instead of taking the lead at the top of the stretch and fading to fourth, he would be a unanimous pick for Horse of the Year. Joining Tiznow as the only two-time Classic winner would have cemented his legacy.
Because Breeders Cup held this year’s event on a relatively untested synthetic track instead of old-fashioned dirt, we will never know with certainty if it was the surface that got Curlin beat or if, as some believe, he was a horse in decline over the second half of the year.
That is one of the main questions Eclipse Award voters will be asking themselves when they decide between Curlin and undefeated Zenyatta for Horse of the Year. Having just re-watched most of Curlin’s 16 career races, I lean toward the horse-in-decline argument.
Following Curlin’s second-place finish in the Man O’ War Stakes at 1 3/8 miles on the turf on July 12, he scored narrow, workmanlike victories in the Woodward Stakes and Jockey Club Gold Cup over weak fields at equal weight.
Had a top Grade 1 caliber horse come running at Curlin in either of those races – as the two excellent European three-year-olds Raven’s Pass and Henrythenavigator did in the Breeders’ Cup – he likely would have tasted defeat.
Saying that his late form did not approach his previous, considerable heights is not a slam – 99.9% of horses could not dream of doing what Curlin did. I would consider at least five of his races to be timeless, great efforts (replay links below). Included on the list is his gallant defeat to the filly Rags to Riches in the 2007 Belmont Stakes, when the two champions ran their final quarter in :23.80, an incredible split for a 12-furlong dirt race.
Note the determination Curlin shows in his ’07 Preakness and Jockey Club Gold Cup wins, resolutely running down fellow three-year-old Street Sense and then the excellent older horse Lawyer Ron. Note the amazing ability he shows as he runs away from the field in the ’07 Breeders Cup and ’08 Dubai World Cup.
I would love to see Curlin run one more time, but that appears more unlikely with each passing day. At least we have these great efforts to remember him by. So who am I voting for Horse of the Year? Eclipse ballots haven’t arrived in the mail yet, and this campaign isn’t quite over.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Kentucky is the place I ought to be
Unlike the lead character in Flatt & Scruggs’ Ballad of Jed Clampett, it was not black gold that led me to load up a truck and move my life.
Rather, it was the personal discovery of a sport – Thoroughbred racing.
My first ever visit to the track – unless you count my family’s drive-by to see the orange glow of Arlington Park burning down in 1985 – came at the rebuilt and renamed Arlington International Race Course in the summer of 1991.
I was taken by the palatial grandstand, lush turf course, bright silks, and majestic horses (and then there was that betting thing). It didn’t take long to learn the rhythm of my local circuit. Arlington, located in the posh northwest suburbs, was book-ended by cold weather and a slightly different class of racing on Chicago’s gritty southside.
Hawthorne Race Course and Sportsman’s Park sat next to each other along Cicero Avenue, an area Chicago’s most famous gangster Al Capone once called his base but now is the heart of an industrial district.
Hawthorne ran through December and was followed by a six-week dark period. Smoke stacks and refineries are hardly horse country, but by the time racing resumed at Sportsman’s seven-furlong oval in the third week of February, the combination of horse smells, pounding hooves, and even the slightest melting of snow felt like horse heaven.
When I went to the track I was always armed with clippings of Dave Feldman’s selections from the Chicago Sun-Times and Dave Surico’s picks in the Chicago Tribune. Feldman, the former owner, trainer, track announcer, and one-of-a-kind public handicapper died in 2001. Surico was first moved off the horse racing beat and eventually a victim of Tribune downsizing.
At one time or the other both newspapers replaced their human selections with heartless, soul-less computer picks. For a budding journalist who dreamed of being a public handicapper, opportunities seemed limited.
While covering local politics, courts, and cops, I begged the editors of any newspaper who would listen to let me expand their racing coverage. A couple said yes, but most said no.
So in 2005 when Thoroughbred Times was looking for a new staff writer, I knew it was the opportunity I was waiting for. And now this blog presents another chance.
As sales editor I cover all the auctions here in Lexington – the center of the breeding universe – in addition to travelling to another half dozen major sales around the country. I am a certified race-watching junkie, and I have had the good fortune of covering the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Breeders’ Cup on a yearly basis.
I’ve learned so much about the horse industry in these three-and-a-half years, and I have so much more to learn. This blog will be a chance to share my experience and learn from you too.
Rather, it was the personal discovery of a sport – Thoroughbred racing.
My first ever visit to the track – unless you count my family’s drive-by to see the orange glow of Arlington Park burning down in 1985 – came at the rebuilt and renamed Arlington International Race Course in the summer of 1991.
I was taken by the palatial grandstand, lush turf course, bright silks, and majestic horses (and then there was that betting thing). It didn’t take long to learn the rhythm of my local circuit. Arlington, located in the posh northwest suburbs, was book-ended by cold weather and a slightly different class of racing on Chicago’s gritty southside.
Hawthorne Race Course and Sportsman’s Park sat next to each other along Cicero Avenue, an area Chicago’s most famous gangster Al Capone once called his base but now is the heart of an industrial district.
Hawthorne ran through December and was followed by a six-week dark period. Smoke stacks and refineries are hardly horse country, but by the time racing resumed at Sportsman’s seven-furlong oval in the third week of February, the combination of horse smells, pounding hooves, and even the slightest melting of snow felt like horse heaven.
When I went to the track I was always armed with clippings of Dave Feldman’s selections from the Chicago Sun-Times and Dave Surico’s picks in the Chicago Tribune. Feldman, the former owner, trainer, track announcer, and one-of-a-kind public handicapper died in 2001. Surico was first moved off the horse racing beat and eventually a victim of Tribune downsizing.
At one time or the other both newspapers replaced their human selections with heartless, soul-less computer picks. For a budding journalist who dreamed of being a public handicapper, opportunities seemed limited.
While covering local politics, courts, and cops, I begged the editors of any newspaper who would listen to let me expand their racing coverage. A couple said yes, but most said no.
So in 2005 when Thoroughbred Times was looking for a new staff writer, I knew it was the opportunity I was waiting for. And now this blog presents another chance.
As sales editor I cover all the auctions here in Lexington – the center of the breeding universe – in addition to travelling to another half dozen major sales around the country. I am a certified race-watching junkie, and I have had the good fortune of covering the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Breeders’ Cup on a yearly basis.
I’ve learned so much about the horse industry in these three-and-a-half years, and I have so much more to learn. This blog will be a chance to share my experience and learn from you too.
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