Dogmatic? You got the wrong sheetmaker, Michael.

According to NYRA track superintendent Porcelli, many tracks, maybe all, have gone to higher sand, less clay, and more cushion, to make them safer and so they can dry faster. To cite the example I have used before-- when Secretariat, Bid et al were running, Belmont had a 3 inch cushion. It now has a 4 inch cushion. There was only one day in 2003 where there was a 3 1/2 inch cushion-- the day Najran ran the 1:32 mile.

There are lots of reasons to think horses should be getting faster, which I discuss in more depth in the articles that can be found in the archives here. Keep in mind that 25 years is a generation for humans, about 3 generations for horses-- Secretariat is to horses as Jesse Owens is to humans, and there are a LOT of high school kids running faster than Jesse Owens now.

What makes it LOOK so shocking is the artificial barrier of "negative" numbers. Lower is faster was a great idea by Ragozin (the difference between a 7 and a 4 is easier to deal with than between a 104 and a 107), but it creates the false impression that horses are moving into some unnatural terrain.



TGJB